To designate the Federal building located at 333 Mt. Elliott Street in Detroit, Michigan, as the "Rosa Parks Federal Building".

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I thank the gentleman for bringing forward this bill; and I rise in strong support of S. 1285, a bill to designate the Federal building located at 333 Mt. Elliott Street in Detroit, Michigan, as the ``Rosa Parks Federal Building.'' This bill also contains a provision to name the annex to the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse here in the District of Columbia in honor of Federal District Court Judge William B. Bryant.

Both are legendary African Americans, and the agreement that Federal buildings should be named in their honor is both wide and deep.

I thank my good friend and colleague from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) for her diligent leadership on the Rosa Parks Federal building designation. I also want to thank my good friend of longstanding, the senior Senator from Virginia, Senator John Warner, for tirelessly working with me for more than 3 years to achieve this honor for Judge Bryant. I am deeply grateful as well to Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy, who also was particularly conscientious in pressing for this honor for Judge Bryant.

I spoke last Wednesday, Mr. Speaker, concerning the events that led Rosa Parks to challenge the daily humiliation of Montgomery, Alabama's black residents who were required to pay their bus fare to the driver, then get off and reenter through the rear door, and then relinquish their seats and move to the back of the bus upon the demand of any white passenger. Since then, Congress has broken with precedent and voted to allow Rosa Parks to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, and she did so just a few days ago, the first woman and only the second African American who has been accorded this honor. In so doing, the United States of America recognized the unique and extraordinary contribution of Rosa Parks to her country. Her simple act of civil disobedience in refusing to relinquish her seat on demand from a white man on a segregated bus was the functional equivalent of a nonviolent shot heard around the world.

Fifty years later, time may blur the enormous personal risk Rosa Parks took on in America in 1955. During our country's tragic racial history, black men had been lynched for less. Grievances like those of African Americans after 400 years of slavery and humiliating discrimination had been resolved by violent revolution throughout human history.

Our country is enormously in Rosa Parks' debt because the revolution that led to the end of government and legally sanctioned discrimination began with a nonviolent revolutionary act, setting an example that endured. So brave was her act in the South in 1955 that even those of us who were young, in school, and had nothing to lose did not engage in the first sit-ins until 5 years later. The act of one woman finally led to the mass civil rights movement, the missing ingredient in the civil rights struggle. This movement was Rosa Parks' special gift to her people and to those who joined them, especially the residents of the

District of Columbia, who still feed from her inspiration to achieve equality with other Americans, including equal voting rights in the Congress of the United States.

In an era of peacock leaders who strut their stuff, her selfless example is an especially important guide. In great humility, Rosa Parks' gift was not the message that ``I am doing this to free you.'' Her message was far more direct: ``Free yourself.'' It is with gratitude that we bring this bill forward today in that spirit.

The honor for Judge William Bryant has an unusual origin indeed. The Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Hogan, for himself and all the members of the trial court, visited my office to request that the annex under construction for the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal building be named for a senior U.S. judge, Judge William B. Bryant. Judge Bryant was unaware of the desires and actions of his colleagues, who unanimously agreed to request that the annex be named for the judge. It is rare that Congress names a courthouse or an annex for a judge who has served in that court and even more rare for a judge who is still sitting.

All who have been involved in this effort recognize and agree that giving an honor to a sitting judge has been granted in the past but only rarely and should be reserved only for the most extraordinary of judges. Judge William Bryant is such a judge.

I am particularly grateful to this House which early understood the unique importance of Judge Bryant's contributions and unhesitatingly passed this bill last session.

Judge Bryant's colleagues who know his work and his temperament best have found a particularly appropriate way for the court, the bar, our city, and our country to celebrate the life and accomplishments of a truly great judge. I know Judge Bryant personally. I know his reputation in this city and in the law, and I know that the request to name the annex for Judge Bryant reflects deep respect for his unusually distinguished life at the bar.

Judge Bryant began his career in private practice in the segregated Washington of the 1940s and 1950s when African American lawyers were barred from membership in the District of Columbia Bar Association and even from using the bar law library. He established his legal reputation as a partner of the legendary African American law firm, Houston, Bryant & Gardner, and taught at Howard University Law School. His reputation as an extraordinary trial lawyer led to his appointment as the first African American Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He later rose to become the first African American to serve as chief judge of the United States District Court, whose members now ask that the annex be named for Judge Bryant.

