[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15771-15772]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO JOHN GABRIEL SMITH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 10, 2017

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Mr. John Gabriel 
Smith, a constituent in St. Mary's County, Maryland, whose courage 
broke barriers and advanced the cause of integration and equality in 
our country. This Saturday, he will be honored at the homecoming game 
at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC, where he made history 
in 1954 as its first African-American graduate.
  Along with his two sisters, Gabe--as he is known to his family, 
friends, and neighbors in St. Mary's County--learned hard work and 
diligence from his parents amid the turbulent times of Jim Crow as he 
grew up in the 1940's. He found comfort and calm in the teachings of 
his Catholic faith and in fellowship at St. Peter Claver Church in 
Ridge, Maryland. There, he served as an altar boy and met the Jesuit 
priest who would become his mentor, Father Horace McKenna. Under the 
guidance of Father McKenna, Gabe developed a deep desire to find God 
and pursue the priesthood. Asking his spiritual guide what he would 
need to do, he learned that he would first have to study Latin. 
However, none of the segregated schools in Southern Maryland offered 
Latin courses.
  From Father McKenna, though, Gabe also learned that Gonzaga College 
High offered Latin and all the other subjects prerequisite to prepare 
for the priesthood--and then-Archbishop Patrick O'Boyle had ordered the 
desegregation of the schools within the Archdiocese of Washington in 
1948. Thus, in 1951, Gabe walked into Gonzaga College High as its first 
African-American student, bravely breaking the color barrier and 
preparing the way for the more than 1,100 African-American Gonzaga 
College High students who have followed him.
  At Gonzaga College High, Gabe witnessed less of the abusive 
conditions of segregation that he had encountered in Southern Maryland, 
and many of his classmates stood with him in solidarity against bigotry 
outside the school walls. But as a member of the school's Purple Eagle 
football team, he had to face opposing teams from still-segregated 
schools whose players and fans directed their ignorance and hatred in 
his direction. His coach, Joe Kozik, stood by him throughout and 
presided over a team that rallied around Gabe. He would never forget 
the support he found among his peers and from Coach Kozik, who became 
as much a mentor to him as Father McKenna had been.
  When Gabe became the first African-American student to graduate 
Gonzaga College High in 1954, the Supreme Court reached its historic 
decision in Brown v. Board of Education and required the complete 
integration of America's public schools. Gabe and others who had 
already been trailblazers inspired other young African-American 
students around the country to be the first in their communities to 
desegregate their local schools as our nation struggled to achieve full 
enforcement of the Brown decision in the years that followed.

[[Page 15772]]

  While Gabe never ended up becoming a priest, he nonetheless rooted 
his life strongly in faith and built a career as a pharmacist upon the 
foundation in Latin and the sciences that he studied first at Gonzaga 
College High and then later at Howard University. He worked in the 
field for more than four decades, retiring this past spring. For many 
years now, Gabe has been an active member of the Mt. Ennon Baptist 
Church's Men's Ministry, helping to inspire others to achieve and 
pursue their own dreams as he did his. I hope my colleagues will join 
me in congratulating Gabe on his retirement after a long and productive 
career serving the community in St. Mary's County and on being honored 
this weekend at his alma mater. I wish him and his wife of fifty 
years--Mrs. Jeanette Graves Smith--and their entire family well on this 
happy occasion.

                          ____________________