Mondaire Jones

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize renowned psychologist, scholar, research scientist, author, and professor, Dr. Edmund Wyatt Gordon of Pomona, New York. Professor Gordon, who turns 102 on June 13, 2023, is one of our nation's preeminent thinkers on improving the academic outcomes for children from marginalized and disenfranchised backgrounds. His decades of scholarship, leadership, and mentorship demonstrate his commitment to eliminating race-based discrimination and ensuring the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all Americans.

Dr. Gordon was born in 1921 in the segregated town of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Education was a core value in the Gordon family; his parents, an elementary school teacher and a Jamaican-born doctor, encouraged him to focus on school. After graduating high school, he studied at Howard University, where he earned bachelor's degrees in Zoology and in Social Ethics in Divinity. He then received a master's degree in Social Psychology from American University and a Doctor of Education in Child Development and Guidance from Teachers College at Columbia University, where he developed a friendship with W.E.B. Du Bois.

Through his years of education, Dr. Gordon became an expert in child development and devoted his career to uncovering and remedying the issues and challenges faced by non-white students in American schools. He was one of the first scholars to observe the ``achievement gap,'' or the disparity in measurable academic performance among students from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. He was one of the first to argue for the importance of understanding students' unique perspectives and contexts to provide the best educational support possible, preemptively advocating for affirmative development in academic ability and supplementary education to improve the academic outcomes for diverse learners.

Professor Gordon has been widely recognized as one of the leading Black psychologists of his time. His work has shaped our current understanding of child psychology and education. He has authored 18 books, published more than 200 articles, and mentored countless professionals of color who today occupy leadership positions at top universities and social policy institutions.

Dr. Gordon's scholarship has been highly impactful on social policy to improve the educational outcomes for students of color. His early research was cited in the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education, to prove to the Supreme Court that school segregation harmed children. President Lyndon B. Johnson commissioned Dr. Gordon to design the Head Start program, which provided childhood education and services to under-resourced families. Professor Gordon worked to ensure that Head Start also addressed societal factors that impeded the educational development of low-income and historically

marginalized students. Under his leadership, Head Start became one of our most successful and effective programs to address poverty and combat systemic racial injustice.

Professor Gordon has held appointments at several of our nation's leading universities, including the City University of New York, Columbia, Harvard, Howard, Stanford, Yale, and Yeshiva Universities. He served as the founding director of Teachers College at Columbia's Institute for Urban and Minority Education, which was recently renamed in Dr. Gordon's honor to recognize his impactful scholarship and service.

As a long-time member and former president of the Spring Valley NAACP, Dr. Gordon has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to eliminating race-based discrimination, including in his, and my, home community. In 2000, Professor Gordon and his wife, Dr. Susan Gitt Gordon, founded the CEJJES Institute and Library in Pomona, New York. The Institute, which sits on route NY-45 in Rockland County, is dedicated to improving the educational and social conditions of marginalized communities, especially the Black community, through providing resources for supplementary education, including community-based activities and learning experiences for students and their families.

Dr. Gordon has been widely applauded for his contributions as a preeminent scholar in African American Studies and child development. He has been elected as a fellow to several prestigious organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Educational Testing Service established the Edmund W. Gordon Chair for Evaluation and Research in his honor. He has also received countless awards recognizing his service from organizations and publications including the American Educational Research Association, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine, and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, as well as honorary degrees from Bank Street, Brown, Howard, Mount Holyoke, Columbia, Yale, and Yeshiva Universities. These accolades recognize Dr. Gordon's lasting contributions to developments in supplementary and compensatory education, child development, and school desegregation.

As someone who has known and admired Dr. Gordon since I was a young boy, I can personally attest to his contributions to our Rockland County community, and to my own trajectory to the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the accomplishments and legacy of Dr. Gordon. A trailblazer, he has been a lifelong advocate for the Black community and an early champion of psychological and innovative techniques to improve the academic outcomes for historically marginalized communities. Professor Edmund Wyatt Gordon's seven decades of selfless contributions through scholarship, research, teaching, and mentorship are unparalleled and will continue to advance equity in education.

Mr. Speaker, today, I cast one of the proudest votes I will ever cast in this body. I was a ``yea'' on the Respect for Marriage Act.

When I was elected to this body, I became one of the first two openly gay Black Members ever to serve in Congress. Growing up closeted, I never imagined that Congress would pass a bill like this, or I would be in a position to introduce it with Representative Nadler.

I was too young to remember Congress passing the Defense of Marriage Act, but I know exactly where I was when the Supreme Court struck it down in the United States v. Windsor. I had just graduated law school, and I was studying for the bar exam. At the time, because of moderates like Justice Kennedy, I still had faith that the Supreme Court was committed to protecting my basic civil rights as a gay American.

That was a different Supreme Court than the one we have today. The far-right supermajority on the Supreme Court is on a rampage against fundamental rights. As members of the LGBTQ+ community prepare to face the worst assault on our rights in a decade, Congress must do whatever it takes to protect our humanity.

This bill is a great first step. It ensures that the Federal Government will not discriminate against same-sex and interracial couples who have been legally married. But Congress must also pass other legislation to ensure marriage equality as the law of the land.

Mr. Speaker, I would conclude by simply saying that I am very grateful to this Congress and to be in this place.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his leadership.

This bill really should be uncontroversial. But, unfortunately, our Nation's largest tech companies don't want any changes to the status quo. They are content with little to no antitrust enforcement. They are content with their own Gilded Age.

I regret, deeply regret, that some of my colleagues have agreed to do their bidding. It is consumers and small business owners who are paying the price in an economy that increasingly only works for large corporations and for the ultra-wealthy.

Our antitrust enforcement system is beyond outdated. The last time Congress updated the merger filing fees was in 2001, long before companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Apple began their anticompetitive and monopolistic frenzy of acquisitions.

This bill updates those filing fees and ensures that our antitrust agencies have the resources they need to effectively combat the growing concentration and monopolization of our economy in the hands of the largest corporations.

I urge my colleagues to stand up to Big Tech and our largest corporations and to vote for this bill.