For his representation of criminal defendants in private practice, Judge Bryant was admired as one of the city's best and most respected trial lawyers. Among his many notable cases is the landmark Mallory v. United States, a 1957 Supreme Court decision where the Court ruled that an arrested person must be promptly brought before a judicial officer.

Judge Bryant was born in Wetumpka, Alabama, but grew up in this city and graduated from D.C. public schools, Howard University, and Howard Law School where he was first in his class. After graduation, Judge Bryant served as chief research assistant to Dr. Ralph Bunche when Bunche worked with Gunnar Myrdal, the famous Swedish economist, in his studies of African American racial issues. Judge Bryant served in the United States Army during World War II and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant colonel in 1947.

The judge, who is 94, took senior status in 1982. Chief Judge Thomas Hogan wrote that Judge Bryant ``lost his beloved wife, Astaire, and now lives alone with this court and the law as the center of his life.''

This unusual request from all the judges of the court gives this designation great credibility. I am grateful to the judges of our U.S. District Court here for the thoughtful proposal that honors a Washingtonian and a lawyer of historic proportions. I very much appreciate the many efforts of my friends in the Senate, especially Senators Warner and Leahy, in helping me to get this bill through both Houses. I especially appreciate the leadership of this House who went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that this bill would be accomplished.

The residents of this city and the court that Judge Bryant has served so well, and members of the bar here, join me in gratitude for this tribute. We are all especially pleased to see two notable African Americans celebrated together in this House today in this special way.

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

Thank you, America, for believing in a greater country. I want to thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), ranking member of our committee, and certainly Chairman Young. I want to thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), as well as the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) and the entire House of Representatives for bringing this bill to the floor at this time.

Rosa Parks lived in my district for almost 50 years. I met her as a young women of 19 years old, after leaving Montgomery, Alabama and coming to Detroit. She lived in my district even two nights ago when she passed, and I was honored when the family called me and asked me to come with them the night of her death.

The building that we are naming in honor of Mrs. Rosa Parks is the Federal building in Detroit that houses our Immigration and Homeland Security Department. It will soon be called the Rosa Parks Federal Building. What a tribute to a young woman who dedicated her life, her very soul, her self-respect to building a better, stronger America for all of its people.

Mrs. Parks was one who did not like a lot of fanfare. She did what she had to do, and she spent her life working with the youth of America, letting them know that they can be and do what they want to be and do, that with the spirit of God they can be that power that we must have in our country. It was young people that she dedicated her life to.

As we name this building the Rosa Parks Federal Building on a very busy thoroughfare in the city of Detroit that goes east and west through many communities, it is with honor that I stand here as a sponsor. I want to thank our entire Michigan delegation, both all the Republicans and all the Democrats, who signed on as cosponsors. It is a glorious occasion.

Before I take my seat, I want to talk about the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, her foundation that she has had over 20 years that again encourages young people, teaches young people, educates them about the civil rights movement, about math, science and all that goes with that, as well as the struggle for justice and all that goes with that.

I thank the Members of the House of Representatives as we pass this tonight. The Senate has also acted today. On December 1, 1955, 50 years ago this December 1, Mrs. Rosa Parks sat down so that we might stand up. Our country is better for it, and the world is better for Mrs. Rosa Parks. The Rosa Parks Federal Building in Detroit will stand as a witness to her sacrifice, her self-respect, and her courage.

I would ask all my colleagues to support Mrs. Rosa Parks as we soon lay her to rest in the country that she helped to make great.

H.R. 2967 seeks to honor Mrs. Rosa Parks, an iconic figure of the civil rights movement by naming the Federal Building at 333 Mt. Elliott Street at E. Jefferson in Detroit, MI, after Rosa Louise Parks.

H.R. 2967 currently has 22 cosponsors including the entire Michigan delegation.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress and the secretary of the local NAACP. Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Al. bus in December 1955. She was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance. Her defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America and made her an inspiration to people everywhere.

The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The association called for a boycott against the city- owned bus company. Black people citywide boycotted the bus system for more than a year. As a result of the boycott and the actions of Rosa Parks, the Supreme Court eventually outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.

December 1, 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of Mrs. Rosa Parks's arrest for refusing to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Al.

It is the courage, dignity, and determination that Mrs. Parks exemplified that allow most historians to credit her with beginning the modern day civil rights movement.

In 1957, Mrs. Parks and her husband Raymond moved to Detroit.

