Recognizing Jessie Mahan Child Care Center's Legacy

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to note the end of a revered Memphis institution devoted to the education and well-being of my community's children. The Jessie Mahan Child Care Center, the first licensed Black child care center in Memphis, closed its doors for the final time on July 31 after serving generations of children and families for 68 years. The Mahan Center served the Memphis community from the Dixie Homes housing development beginning on November 28, 1958, and relocated to its current facility at 70 North Bellevue in 2007, always providing early childhood education and learning experiences for children aged six weeks to 12 years old. It also served as a training site for future teachers and childcare professionals. Through its partnerships with Memphis City Schools and Head Start, the center played an important role in strengthening early childhood education in our community. Named for lifelong Memphian Jessie Hoyt Mahan, a well-known social worker and child advocate who passed in August of 1957 at the age of 62, it has served as a tribute to her memory as the director of the Information Bureau of the Health and Welfare Planning Council of Memphis and Shelby County and its Family and Child Welfare Division and service at Juvenile Court. I commend the leadership of the Jessie Mahan Child Care Center for its dedication to our community's children.

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