Little Rock Central High School Desegregation 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act
LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DESEGREGATION 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE COIN ACT -- (House of Representatives - June 27, 2005)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for yielding me this time.
I also want to commend the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Synder) for his introduction of this legislation and the committee for moving it expeditiously to the floor so it, in fact, can be passed.
Mr. Speaker, I rise with great pride to honor the legacy of the courageous Little Rock Nine. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, ``The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.''
One September morning in 1957, on the eve of the new school year, the cool winds of change brushed across the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. Nine young men and women decided they would not settle for discontent.
After the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled in favor of integrated schools, these nine young men and women attended Little Rock Central High School. Despite the taunts, violence and venomous hatred endured by these youth during their tenure at Central High, they pressed on and pursued a dream for the millions of African Americans that cheered them on across the country.
It is a very meaningful time for me because I too lived at that time in Arkansas. I was born in a little city in the southeastern part of the State. In 1957, and I guess the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) and I are kind of in the same age group; I, too, was a college freshman on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which was then known as Arkansas A&M College about 45 miles from Little Rock. This was our daily news, our daily activity, our daily occurrences.
I have been fortunate to know many of the individuals who were intimately involved, such as Ernie Green. Minnijean Brown and I spent part of a weekend together down at Southern Illinois University last year. Melba Pattillo's mother was a teacher at the school where I did student teaching, and I have had a chance to know them. Wallie Branton, who was the attorney intimately involved with the NAACP, I knew him and his family; and Daisy Bates, who was the leader of the NAACP in Arkansas at that time, are all people with whom I have had an opportunity to interact and to get to know. They were indeed a part of me and I am indeed a part of them. So I take great personal pride in knowing that there will be recognition of this historic struggle and the tremendous courage displayed.
Again, I want to commend the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Synder) for his legislation which brings into work this commendation which puts a footnote in another chapter of the historic struggle for equality and justice in America.
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