She continued her seamstress career and later served on the staff of Congressman John Conyers in various administrative jobs for 23 years and retired in 1988 at the age of 75.

After the death of her husband, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. The Institute sponsors leadership programs for youth, including an annual summer program for teenagers called Pathways to Freedom.

The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development offers educational programs for young people including two signature programs: first, Pathways to Freedom, a 21-day program that introduces students to the Underground Railroad and the civil rights movement with a freedom ride across the United States and Canada, tracing the underground railroad into civil rights; and second, Learning Centers and Senior Citizens, a program that partners young people with senior citizens where the young help the senior citizens develop their computer skills and senior citizens mentor the young;

Honors

Rosa Parks has been honored for her dedication and work with such recognitions as: the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1979; The Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize in 1980; The Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996; and The Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. Time magazine also named Rosa Louise Parks as one of the ``100 most influential people of the 20th century.'' The Henry Ford Museum in Michigan bought and exhibited the bus on which she was arrested, and the Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened in Montgomery in 2000.

legacy

Mrs. Parks passed away on Monday at the age of 92 in Detroit. Rosa Parks' legacy is a symbol of hope and inspiration for all. We can all proudly stand on the shoulders of this great giant.

Rosa Parks' work helped change history. Her contributions to the civil rights movement brought this country a step closer to equality. Her devotion to the civil rights movement and the city of Detroit will always be remembered.

People who make meaningful contributions to society should be recognized and honored. Naming the Federal Building at 333 Mt. Elliott Street at E. Jefferson after Mrs. Rosa Parks will remind everyone who drives by or visits the building of the contribution she made for civil rights.

The life of Rosa Parks shows that one person can make a difference.

Quotes from Rosa Parks

Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others

I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. For this side I will be introducing the bill, and after I make an introductory statement, and the next time you go to our side, I want my colleagues to hear from the gentlewoman who is responsible for this bill, Ms. Kilpatrick, who has indicated she wants me to introduce it.

I want to thank her for this bill to designate the Federal Building, which is located at 333 Mt. Elliott Street in Detroit, Michigan, as the Rosa Parks Federal Building, and I want to thank her for really her quite extraordinary diligence in making sure that this bill came to the floor.

I want to say that this bill happens to come to the floor a few days after the death of Rosa Parks, but who is certainly not responsible for the tardiness of this bill reaching the floor is Ms. Kilpatrick. For months she has been talking to me as the ranking member of the subcommittee. For about the same length of time she has been talking with our ranking member Mr. Oberstar. I am sure nobody on our committee meant to hold this bill up, but the truth is that we very much desired for this bill to come to the floor before Rosa Parks died. We knew she was elderly. We are very grateful, however, to the majority for allowing this bill to come forward now in advance of the funeral so that Ms. Kilpatrick, who has carried this bill for so long, can go home to say the Congress has approved what I know Members on both sides would very much want to approve.

We all know the story of that December evening in 1955 when a 42- year-old black woman riding a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat at the demand of a white male passenger. This simple gesture, it was indeed more than a gesture; it was an act, and an action that our country will never forget, led to the disintegration of institutionalized segregation in much of the South and ushered in a

new era now known as the civil rights era of our country.

Characteristically, Ms. Parks always played down her courageous act. Her strength of character and quiet, but determined sense of justice changed our country, however. Montgomery's segregation laws were very complex and deeply humiliating. For example, blacks were required to pay their fare to the driver and then get off the bus and reenter through the rear door. If the white section was full, blacks were required to give up their seats altogether, no matter what their age, and no matter what their infirmity, and move to the back of the bus.

Rosa Parks was very familiar with these humiliations; however, she was a self-educated, early activist with her own local NAACP, her time at the Highland School in Tennessee, but never particularly intending at that moment to engage in an act of civil disobedience. She simply was ready when the moment of humiliation came. For her boldness, she was arrested and found guilty of disorderly conduct.

This action led to the famous Montgomery bus boycott that lasted over a year and, ultimately, to the Supreme Court decision that banned segregation on the city's public transportation systems, and, Mr. Speaker, therefore, on all public transportation throughout the United States. It is impossible to overstate the impact of her act of gentle defiance.

Rosa Parks' story has now become legendary in American history. I am honored to support this bill. It is a most fitting way to respect her life and to acknowledge her lifelong contributions to equality and justice for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick), the sponsor of this bill, who is responsible for its emergence on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), the ranking member who worked so hard on behalf of this bill.

