Honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 99th anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 289) honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 99th anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the concurrent resolution.

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

Today I rise and join my colleague, the Honorable Al Green of Texas, in honoring the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 99th anniversary. As we celebrate Black History Month, it is only appropriate that we do so by recognizing our Nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization.

The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, and William English Walling.

Since its inception, the NAACP has united students, laborers, professionals, scholars, officials, and others of all races to advance its vision of ``a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.''

Historically, the NAACP is probably best known for its role and that of Thurgood Marshall in the seminal case of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court held in 1954 that ``separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'' Yet we must not forget that the NAACP has been at the forefront of all efforts to secure equality and justice for every American throughout the 20th century and now into the 21st century.

The NAACP spoke out against lynching, challenged racially biased Supreme Court Justice nominees as early as 1930, and pursued nondiscrimination policies in the military, war-related industries, and the Federal Government during the world wars.

At the height of the civil rights era, the NAACP fought battles on the ground, in the courtroom, and in Congress, where it lobbied for passage of civil rights legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Since then and during our current session, NAACP has lobbied for hate crimes legislation and other legislation that protects minorities, not necessarily based on race, but based on discrimination.

Today, on the shoulders of distinguished members and leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Merlie Evers-Williams, Benjamin Hooks, Julian Bond, Jesse Turner, Jr., Maxine Vasco Smith, and Kweisi Mfume, the NAACP continues to fight the good fight.

Most recently the NAACP is promoting African American graduation and college readiness, protecting and advancing voting rights, and identifying solutions to the subprime mortgage foreclosure crisis. I have the privilege of working with the association to further those important efforts.

So in recognizing the NAACP's past and present, I again salute the organization on its near centennial anniversary. I am confident the NAACP will remain an integral part of our Nation's efforts to protect and promote civil rights in the future and move society forward in a progressive manner on a wide array of issues.

I urge my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 289.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the words Mr. Chabot expressed and Mr. Green. The NAACP is an outstanding organization, and I would submit that during my time here in Congress, I don't know of another group that has had a more effective lobbying force on issues concerning human rights and civil rights and rights of people who are underrepresented and need the help of government and need it in a fair and just way.

In my community of Memphis, the president of NAACP is Mrs. Johnnie Turner. We have had a great NAACP chapter. Ben Hooks, who is a former head of the agency, is a resident of my community, an outstanding individual who recently was honored by President Bush with a Medal of Freedom. And Maxine Vasco Smith and Jesse Turner who have been national officers of the NAACP are residents of my community as well.

The NAACP has been very important to Memphis but very important to this country. I thank Mr. Green for bringing the resolution to the floor, and I appreciate the remarks made here on the floor. I urge final passage.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

I thank the gentleman for the time.

I would like to thank Chairman Conyers for being there and making this resolution possible and bringing it to the floor. I also would like to remember Mr. Sensenbrenner, who at the time we first introduced this piece of legislation was the chairperson of the Judiciary Committee. And I recall how he made a great effort to get this legislation to the floor and to get it passed. I am grateful to the Honorable Steve Cohen who is our floor leader today, a lawyer par excellence who does an outstanding job on the Judiciary Committee. Thank you so much. I am grateful to Mr. Steve Chabot. Thank you for your very kind words. What you said about the NAACP is entirely correct, but it is also something that means a lot to a lot of people. And I think the people across the length and breadth of this country appreciate what you have said and how you have made it clear that the NAACP is important to us in the United States Congress.

I also want to thank the many persons, about 45 of whom signed on to this piece of legislation so that we could bring it to the floor this year. This is the 99th anniversary of the NAACP, having been founded February 12, 1909. The NAACP has always been an integrated organization. It has fought for integration. But it has from its genesis been an organization that has been integrated. And while we remember many of the names of the great NAACPers, James Weldon Johnson, of course, who was one of the great executive secretaries of the organization, we will remember always the name Roy Wilkins, who was a labor leader and executive secretary of the NAACP, W.E.B. DuBois, who was one of the great intellectuals of his time and of all time. We remember Julian Bond who today is the chairperson of the organization, and Dr. Benjamin Hooks who was an FCC board member but also a lawyer and executive director of the NAACP.

