[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 4489-4490]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING SAMUEL McCRAY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 25, 2015

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor an 
extraordinary community advocate and activist, Samuel McCray.
  He is a citizen of the Mississippi Delta, who was born on a 
plantation in a shack in the middle of a cotton field just South of 
Lambert, Mississippi. He attended the segregated schools in Quitman 
County, graduating in 1968 from Quitman County Industrial High School. 
On May 1, 1968, the infamous class of '68 led a walkout, protesting the 
arrest of Willie Bolden, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference 
organizer sent to prepare the upcoming March on Washington, the Poor 
People's Campaign. The first leg of the operation was to start in Marks 
with mule drawn wagons. An all white Mississippi Highway Patrol unit of 
twenty troopers attacked the gathering of over 500, and forced them off 
the jail lawn. For Samuel, this would be his first act of civil 
disobedience. After high school, he would attend Coahoma Junior College 
(now Coahoma Community College) and Delta State University (then Delta 
State College). While in the Delta, he helped to revive the Black 
Students Organization, becoming second in command in the organization. 
This organization managed to convince the administration to add African 
American Studies, to recruit black women to the Delta Bell Cheerleader 
Squad, to increase financial assistance, and to employ more of our 
people in the classroom.
  While out on summer break in 1973, Samuel would join the local 
chapter of the NAACP and was chosen to head up the voter's league, the 
political arm of the organization. A few years earlier, the county 
purged the voter rolls. His first charge was to get ready for the 1975 
election so voter's registration was number one priority. During this 
period of history, the voter rolls and the poll books were coded by 
race which proved to be a valuable tool. The team discovered pretty 
quickly that the poll books would provide all the information needed. 
The consistence voters would be the priority group, believing they 
would be the easiest to get back on the books and to the polls on 
Election Day. By the deadline, the group had registered over 1500 black 
voters. The work had only begun; the decision was made to run a slate, 
a candidate for each position. Not because of the possibility of 
winning, there was no chance of that, the black vote was less than a 
third of the total. Will black voters vote for black candidates? About 
80% of the black votes were cast for our candidates. The black 
leadership could not have been happier; we were on our way. Voter 
registration was a step-up, and an opportunity presented itself in 1978 
with the death of the white county supervisor in District 1. The 
district had more black voters than another and they were concentrated 
in the Crenshaw and Darling Precincts. With an attractive candidate, 
and a good ground game we felt we could make history, and we did. The 
opposition accused the group of cheating; too many black voters 
received help with their ballot. They found themselves in court, which 
turned out to be a blessing. The ruling was that any voter with a 
physical disability, blind or illiterate could receive assistance from 
the person of their choosing. Another slate was put together for the 
Town of Lambert, which had an At-Large scheme where a voter had to case 
a five candidate's ballot in order for the vote to count. Again, the 
group looked for the most attractive candidates, one of whom was J.D. 
``Jake'' McAdory. Everybody liked him, including both blacks and 
whites, and he was a standup guy. He was the first African American 
elected to the Board of Aldermen. As always, the group would run a 
slate in county elections, realizing that keeping voters engaged was 
the best tool to building a strong electorate.
  In the late 70's Samuel would align himself with people like 
Attorneys: Frank Parker & Margret Carey; the Lawyers Committee for 
Civil Rights Under Law; Victor McTeer & Willie Bailey, Johnnie Walls, 
Senator Henry Kersey, and others that were challenging the legal 
schemes hindering blacks from the ballot box. Sam was certified as an 
expert witness on white block voting, voting harassment, voter's 
intimidation and at-large voting. The effort would lead to 
redistricting or redrawing county supervisor and municipal lines to 
give black voters a fair chance to elect candidates of their choosing. 
By 1983, with creating three black majorities districts and getting rid 
of the at-large voting practice, they began getting much closer to 
achieving the goal set many years earlier. By 1987, they controlled the 
Quitman County Board of Supervisors. Today,

[[Page 4490]]

all the municipalities with the exception of two are headed by African 
American mayors, and all of the governing boards are black majorities. 
While an activist in Quitman County, Sam worked at Coahoma 
Opportunities, Inc. (COI) in Clarksdale where he started as a community 
driver, but quickly moved up in the organization into middle 
management. He was promoted to Coordinator of Nutrition Access and to 
an Equal Opportunity Officer. In those positions, the organization 
would open the first WIC & food bank on site and help to bring free 
breakfast to public school cafeterias. While with COI, Samuel was 
serving on the Sub-Area Advisory Council, the group that made 
recommendations on health facilities in the State. His works on the 
council led to the creation of Aaron Henry Community Health Services 
Center in Clarksdale.
  In 1986, Michael ``Mike'' Alfonso Espy hired him to organize the 
northern counties of the district where he applied what he had learned 
from his work in Quitman County, and applied that to a multi-counties 
model, resulting in some of the best turnout. In 1988, Governor Ray 
Mabus named Samuel to the Mississippi Housing Finance Corporation. The 
board later re-named the organization to the Mississippi Home 
Corporation, where he was elected Chairperson of the Program Committee. 
In this role, Samuel worked with local nonprofits to access programs 
such as USDA's Community Self-Help program, the 504 repair loan/grant 
and the 502 home ownership, which is the program used by Samuel to 
purchase his home.
  In 1993, Congressman Mike Espy would step down to accept the 
Secretary of Agriculture in the Clinton Administration, the first 
African American ever to hold this position. The community was happy to 
have one of its own, but it put the 2nd District at risk. Thankfully, 
the leadership agreed to a mini convention process that led to a 
consensus candidate, Honorable Bennie Thompson, County Supervisor from 
Hinds County, who was one of the single most respected, elected 
officials in the State, black or white. Thompson would go on to win and 
take office in April of 1993. Samuel never envisioned holding office or 
working for a politician, but this is Bennie Thompson, he's a living 
legend. After lobbying his District Director almost daily, Samuel was 
hired on June 1, 1993 as a Field Representative and Caseworker, the 
greatest job on the planet. The Congressman assigned him the counties 
he had worked over the last twenty years. Samuel's office was located 
in Marks, his home town. Armed with marching orders to assure Federal 
Agencies deliver services fairly to his constituents, Samuel served as 
a resource to non-profits, governmental agencies and small businesses. 
In the years that followed, the Clinton Administration would institute 
the Empowerment Zone and the Enterprise Community Initiative. Part of 
Samuel's assigned counties received the Enterprise Community 
designation. North Panola would receive a portable water system that 
provided safe drinking water for hundreds of families. Local limited 
resource farmers would get a vegetable processing plant so they could 
better market their produce. An unexpected benefit to an unexpected 
group of about fifty families living in the Cotton Street Community, 
got sewer services for the first time. A street separated the town of 
Marks from this community, and because of their activism in the 60s, 
they were still being punished. The residents of Cotton Street found 
out and met with the governing body, and had them resubmit their 
application to include Cotton Street. On March 17, 2008, then candidate 
for President of the United States Barack Obama came to Greenville for 
breakfast with the Congressman and staff. Upon his election, the 
Congressman took his entire staff to the Inauguration of the first 
African-American President in his lifetime. After nineteen and a half 
years as a Congressional Aide being a part of some of the greatest 
advancements, right here in the Mississippi Delta to be a part of it is 
a prayer, answered. Samuel and his wife of 32 years, Bernestine, still 
live in Quitman County. Their three children: Barbara, Johnathan, and 
Shonari are all grown and gone, with their 12 grandchildren whom Samuel 
and Bernestine love from a distance. On December 31, 2012 Samuel 
retired, the time had come.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Samuel 
McCray for his dedication in being a respected community servant.

                          ____________________