[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10268]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 RESOLUTION HONORING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE JAMES MEREDITH MARCH 
                              AGAINST FEAR

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 5, 2016

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a bipartisan 
resolution I introduced today with my colleagues Trent Kelly, Bennie 
Thompson and Gregg Harper in honor of the 50th anniversary of the James 
Meredith March Against Fear.
  Senator Roger Wicker recently offered a similar resolution in the 
Senate with his colleagues Senator Thad Cochran and Jeanne Shaheen. The 
Senate swiftly passed that resolution, and I hope the House will do the 
same with the one we introduced today.
  Fifty years ago last month, after already making history at the 
University of Mississippi, James Meredith risked his life once again by 
organizing a march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to 
encourage African Americans to register to vote. This was not long 
after passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, and a march like 
this--into the heart of Mississippi--was anything but safe.
  Sure enough, Meredith was brutally shot and wounded.
  Civil rights leaders quickly met at the Centenary United Methodist 
Church in Memphis to plan a resumption of the march. They were aided by 
the church's courageous Reverend James M. Lawson.
  They were also aided by the Memphis chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. and 
civil rights leaders Maxine and Vasco Smith, Jesse Turner, Russell 
Sugarmon, and A.W. Willis, among others.
  The next day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Floyd McKissick, and 
Stokely Carmichael resumed the Meredith March Against Fear.
  By the time marchers reached Jackson, 4,000 African Americans in 
Mississippi had registered to vote.
  This was a great moment in the history of voting rights in our 
country, and I urge my colleagues to help us pay homage to it by 
passing this resolution.

                          ____________________