Honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 98th anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the subcommittee chairman, Congressman Howard Berman. I thank you much for the many things that you have done.

Mr. Speaker, I also think it appropriate to thank today chairman John Conyers of the Judiciary Committee for assisting in this and causing this piece of legislation to move forward quickly. I thank Senator Hillary Clinton and the more than 20 cosponsors in the United States Senate.

My understanding is that companion legislation will be filed there today. We would like to thank the 117 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives, all of whom believe that this legislation is exceedingly important. And, of course, I would like to thank last year's cosponsor with me, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Congressman James Sensenbrenner.

Mr. Speaker, there are many organizations that have endorsed this legislation: the American Jewish Committee; the ADL, the Anti- Defamation League; LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens; and NCLR, the National Council of La Raza.

Today, H. Con. Res. 44 honors the NAACP for 98 years of service to America. Mr. Speaker, that is 98 years of upholding the constitutional notion of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That is 98 years of standing on the Declaration of Independence and the premise that all persons are created equal; 98 years, Mr. Speaker, of saluting the proposition in the Pledge of Allegiance that we are indeed one Nation, with liberty and justice for all.

I thank God, Mr. Speaker, for the NAACP and those brave souls who assembled 98 years ago today on February 12, 1909, a group of people who met to fight for the rights of black people. They were an integrated group, both black and white, who believed in the Constitution of the United States of America.

And while we must remember that the NAACP was founded to make democracy work for black people, we shouldn't forget that it was Mary White Ovington, a white woman, who is said to have hosted the founders meeting. And we shouldn't forget that she did this in response to William English Walling, a white man who wrote an article asking citizens to rally in support of African Americans.

We don't forget in the NAACP, and we should never forget, the fact that this organization has never been a black-only organization. So, today, I salute the NAACP-ers, current and those who have gone on for their great work in this great country. I want to salute them by remembering those who are black, but I also pledge that we will never forget those who are white.

So as we remember Dr. Louis T. Wright, who in 1935 became the first black NAACP board Chair, we should not forget Oswald Garrison Villard, the white man who in 1911 became the very first Chair of the board of the NAACP. You see, there were two white NAACP board Chairs, Oswald Villard and Joel Spingarn, before we had a black NAACP board Chair.

And I believe we should remember James Weldon Johnson. He was the first black executive secretary and director of the NAACP. However, we should never forget Francis Blascon and Mary White Ovington, along with Mary Nurney and Royall Nash, all of whom were white and served before James Weldon Johnson.

Let us remember the brilliant lawyer and Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. However, we should not forget Arthur Spingarn, the white NAACP-er who donated large sums of money and raised even more money for the NAACP Legal Redress Committee. While Thurgood Marshall was a great litigator, and he was, we should never forget that the Spingarns were great donators and made it possible for a lot of the litigation to take place.

I will remember and I beg that we all remember Medgar Evers, the black NAACP field representative who was assassinated in his front yard in 1963. However, we shouldn't forget John R. Shillady, the white NAACP executive secretary, because he was beaten by a mob in Austin, Texas, and he never recovered.

Through the efforts of a multiracial, religiously diverse and ethnically inclusive group, the NAACP has made great contributions to our society: the passage of the Voting Rights Act; the passage of the Civil Rights Act; the Fair Housing Act of 1968; filed and won many lawsuits, including Brown v. Board of Education; Shelley v. Kraemer; and recently contributed millions of dollars to assist the Hurricane Katrina victims.

So today we can literally say we eat where we eat, we live where we live and we sleep where we sleep in part due to the NAACP, and we are grateful that they have been there for us.

Mr. Speaker, I beg that all of my colleagues will support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Con. Res. 44, legislation to honor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on the occasion of its 98th anniversary. The NAACP is an established and proven civil rights organization and a leading voice for justice and human rights for all.

The NAACP has several national achievements but I'd like to highlight our local successes. In California's 9th Congressional District, I am honored to say the Oakland NAACP branch, established in 1913, was the first NAACP chapter in Northern California. It represented the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.

In fact, the Oakland NAACP branch played a pivotal role in the civil rights struggle in California. The branch participated in the organization's national campaign to eliminate Jim Crow laws and to support anti-lynching legislation.

