[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 14563-14564]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ALICE THOMPSON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CEDRIC L. RICHMOND

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 17, 2015

  Mr. RICHMOND. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Alice 
Marie Thompson, a civil rights icon and Freedom Rider, who passed away 
on August 24, 2015.
  Alice was born on September 25, 1939, the sixth of eight children, 
born to Cora Mae Atlas and John Henry Thompson, Sr. and was the 
granddaughter of Susie Lee and Louis Balfour Atlas, Sr. and Alice 
Piercey and Norah Thompson. In 1944, Alice and her family moved from 
Lake Providence to New Orleans' Ninth Ward. Alice attended Lockett, 
V.C. Jones, McCarthy, and Joseph S. Clark schools and graduated from 
George Washington Carver High School in 1959. She later attended and 
graduated from Southern University in New Orleans with a Bachelor of 
Arts degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Alice worked for many years 
as a social worker until her retirement in 2002.
  Between 1959 and 1960, Alice, and her sisters Jean and Shirley, 
became members of the Youth Council of the New Orleans branch of the 
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The 
Thompson Sisters, as they famously became

[[Page 14564]]

known, soon sought more direct action, and in 1960 joined the New 
Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) under the 
leadership of Rudy Lombard and later Oretha Castle Haley. Alice was 
active in countless pickets, sit-ins, and sit downs. She integrated a 
number of high-profile public places in the city, including McCrory's, 
Woolworths, the Loews Theater, and the City Hall Cafeteria.
  In 1961, when the Interstate Commerce Commission outlawed segregation 
on buses, terminals, restrooms, restaurants, Alice's CORE members began 
testing the ruling throughout the Deep South. Their first test was in 
New Orleans at the Trailways bus terminal on Tulane Avenue. Alice and 
her comrades faced violence, intimidation and even imprisonment. In 
Poplarville, Mississippi, Alice was arrested and charged with breach of 
peace. She was placed in the same cell that Mack Charles Parker was 
placed in, taken from, and beaten two years earlier. In McComb, 
Mississippi, she and her fellow riders were viciously beaten. Alice 
volunteered for numerous projects during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement 
such as Mississippi and Louisiana Freedom Summer, and was present at 
the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Alice was honored 
for her work by the State of Mississippi, the City of New Orleans, and 
by Oprah Winfrey during her show commemorating the 50th anniversary of 
the Freedom Riders.
  In addition to her courageous civil rights advocacy, Alice was active 
in her community. She was one of the founding members of the Southern 
Organization for the Unified Leadership (SOUL), a founding member of 
the Lower Ninth Ward Development Association, an organizer of the New 
Orleans Health Corporation, and an organizer of the Copeland-Sanchez 
Center in the Lower Ninth Ward.
  Alice loved to have a good time. She was always a centerpiece of 
family gatherings. With her signature beer in hand, she could always be 
seen recounting hilarious stories of her life and times, especially 
things that happened while she was in the Civil Rights Movement. She 
will be sorely missed by her family, her friends, and all of those who 
benefitted from her life's work--to bring freedom to all Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, as a beneficiary of the courage, commitment and 
sacrifice of Alice Thompson, I celebrate her life and legacy, because 
she made America a more perfect union.

                          ____________________