Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank my good friend, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, first, for her kind and generous words, but especially today…”

“I thank my good friend, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, first, for her kind and generous words, but especially today for her leadership of this Special Order, which is characteristic of her leadership in this Congress. I am so pleased that our chair Rep. G.K. Butterfield has been here and spoken and that we have heard from several other Members. I just want to say a few words about this troika of African Americans who have written their signatures across our time. You have heard their biographies. I don't want to recount their extraordinary bios, because that is not the only reason we are honoring them with this Special Order. I just want to say something about what they meant to me. Two of them I knew personally: Representative Louis Stokes, whose many years in the Congress happened to overlap with my first years here; and, of course, Julian Bond, whom I knew best. I was not fortunate to know Amelia Boynton. She may have been the most courageous woman in the movement of the 1960s, who insisted upon facing death, if necessary, in that march from Selma to Montgomery, and nearly lost her life. I was privileged to be in her presence, as so many Members of Congress were, when we went to Selma this past summer. That was a privilege in and of itself. I was fortunate to know Congressman Louis Stokes, who was a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus long before I served. This was a man of great accomplishment. Yes, he can speak about his firsts, and much more.…”