But some of the names we don't always remember are names of persons who are not African Americans who were there at the genesis of this organization. Mary White Ovington, this lady held one of the very first organizational meetings of the NAACP in her living room at a time when it was not popular to host a meeting for an organization like the NAACP. I also would remember, if we would, William English Walling and Oswald Garrison Villiard. These persons were not African Americans, but they literally put their lives on the line so that African Americans could have the types of rights and privileges that we enjoy today.

The NAACP, the Nation's oldest civil rights organization, has been there at times of need when it came to issues like the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960 and 1964. It was there for us when we were lobbying for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Brown v. Board of Education is always mentioned when we think of the NAACP, for it was Thurgood Marshall who took this case to the Supreme Court and won it, integrating the schools across this country.

But the NAACP was also there in the case of Shelley v. Kramer, and the case of Borrows v. Jackson. These cases outlawed restrictive covenants, racially restrictive covenants that barred African Americans from living in certain communities. The NAACP took these cases to the Supreme Court and won them as well.

If the truth be told, we live where we live, we sleep where we sleep and we eat where we eat because of the NAACP. It has made a difference in the lives of all Americans. And I am so grateful that this Congress has seen fit to honor it today for its 99 years of service.

As of late, the NAACP was a party to the legislation that we put before Congress to deal with noose intimidation. Noose intimidation, one of the latest means by which persons are having civil rights violated, and the NAACP was there to help us push this legislation through Congress, so as to make it very clear, transpicuously so, that this country will not tolerate noose intimidation. In fact, the President of the United States, as late as yesterday, made it clear that noose intimidation is unacceptable in this country.

The NAACP has been a part of the fiber and fabric of the human rights, civil rights movement in this country. If we did not have the NAACP, we would have to create the NAACP. It has been there for us. Today we are there for the NAACP.

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

Mr. Speaker, I support and strongly urge my colleagues to support House Concurrent Resolution 289 which recognizes the 99th anniversary of the NAACP. For almost a century, the NAACP has fought to bring justice and racial equality to this Nation. It is appropriate that we review that history.

In 1917, the NAACP won a major legal victory in the Supreme Court which held that States could no longer restrict and officially segregate African Americans into particular residential districts. The same year, the NAACP fought for the right of black Americans to be commissioned as military officers during World War I.

In 1920, the NAACP held its annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, which at the time was one of the most active areas for the Ku Klux Klan. As a result, the NAACP showed the world it would not be intimidated by racial violence.

In 1935, NAACP lawyers Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall won a major legal battle to admit students to the University of Maryland.

During World War II, the NAACP led the effort that resulted in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ordering a

nondiscrimination policy in war-related industries and Federal employment.

And in 1948, the NAACP convinced President Harry Truman to sign an executive order banning discrimination by the Federal Government.

In 1954, under the leadership of Special Counsel Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP won one of its greatest legal victories in Brown v. Board of Education.

In 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, members of the NAACP Youth Council launched a series of nonviolent sit-ins at segregated lunch counters.

The history of America's modern struggle to live up to our constitutional principles was written in large part by the NAACP. And it continues to champion the cause of social justice today for all Americans.

The NAACP has served as the voice of those who were muzzled by fear. It served as the voice of those who were handcuffed and jailed under segregationist policies. And it carried the weight for those whose backs were nearly broken in brutal beatings fueled by racial hatred. It did so peacefully and with dignity. And as a result, America is a better place.

