Honoring United Negro College Fund on 60th Anniversary

HONORING UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND ON 60TH ANNIVERSARY -- (House of Representatives - September 29, 2004)

(BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT)

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 792, honoring the United Negro College Fund, (UNCF), on the occasion of its 60th anniversary and the Fund's unflagging dedication to enhancing top quality college opportunities to millions of students.

Mr. Speaker, we know "the mind is a terrible thing to waste." And Mr. Speaker, we know that education is an unequaled blessing. Before Emancipation, slaves risked corporal punishment as they secretly gathered to read together. As a slave in Baltimore, Frederick Douglass tricked his white playmates into teaching him the alphabet, trading morsels of food for morsels of schooling. Throughout American history, African Americans possessed an unquenchable thirst to learn, finding innovative ways to educate each other.

Dr. Frederick Patterson was a key contributor to that history. One hundred and fifty years after Douglass's death, Dr. Patterson founded the UNCF in an effort to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities and make higher education more accessible to African Americans. In the last 60 years, through grants and scholarships, the UNCF has raised over $2 billion in aid and has helped over 300,000 students attain a college education. Sixty percent of the students UNCF supports are the first in their families to go to college. Many of these students come from families who make less than $25,000 a year.

The UNCF also extends its aid to students beyond the confines of college campus, providing internships at hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and supporting students in their doctoral and post-graduate study. Additionally, UNCF provides millions of dollars in technical and structural support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities by providing computers and training faculty.

I am grateful to the UNCF for its contributions to the education of many of my esteemed colleagues in Congress, including, to mention a few, Congressmen HASTINGS, LEWIS, OWENS, THOMPSON and BISHOP of GA. I know these men personally. I know how their education has contributed to their quest for justice and their tireless work for a better America. I have seen the fruits of their education as they harness their inquisitiveness and leadership to the most difficult challenges of governance.

Mr. Speaker, there are countless others I do not know personally who have received the immeasurable gift of education because of the UNCF. Let me share a few stories with you from the UNCF's 2003 Annual Report. When she was in high school, Gabrielle Brown maintained a part time job mowing lawns in public parks to help her family. The UNCF made Ms. Brown's dream of college a reality. At Johnson C. Smith University, Ms. Smith was on the honor roll and served as a Big Sister. She said, "the people and companies who give to the UNCF may not realize that their contribution is more than just money, it's hope for the future."

Another UNCF recipient, Theodore Wesby, spent much of his childhood homeless, sleeping in shelters and bus stations. When he could not afford to live in the dorms at Edward Waters College, the UNFC awarded him a scholarship to cover his expenses. The formerly homeless young man plans to pursue a career in real estate, helping others locate their homes, just like the UNCF helped him locate his. It is in the name, honor, and gratitude of these inspiring students that I express my appreciation to the UNCF for its contributions

W.E.B. DuBois, a graduate of the historically black Fisk University and Harvard University, wrote in The Souls of Black Folk:

"I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed Earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil."

Mr. Speaker, because of the United Negro College Fund, so many more of us have been able to sit above the veil of ignorance with Shakespeare and Balzac, with Einstein and Pythagoras, with Martin and Mandela. I thank the UNCF for the tremendously important work it does, and I urge my colleagues to accept this resolution.