(Mr. OBERSTAR asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) for the graciousness of his remarks. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) for her great diligence in making sure that this bill would be introduced and come forward now.

I want to say in closing that we are accustomed to revolutions being made by armies. We must appreciate what it meant for the opening shot, as it were, of the civil rights movement to have come from a gentlewoman who simply sat in her seat. After 400 years of slavery and discrimination, it might have been a bomb. It was instead an act which set the pattern of nonviolent resistance for the entire civil rights movement.

Please understand that Rosa Parks acted at great personal risk to herself. We may forget what life was like in the 1950s. We all know this, that black men had been lynched for less, and yet she stood there not knowing what would happen after she was arrested.

The remarks of the gentleman from California reminds us what she has done for our country, that essentially she has united our country with one message for all time, and that message does not know partisan lines. What she and the nonviolent revolution that she made that saved our country had done is to bring Republicans and Democrats to the same spot, to the understanding that equality under law is a basic American principle. We could celebrate that principle no better than by honoring the woman who set off the revolution with her gentle act, Rosa Parks.

I thank my good friends from the other side for bringing this bill forward.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for yielding, and I join in her commendation and great appreciation to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) for championing this legislation over so many weeks and months. I join in their regret that we could not have done this in time for Rosa Parks to know that the Nation had recognized her service to equality by naming a Federal courthouse, a Federal building, in her honor.

A headline in The Washington Post today summed it up, in words that Ms. Kilpatrick used herself, summed up the contribution of Rosa Parks: she sat down and we stood up. America did stand up, proud and tall, after this act of righteousness in defiance of a hateful symbol of division in America, segregation on America's buses.

The discussion that the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia had on the NewsHour just last night, with the Reverend Joseph Lowery of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, recalling their association with Rosa Parks, and their great respect for this woman, told of the humility and simplicity but steadfastness of this extraordinary woman.

I recall it rightly, and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia will verify, it was Reverend Lowery who told the story of Rosa Parks making a wedding gift to his daughter, a check, then of a considerable amount, $25. Three years later, Reverend Lowery's daughter met Rosa Parks, who said to her, why did you not cash my check? You have messed up my accounting. The daughter replied, oh, I would never cash that check. I framed it. This is a treasure. She said no, young lady, you cash that check.

She did not want to be acknowledged and recognized and bowed to as an icon, which she certainly is. She continued a very simple, direct life- style. That is the kind of person that we should respect and honor. It is hard for many of us in northern tier States who have not experience firsthand the pain of segregation, to understand not only the symbolic significance, but the real courage it took to do this, to stand against this kind of discrimination.

I did not understand it fully until I traveled to New Orleans with my wife, who is from New Orleans, rode on the St. Charles street car line, the oldest public transit system in America. She showed me the place on the street cars where the sign was placed, ``no colored ahead of this line.'' No colored ahead of this line. The holder is still in place.

She told me how appalled she was as a child to see white people come and move that device just a little further back so there could be more room for white people, how hateful it was. That no longer exists. But this vestige of the past remains, hopefully as a reminder to us that it should never occur again in America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2967, a bill to designate the Federal building located at 333 Mt. Elliott Street, in Detroit, Michigan, as the ``Rosa Parks Federal Building.''

Rosa Parks is known as the ``mother of the civil rights movement.'' With one single act of defiance--when she refused to give up her seat on the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, Alabama--she galvanized a Nation and changed the course of history. On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks was sitting in the middle rows of the bus with three other black riders. The bus driver demanded that all four give up their seats so that a single white man could sit. Three of the riders complied. Mrs. Parks remained seated.

It is important to keep in mind that what is often remembered as a quiet act of civil disobedience took tremendous personal courage. Blacks at that time had been arrested, and even beaten or killed, for refusing to follow the orders of bus drivers. Rosa Parks was arrested, jailed, and fined $14.

As Mrs. Parks herself has said in the years following that pivotal moment, she hadn't planned on taking a stand that day. She hadn't planned on becoming the face of the injustices of segregation. She had simply had enough. She was tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. She had had enough.

Mrs. Parks' act of courage sparked the civil rights movement. A boycott of the public buses was organized for Monday, December 5, the day of Mrs. Parks' trial. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., then a young preacher who was only 26 years old, organized the boycott. The boycott lasted 381 days, ending only after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation on buses. It captured the attention of the Nation and forced people to confront the inequalities that were then commonplace. The civil rights movement ultimately led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned racial discrimination in public accommodations, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Rosa Parks is an American icon. By refusing to give up her seat on that Montgomery bus, she changed the course of history. This honor is long overdue.

Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks died on Monday. She was 92. I'm only sorry that we could not have passed this bill while Mrs. Parks was still alive. Although she suffered from dementia in her later years, I believe that she would have understood and appreciated such recognition from the United States Congress.

The strength and presence of a Federal building perfectly captures the character and personality of this icon of the civil rights movement. It is fitting and just that her life and public accomplishments are acknowledged with this designation.

I strongly support H.R. 2967 and urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 1285, a bill to designate a Federal building in Detroit, Michigan, as the ``Rosa Parks Federal Building'' and to designate the annex of the Prettyman Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., as the ``William B. Bryant Annex''.

Rosa Parks is known as the ``mother of the civil rights movement''. With one single act of defiance--when she refused to give up her seat on the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, Alabama--she galvanized a Nation and changed the course of history. On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks was sitting in the middle row of the bus with three other black riders. The bus driver demanded that all four give up their seats so that a single white man could sit. Three of the riders complied. Mrs. Parks remained seated.

It is important to keep in mind that what is often remembered as a quiet act of civil disobedience took tremendous personal courage. Blacks at that time had been arrested, and even beaten or killed, for refusing to follow the orders of bus drivers. Rosa Parks was arrested, jailed, and fined $14.

As Mrs. Parks herself has said in the years following that pivotal moment, she hadn't planned on taking a stand that day. She hadn't planned on becoming the face of the injustices of segregation. She had simply had enough. She was tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. She had had enough.

Mrs. Parks' act of courage sparked the civil rights movement. A boycott of the public buses was organized for Monday, December 5, the day of Mrs. Parks' trial. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., then a young preacher who was only 26 years old, organized the boycott. The boycott lasted 381 days, ending only after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation on buses. It captured the attention of the Nation and forced people to confront the inequalities that were then commonplace. The civil rights movement ultimately led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned racial discrimination in public accommodations, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Rosa Parks is an American icon. By refusing to give up her seat on that Montgomery bus, she changed the course of history. This honor is long overdue.

Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks was 92 when she died. Her funeral was today. I'm only sorry that we could not have passed this bill while Mrs. Parks was still alive. Although she suffered from dementia in her later years, I believe that she would have understood and appreciated such recognition from the United States Congress.

The strength and presence of a Federal building perfectly captures the character and personality of this icon of the civil rights movement. It is fitting and just that her life and public accomplishments are acknowledged with this designation.

Mr. Speaker, I also support the provision of this bill to designate the annex to the Prettyman Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., as the ``William B. Bryant Annex''. I thank the Gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), Ranking Democratic Member of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, for her steadfastness and support for naming the annex for

Judge Bryant. In the last Congress, Ms. Norton was instrumental in House consideration of H.R. 4294, a bill to name the annex for Judge Bryant. Unfortunately, the Senate did not consider the bill. In this Congress, Ms. Norton introduced H.R. 1015 to continue her effort to honor this distinguished jurist.

Judge Bryant is 94 years old, and is legendary in District legal circles. He practiced law in the 1940's and 1950's when the city was segregated. He could not join the D.C. Bar Association or use its facilities. Yet, he has achieved great stature as a trial lawyer and enjoys an enviable reputation.

Judge Bryant is a lifelong D.C. resident who attended D.C. public schools and Howard University Law School, where he graduated first in his class. He began his legal career in private practice in the District with the legendary African American law firm of Houston, Bryant and Gardner. In 1965, he was nominated by President Johnson to the federal bench and confirmed by the Senate later that year. Judge Bryant is the first African American to hold the post of Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

During his long, productive legal career Judge Bryant also served as the first African American Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and taught at Howard University Law School.

The judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia unanimously agreed to name the annex in honor of Judge Bryant and approached Congresswoman Norton and Senator John Warner for their help. For the past several years, Ms. Norton and Senator Warner have worked to overcome Senate objections to naming the annex in honor of Judge Bryant because he continues to serve in active, senior status.

It is an extraordinary testament to Rosa Parks that, even in her death, her work is not done. The bill to honor her became the unstoppable legislative vehicle to ensure that Judge Bryant, this extraordinary African American jurist, be honored with this designation while he is still living.

I strongly support S. 1285 and urge my colleagues to join me in honoring these legendary American heroes.