[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11613]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                MOURNING THE LOSS OF JUDGE D'ARMY BAILEY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fleischmann). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the city of Memphis lost one of its most 
outstanding citizens on Sunday evening. D'Army Bailey, who had served 
as a judge in circuit court for nearly two decades, was a national 
figure, recognized for such in The New York Times yesterday with a very 
large and meaningful obituary.
  D'Army Bailey was singularly responsible for the creation of the 
National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. There was a time 
when the Lorraine Motel, which is the site of the National Civil Rights 
Museum and the site of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, was 
going to be foreclosed and possibly demolished; but D'Army Bailey, then 
an attorney, saw that as wrong and knew that the National Civil Rights 
Museum should be built at the site of the assassination of Dr. King and 
that site should be preserved for generations for people to learn about 
civil rights and learn about Dr. King.
  He got together, Mr. Speaker, and raised money from individuals and 
the city of Memphis and was able to save the Lorraine from foreclosure 
demolition.
  He then put together the idea of the city, the county, and the State 
governments funding the beginnings of a national civil rights museum. 
There was private funding as well, but it was the initial work of 
D'Army Bailey coming to Nashville, where I was a State senator, and 
working to get Governor McWherter and the State legislature on board 
and then the city of Memphis and the county of Shelby.
  Now, there is a phoenix, having risen from the ashes, a great civil 
rights museum in Memphis, Tennessee; and there is one man who had the 
idea and refused to see the site destroyed and sought out the funding 
when people said it couldn't happen and made sure it happened. That was 
Judge D'Army Bailey--Judge D'Army Bailey.
  He was recognized because he spoke truth to power, and he spoke truth 
to power in Baton Rouge during the civil rights movement; in Berkeley 
when Berkeley was an evolving center of thought and questioning of 
values and where he was the city councilman; and on Beale Street, where 
he brought students to Memphis to march with Dr. King.
  Mr. Speaker, D'Army Bailey was a respected figure in the city of 
Memphis. He crossed all boundaries in the city, economic and racial, 
and all because of his gigantic intellect.
  Many Members in the House have asked me about his passing. He had an 
effect on this country and an effect on our city. His was a life well 
lived, and he will be missed.

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