[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13618]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         CELEBRATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATLANTA VOICE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAVID SCOTT

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 26, 2016

  Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate 
the 50th anniversary of the renowned, award-winning Atlanta Voice 
newspaper. Founded in 1966 by J. Lowell Ware and Ed Clayton, the 
Atlanta Voice has provided an enduring channel for news in Atlanta's 
African-American community.
  The Atlanta Voice's Founder and Publisher J. Lowell Ware was a native 
Georgian who developed an interest in journalism in high school when he 
took a part-time job at the Birmingham Alabama Mirror. He later earned 
a B.A. in printing and journalism from Alabama A&M University and 
completed a tour with the U.S. Army before returning back to Atlanta to 
launch a weekly newspaper with journalist Ed Clayton.
  Ware and Clayton started the Atlanta Voice to provide fair and 
credible coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, which was heating up in 
the South with increasing student sit-ins and activities of the 
Southern Christian Leadership Council. Under the First Amendment of the 
U.S. Constitution, members of the press should enjoy protected rights 
to publish information and opinions without interference or reprisal 
from the American government. The Atlanta Voice was founded at a time, 
however, when these rights were not universally shared. The newspaper's 
African-American publishers faced threats to their lives and property 
simply for exercising their First Amendment rights to provide accurate 
coverage of the Movement. Ware recounted years later, ``We got a lot of 
threats, but we didn't stop publishing.''
  Living by their motto, ``A People Without a Voice Cannot Be Heard,'' 
the Atlanta Voice has endured and recorded 50 historic years of social, 
political and economic changes in the African-American community in 
Atlanta. And the Atlanta Voice continues to serve, with courage and 
integrity, as a beacon of journalistic hope for the entire African-
American community, regardless of age, income or socioeconomic status.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring the Atlanta Voice on this 
momentous anniversary. I rise today to celebrate a newspaper that has 
been an informative news source for so many Georgians, and I ask my 
colleagues to join me in commemorating the newspaper's 50th anniversary 
and continued service to the Greater Atlanta community.

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