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“SIMEON BOOKER: INTEGRITY, COMPASSION AND SERVICE IN JOURNALISM” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E168 on Jan. 22, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SIMEON BOOKER: INTEGRITY, COMPASSION AND SERVICE IN JOURNALISM
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HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Monday, January 22, 2007
Mr. RANGEL. Madam. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my dear friend, Simeon Booker, on the occasion of his retirement as Washington Bureau Chief of Jet magazine. One of our nation's greatest journalists, his legacy is that of trailblazing reporter, radio commentator, author, and most of all, selfless and courageous advocate and defender of his people.
Simeon, whom I have known since coming to Washington in 1971 at the time of the founding of the Congressional Black Caucus, was almost single-handedly responsible for informing the nation of our presence in the United States Congress and our fledgling role in the governance of the country. With his weekly column, he made it known to Black America that they too had a voice in national politics which spoke for them in the formulation of policies that affected their lives. The Caucus has grown from the original 13 to 43 members, one of them running for President. Simeon Booker has more to do with that than he would ever admit.
Trailblazer that he was, Simeon never made himself the story. Forever humble, his great, and only, mission was to advocate for and record the history of African Americans. Bravely, he covered the Emmett Till lynching, despite threats to his life by a local white sheriff; reporting the first freedom ride from Atlanta to Birmingham, he had to use his Washington connections to get Justice Department protection from an angry mob. He marched with Martin Luther King through the hisses and catcalls from hostile white crowds. He covered the Little Rock 9 as they entered the Arkansas school house protected by federal troops. He traveled to Africa with Vice President Nixon and others as that continent threw off the yoke of European imperialism.
The first Black reporter at the Washington Post, he gave up the job to focus on covering the civil rights movement for the Black press. He was the first to win the Newspaper Guild Award, the second awarded the prestigious Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, and the first ever named to the pool of reporters covering the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
I congratulate and commend to my colleagues Simeon Booker, a preacher's son born in Baltimore, and his dear wife, Carol McCabe, who has stood by him. In the pantheon of American journalism, he stands in the first tier.
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