Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick: “I come to this podium today to join my colleagues as a Member of the freshman class with Mr. Capps, Mr. Walter Capps, a…”

“I come to this podium today to join my colleagues as a Member of the freshman class with Mr. Capps, Mr. Walter Capps, a distinguished literary man, a professor of religion, but more than that, a man who would take the issues of this Congress, listen to them thoroughly, and then let his conscience and the well-being of the American citizens determine how he would cast his vote. Mr. Speaker, I sat with him last Thursday as we discussed the Loretta Sanchez case out in California's 46th. How worried and troubled he was that an election that could be won by some 900 votes could be simply thrown aside and castigated and, more than that, the Congresswoman duly elected be chastised and harassed after having won an election in his beautiful home State of California. Mr. Speaker, I sponsored the Wilma Rudolph Congressional Gold Medal legislation last week, and I think my legislation might have been the last one that Mr. Walter Capps was able to cosponsor. I am proud to have him as a cosponsor. I want his wife, Lois, and his family to know that all of us will remember Walter as we carry out our congressional duties, that this Congress will be a better Congress because Walter served here. So, Mr. Speaker, I say to Lois and his family, "He lives and he will always live because we will always remember him. God bless you."”