David Vitter: “tonight I rise to mourn the passing of a former Member of this body, the Honorable Jimmy Morrison of Louisiana.…”

“tonight I rise to mourn the passing of a former Member of this body, the Honorable Jimmy Morrison of Louisiana. Congressman Morrison was one of my constituents and represented much of the district I now represent. He served in this body from 1944 through 1966. I was only 5 years old when he left this House, so my knowledge, obviously, of his tenure here is limited to conversations with those who were privileged to work with him and to the history books. I do know that he was a Member of whom we can all be proud. In 1944, when he was first elected to office, his district was, like much of the country, a rural area still working to recover from the Great Depression. Congressman Morrison earned a seat on the Committee on Agriculture and the Post Office and Civil Service committee, two assignments that allowed him to address the immediate needs of his constituents. The esteem in which my older constituents hold him speaks volumes of his effectiveness. He had a distinguished record in this body. He always stood up for the downtrodden and spoke very passionately about his commitment to speaking and working for the causes of the downtrodden. Perhaps the clearest example of that was his vocal support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”