I am pleased to join my colleagues on this concurrent resolution honoring the historic contributions made by the NAACP to the cause of civil rights in this Nation. And I would like to conclude by acknowledging and recognizing and honoring the leadership of a gentleman in my district, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King but who has been ill recently. He has been a leader in our community and really across the entire country in the civil rights movement, and we all keep him in our prayers and hope that he recovers quickly.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise and join my colleague, the Honorable Al Green of Texas, in honoring the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 99th anniversary. As we celebrate Black History Month, it is only appropriate that we do so by recognizing our Nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization.

The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Dubois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, and William English Walling.

Since its inception, the NAACP has united students, laborers, professionals, scholars, officials, and others of all races to advance its vision of ``a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.''

Historically, the NAACP is probably best known for its role and that of Thurgood Marshall in the seminal case of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court held in 1954 that ``separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'' Yet we must not forget that the NAACP has been at the forefront of all efforts to secure equality and justice for every American throughout the 20th century and now into the 21st century.

The NAACP spoke out against lynching, challenged racially biased Supreme Court Justice nominees as early as 1930, and pursued nondiscrimination policies in the military, war-related industries, and the Federal Government during the world wars.

At the height of the civil rights era, the NAACP fought battles on the ground, in the courtroom, and in Congress, where it lobbied for passage of civil rights legislation, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Since then and during our current session, the NAACP has lobbied for hate crimes legislation and other legislation that protects minorities, not necessarily based on race, but based on discrimination.

Today, on the shoulders of distinguished members and leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Merlie Evers-Williams, Benjamin Hooks, Julian Bond, Jesse Turner, Sr., Maxine Vasco Smith, and Kweisi Mfume, the NAACP continues to fight the good fight.

Most recently, the NAACP is promoting African American graduation and college readiness, protecting and advancing voting rights, and identifying solutions to the subprime mortgage foreclosure crisis. I have the privilege of working with the association to further these important efforts.

So, in recognizing the NAACP's past and present, I again salute the organization on its near centennial anniversary. I am confident the NAACP will remain an integral part of our Nation's efforts to protect and promote civil rights in the future and move society forward in a progressive manner on a wide array of issues.

I urge my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 289.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to one of the oldest and greatest civil rights organizations in our country's history. The NAACP has served for nearly a century to provide help for those who cannot help themselves, to provide justice for the wronged, and to give a voice to the disenfranchised. Though the group formed to fight for equality for minorities and the disadvantaged, the NAACP has vigilantly stood guard for all Americans so that the basic rights of none are infringed upon.

In 1909, six great Americans, Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard, and William English Walling, banded together to produce the ``Call to National Action.'' This founding document of the NAACP laid out the organization's goals--to protect the rights guaranteed by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. From their ever-present task to preserve these rights to the fight to put an end to lynching, the great victory over segregation won in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, and their continuing crusade to protect civil rights, the NAACP has been an inimitable champion of the cause of equality and social justice in our Nation. Today, under the leadership of Chairman Julian Bond, the organization has grown to over 2,200 branches with over 500,000 members nationwide.

Connecticut is very grateful for the work that the NAACP has done in the State. Headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut and led by chapter president Scot X. Esdaile, the Connecticut NAACP has been a great advocate for civil rights in the State.

The Connecticut NAACP has been a valuable partner in local efforts to ensure civil rights. Our chapter has worked to ensure that minorities are represented in all levels of government as important legislative decisions are being made. The group worked with other local organizations to develop a talent bank of highly qualified minority candidates to fill senior-level positions in the State and combat any discrimination that might exist. The local NAACP has also worked tirelessly with the seven members of the Connecticut Congressional delegation to ensure that our Federal Government secures the blessings of liberty for all. I am proud to have a 95 percent rating from the NAACP. It remains a prevalent voice in the State and a standard-bearer of the principles of equality and justice.

Mr. Speaker, I believe we can honor the work of the NAACP best by continuing to work for the noble cause for which the organization exists: to protect the rights of all persons and eliminate hatred and racial discrimination. I extend to the NAACP my best wishes for a happy 99th anniversary and I commend and thank them for a century of service.