Continuing to Celebrate Black History Month

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHOLTEN. Madam Speaker, each February, we come together as a nation to celebrate Black History Month. While we may have just closed out Black History Month, our celebration here in Congress and back home in west Michigan continues.

This year, I had the honor of partnering with the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives to elevate the stories of west Michigan's heroes, barrier breakers, and change-makers who shaped the course of our community and our Nation's history.

I am proud to offer these six stories of change-makers from Michigan's Third Congressional District. Here are their stories.

First, as we stand at this bridge between February and March, Black History Month and Women's History Month, as we just heard from our incredible Congressional Black Caucus, it is appropriate to begin with our first story, the story of Emma Warren Ford.

Mrs. Ford was a well-known community organizer who challenged Jim Crow laws and protested discrimination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

She began her work in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the WCTU. At the 1982 WCTU State convention in Benton Harbor, she was appointed as the superintendent of the Work Among Colored People.

She was a founding member of the Married Ladies' 19th Century Club, hosting meetings and leading activities for the first literary and social club for African-American women in Grand Rapids.

In 1913, Mrs. Ford was chosen by Governor Woodbridge Ferris to represent the State of Michigan at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation in New York. What an honor for west Michigan.

Our second story is the story of Paul Phillips. Phillips grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, where he set a State record in track, earning himself a scholarship to Marquette University. Later, he received a master's degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from Fisk University. In 1946, Phillips came to Grand Rapids to work for the Borough Community Association. Passionate about civic and community work, by 1947, he became executive director and secretary of the Grand Rapids Urban League, where he would continue to serve for more than 30 years, including through the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, serving as a calm and strong force against racial discrimination.

Phillips was passionate about documenting and researching Black history in Grand Rapids and is one of the most influential contributors to the local history that we know today.

In 1951, Phillips won election to the City Charter Commission, one of the first African Americans elected to public office in Grand Rapids. He was also the first African American elected to the city's board of education.

During President Gerald Ford's time in office, Phillips served as a consultant on minority citizen concerns. In 1972, Phillips received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Grand Valley State University.

In 1967, Phillips passed away. The Paul I. Phillips Boys and Girls Club in Grand Rapids is named in his honor.

The third story is that of Yvonne Little Woodward, the sister of Malcolm X and a local leader and advocate in west Michigan.

Yvonne secured her place of recognition as the first African-American telephone operator for Michigan Bell in Grand Rapids in 1948.

Her son said: ``She knew if she didn't do the right thing, it would take years for them to hire another Black operator.''

In Grand Rapids, the operators took a vote on whether they were willing to work with her. The vote was unanimous except for one, who Little later won over.

From her engagement with customers at the Woodland Park grocery store to her civic involvements, winning people over was at the heart of how she interacted with her community.

Little was often called on to speak in west Michigan and elsewhere where children were the audience, focusing always on the next generation.

Our next story is Merze Tate. Merze Tate defied the odds during the Jim Crow era and became a college dean and professor, a world traveler, an international reporter, and an adviser to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Tate was born 60 miles northeast of Grand Rapids in Blanchard, Michigan, in 1905. She longed to see the world outside the pine trees and dirt roads and to receive an education.

After high school, Tate applied to the University of Michigan but was rejected because of the color of her skin. This obstacle did not prevent her from getting an education. She was invited to attend Western Michigan University by President Dwight B. Waldo. In 1927, Tate became the first African American to graduate from that institution.

In 1935, she went back to school and became the first African American to earn a graduate degree from Oxford University. Her dissertation and scholarly interest focused on disarmament, and she pursued a Fulbright fellowship in India.

This wealth of experience led her to an appointment as an adviser to General Eisenhower on international relations. It also formed the basis for her continued scholarly work on the subject.

Her second book, ``The United States and Armaments,'' was widely used by the Department of State and Committee for World Development and World Disarmament. In 1984, the Department named Dr. Tate one of three Americans to represent the United States at a UNESCO seminar.

Tate made history throughout her career. In 1941, she became the first African-American female to earn a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. In 1970, she became the first African American to receive a distinguished alumni award from Western Michigan University.

Tate was a college professor at several institutions, including Barber-Scotia College, Bennett College, Morgan State College, and Howard University, where she taught from 1942 to 1977.

She spoke five languages, traveled the world twice, was an international reporter for Baltimore's Afro-American newspaper, and worked as a photographer, filmmaker, and researcher for the U.S. State Department, all while being a college professor.

Tate passed away in 1996 at the age of 91. She has left millions to institutes of higher learning that looked beyond her race and gender to provide her with a stellar education and to inspire her to impact the world in many areas for generations to come.

We next have a pair of stories, those of Major Denzal Harvey and Dr. Robert Garrison. Major Harvey and Dr. Garrison both have strong connections to the Muskegon community and served as Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

Denzal Harvey was born at Hackley Hospital and graduated from Muskegon High School. In high school, he earned a letter in track, where he was only one of a few men of color on the team.

In 1941, Harvey enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a private first class and by 1942 had been sent to Air Corps' advanced flight school in Tuskegee, Alabama, where he joined the 99th Fighter Squadron.

The 99th Fighter Squadron in 1943 was assigned to North Africa, flying hand-me-down aircraft on support missions. They joined up with other African-American aviation units there to create the 332nd Fighter Group.

The 99th eventually moved to Foggia, Italy, where the group served as fighter escorts to B-24 bombers in bombing raids over the Mediterranean and Europe.

It was the bombing crews that gave the group its name, ``Red Tails.'' The National Park Service's Tuskegee exhibit notes that the transition from training to actual combat wasn't always smooth, given the racial tensions of the time. However, the airmen overcame the obstacles posed by segregation.

In 1942, Harvey eventually began serving temporarily as a captain. It was extremely rare. At the start of World War II, there were only 12 African-American officers in the U.S. military.

As a captain, Harvey once had a corpsman who refused to salute him. His daughter said he responded with: ``You are going to salute the uniform if you don't salute me.'' She said: ``They made it look easy, but it was never easy because dealing with racism was never easy.''

Garrison's daughter, Judy Rogers, says her father was reluctant to talk about the war. Until she was 45 years old, she never knew that he had been a Tuskegee Airman. ``He was proud of himself, but I can't say he actually enjoyed being in the war.''

Dr. Robert Garrison was from Ohio, but he spent his entire postwar adult life working as a physician in Muskegon after being hired by Hackley Hospital in 1958. He didn't much talk about his work or his service, and for many years, he was known mostly for his work as a doctor in the community.

Harvey earned a degree from Muskegon Community College, worked as a real estate agent, and attended law school. He later returned to the Air Force, taking his family with him to far-flung bases. He finished his career working in the city of Detroit's municipal courts.

His daughter, Judy Rogers, said he was the area's only Black physician for several years. In 1971, Garrison became the first Black member of the Muskegon Community College Board of Trustees. He served for 10 years as a trustee for the Community Foundation for Muskegon County.

Finally, to close out this moment of reflection, we have the story of a storyteller. I would like to honor the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archive's owned George Bayard. A long time Grand Rapidian, every single day, George is working to preserve west Michigan's African American history and keep memories alive for future generations.

I couldn't be more grateful for his friendship, his partnership in this project, and our shared work together for our west Michigan community.

Madam Speaker, this is for George. His passion and dedication to telling the stories of Black west Michiganians ensures that Black History Month is not contained just to a single month but that we recognize the contributions of African Americans in our community every day.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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