Melvin Watt: “Mr. Chairman, I know Lou Stokes well enough to know that by now he is very uncomfortable, and I am not going to take…”

“Mr. Chairman, I know Lou Stokes well enough to know that by now he is very uncomfortable, and I am not going to take five minutes making him more uncomfortable, because the more amazing things we say about him, the more uncomfortable Lou will become, and I can see him squirming in his seat now with discomfort. I met this man, and I am sure Lou does not remember this, before I came to Congress, in Charlotte, North Carolina, when he was visiting with friends there and visiting his daughter, who was an anchor person in Charlotte. Neither Lou nor I had any expectation that I would ever be a member of Congress. I remember going away that evening after having met him saying, ``That is a really nice guy.'' I was not a colleague then. He did not even know me. And I think it is that quality that people pick up on that says something about Lou Stokes. It is easy to be nice to people that you know and respect as your equal, that you are colleagues with, but it takes a special person, a humble person, to respect and be nice to everybody, and I have yet to ever see Lou Stokes not be nice to anybody. It is that quality that I think I respect and love about Lou Stokes and that I will always remember, and that is a personal feeling that I have about it. That aspect of it I cannot ever get away from.”