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“SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO HONOR THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENTS OF RETIRED PHOTOGRAPHER, MAURICE SORRELL” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E980 on May 20, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO HONOR THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENTS OF RETIRED
PHOTOGRAPHER, MAURICE SORRELL
______
HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON
of the district of columbia
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, May 20, 1997
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, Maurice Sorrell, a native Washingtonian, has been involved in photography in the D.C. area since the early 1950's. His interest in this medium was piqued as he observed his uncles, both amateur photographers, taking pictures of his parents. In 1947, determined to develop his skills, Mr. Sorrell enrolled in a 3-year photography course at the Department of Agriculture Graduate School which he completed in 2 years.
Mr. Speaker, in 1957, Mr. Sorrell was hired by the Pentagon as a photographer. As a result of discrimination, however, he was only permitted to work in the dark room. Maurice Sorrell left the Pentagon to work full-time as a freelance photographer and also worked as a photographer for the Johnson Publishing Co. Mr. Sorrell served as a mentor, colleague, and friend to the Exposure Group--the African American Photographers Association, Inc. in Washington, DC.
Mr. Speaker, Maurice Sorrell's photographs of black events graced the pages of the Washington Afro-American Newspaper. In 1961, through the efforts of the late Art Carter, publisher of the Afro-American Newspaper, and the late Louis Lautier, a national congressional correspondent, Mr. Sorrell was the first black photographer to gain admittance to the prestigious White House News Photographers Association. Mr. Sorrell traveled to more than 24 countries including 14 countries in Africa. He shot the World Series as well as NFL sporting events. He photographed inmates on death row and in the gas chamber at a Federal prison in North Carolina. He traveled aboard Air Force One and covered six Presidents. Maurice Sorrell traveled throughout the South with Lady Bird Johnson taking pictures of
``poverty.'' He covered the march to Selma, AL. He was in Memphis, TN, covering the garbage worker's strike when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. It was Maurice Sorrell who took the first group photograph of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that this body join me in a salute to this photographer, this historian and the magnificent sum of his accomplishments.
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