In the late 1950's and 1960's, Bishop Nichols, then Pastor of Downs Memorial United Methodist Church in North Oakland, joined with national leaders to advocate for economic, social and educational justice in the Bay Area. He was chair of the Berkeley NAACP Education Committee and President of the Berkeley Board of Education (four years before the school district became the first to voluntarily integrate schools).

In addition, one of Oakland's own, Judge Cecile Poole served as director of the NAACP Defense and Legal Education Fund. Judge Poole became the first African-American United States Attorney, and the first black federal judge for the Northern District of California. And although he passed away ten years ago, his legacy and work with the NAACP to promote respect and basic civil rights for all disenfranchised people is still felt in the East Bay and throughout our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, with members, such as Bishop Nichols, Judge Cecile Poole, Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. DuBois, Coretta Scott King, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Rosa Parks, there's no doubt that the NAACP served as the catalyst for the largest grassroots civil rights movement in U.S. history.

The NAACP remains a vehicle to push for legal action against injustice and an advocate for human and civil rights for all.

Their political accomplishments such as ending the separate but equal policy in

schools or ending the racist Jim Crow segregation of buses, restaurants and public facilities, and their lobbying efforts which ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the reauthorization of the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act of 2006, must be commended.

And Mr. Speaker, the NAACP took the helm to organize the national boycott against American companies doing business with the former apartheid regime in South Africa. The NAACP also protested, most recently in 2000, the flying of the confederate flag over state buildings in South Carolina, which to date was, the largest civil rights demonstration (50,000 people) ever held in the South. The importance of this organization whose impact has been demonstrated in almost every part of the country and in many parts of the world cannot be overstated.

But the critical work of the NAACP is needed now more then ever. The slow systematic dismantling of Affirmative Action; the declining homeownership rates of African American families; the growing poverty rate of African American families and the growing achievement gap between white and black children; the disproportionate incarceration rates of black male youth, and the growing illiteracy rate of black children are all important causes for the NAACP.

Add to that fact that the NAACP was a leading champion of the Hurricanes' Katrina and Rita survivors. They are still pushing for justice for all in the Gulf Coast region and you can see why the NAACP is sill so necessary today.

We must continue to beat the drum and join the NAACP in their efforts to bring their mission for economic and social justice for all to reality.

Mr. Speaker, we have come a long way since the founding days of the NAACP, Brown vs. Board of Education, the Voting Rights Act. In the words of former NAACP president Bruce Gordon, ``There is still a lot of civil rights work to be done. Many people believe the passing of Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott-King and other icons of the movement signals that the task is over. ``He added, ``Nothing could be further from the truth.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Con. Res. 44, which gives fitting honor and praise to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of the 98th anniversary of its founding.

The NAACP is the oldest, largest, most historic and most influential civil rights organization in the United States. First organized in 1905, the group was known as the Niagara Movement when they began meeting at a hotel situated on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. They had to meet in Canada because American hotels in Niagara Falls were segregated. Under the leadership of the Harvard-educated scholar, the great W.E.B. DuBois, the group would later be known as the National Negro Committee before finally adopting the name by which it has been known for the last 98 years--the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP--at its second conference in 1910.

The first official meeting was held in 1909 exactly 98 years ago today: February 12, the centennial of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. The mission of the association was clearly delineated in its charter:

To promote equality of rights and to eradicate caste or race prejudice among the citizens of the United States; to advance the interest of colored citizens; to secure for them impartial suffrage; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for the children, employment according to their ability and complete equality before law.

For nearly a century, the NAACP has stayed true to its charter and championed the cause of justice and equality in America. It has fought valiantly and tirelessly on behalf of African Americans and others to secure their civil rights and liberties and the full measure of justice and equality for all.

At a time when African Americans were treated as second-class citizens and the scourge of slavery was still rampant, the NAACP emerged to ensure that the rights, interests and voices of African Americans did not go unheard.

As Chair for the Congressional Children's Caucus, I am especially concerned with fair access to quality education for today's youth. I am personally grateful to the NAACP for its leadership in winning the greatest legal victory for civil rights in American history: the 1954 landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), in which the Supreme Court struck down de jure segregation in elementary schools. NAACP General Counsel Thurgood Marshall, who would later become the first African American associate justice of the Supreme Court, forcefully argued and persuaded the Court to rule unanimously that in the field of public education, ``separate but equal'' was inherently unequal. That decision gave hope to millions of Americans that their children might enjoy the full promise of America that had been denied their forebears for more than three centuries.

