Andre Carson: “I rise on a very humble occasion to pay tribute to the life and work of Dr. John Morton-Finney, a 108-year-old gentleman…”

“I rise on a very humble occasion to pay tribute to the life and work of Dr. John Morton-Finney, a 108-year-old gentleman of my district, and for whom family, friends and admirers paid final tribute on last Saturday. Dr. John Morton-Finney, the son of George and Mattie M. Gordon Morton-Finney, was born in 1889 in Uniontown, Kentucky. He was the son of a former slave. His ancestors migrated from Ethiopia to what is now Nigeria before becoming enslaved in America. He was reared in a family in which the old people never forgot about their African heritage. Mr. Morton-Finney was the last surviving member of the World War I Army unit of black soldiers known as the Buffalo soldiers. Dr. Morton-Finney was also the oldest veteran in the State of Indiana. He never spoke of his involvement as an infantryman in World War I, except to note with pride that he had a citation from General John J. Pershing. During World War II, he was cited for work in the distribution of rationing tickets. After being honorably discharged from World War I, Dr. Morton-Finney began teaching languages in black colleges, including Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, and Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1922, he learned there were openings in the Indianapolis public schools. He decided to join Crispus Attucks High School, of which I am a proud graduate; and he was hired to teach Latin, Greek, German, Spanish and French, some of the languages that he spoke fluently.”