The NAACP used the Supreme Court's decision in Brown to press for desegregation of schools and public facilities throughout the country. In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for refusing to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Her act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history and ignited the Civil Rights Movement. Daisy Bates spearheaded the campaign by the Little Rock Nine to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The NAACP remains committed to achieving its goals through nonviolence, the legal process, and moral and political suasion, and through direct actions such as marches, demonstrations, and boycotts to give voice to the hopes and aspirations of African Americans and others who lack the power to make their voices heard.

There is still a need for justice and equal treatment for African Americans and other vulnerable populations in our country. Thankfully, the NAACP is alive, well, vital, and effective. I am grateful for the many fights for equality that the organization has won, and thankful that the NAACP will be there in the future to champion the cause of justice wherever and whenever it needs a spokesman.

Happy birthday, NAACP and thank you for all you have done to make our country better. I urge all Members to join me in supporting H. Con. Res. 44.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 44) honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 98th anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on H. Con. Res. 44.

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

Today I rise to join my colleague Al Green of Texas in honoring the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP, on its 98th anniversary. As we observe Black History Month this February, it is only appropriate that we recognize the Nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Ninety-eight years after its inception, we salute the NAACP for its continued commitment to promoting equality and justice for all Americans.

The NAACP has been at the forefront of every brave and courageous moment in this Nation's civil rights history. This was particularly evident during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1954 the NAACP secured one of the greatest legal victories with the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In 1960 the NAACP Youth Council organized a series of sit-ins at lunch counters throughout the country, an activity which I think for many of us, I know for myself, helped to pique and motivate our interest in the ability of politics and movement to make change on behalf of people. And in 1965 the NAACP successfully sought enactment of the Voting Rights Act.

Today the NAACP priorities continue to ``ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons,'' as its mission statement reads. Last year the NAACP addressed such issues as voter disenfranchisement, HIV/AIDS, and the conflict in Sudan. In 2007 the organization continues to confront these and other domestic and international concerns. Most recently, the NAACP supported Congress' efforts to increase the minimum wage.

We in this body congratulate the NAACP for this work and their continued efforts to protect the civil and human rights of our citizens. On its 98th anniversary, the NAACP remains an integral and essential part of this society. We salute the NAACP on this significant occasion.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 6 minutes to the sponsor of the resolution, the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise to congratulate the NAACP on its 98th Anniversary. As the Nation's oldest civil rights organization, the NAACP has for 98 years fought to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of all persons, so that all may share and participate in this country's great Democracy.

The NAACP was founded by a multiracial group of activists who answered ``The Call'' for a national conference to discuss the civil and political rights of African Americans. This conference was in response to the race riots that took place in Springfield, Illinois in the summer of 1908. Since that time, the NAACP has sought to ensure equal rights for all citizens and to eliminate race prejudice in the United States by working to improve the democratic process and by seeking the enactment and enforcement of laws that secure civil rights. The NAACP also acts as a watchdog and informs the public of the adverse effects of discrimination. The NAACP also educates the public about their constitutional rights, and when necessary, undertakes court cases to enforce and secure those rights.

The NAACP has a long and impressive history of activism and has contributed greatly to shaping America as we know it today. One of its first legislative initiatives was an anti-lynching campaign in the early 1900s. In the 1940s, the NAACP was influential in President Roosevelt's decision to issue an Executive Order prohibiting discrimination in contracts with the Department of Defense and in President Truman's decision to issue an Executive Order ending discrimination in the military. In the 1950s, the NAACP worked to bring an end to segregation in public schools; that work culminated in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. In the 1960s, the NAACP worked to raise support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act. In the 1970s, it helped expand voter participation through voter registration efforts. And the list goes on.

Today, the NAACP continues to eliminate race prejudice whenever it rears its ugly head. It continues to act as a watchdog to protect the civil rights of all people. And it educates the public about civil rights so that future generations will know tolerance and equality as the norm, rather than the exception.

I am proud to be a Diamond Life Member of the NAACP and to have served as a Branch President of the Newport News Chapter.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the NAACP on 98 years of service to our great country and its people, and I wish them another successful 98 years.