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“WILLIAM SLOAN COFFIN, JR.: A COURAGEOUS MAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E682-E683 on May 2, 2006.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WILLIAM SLOAN COFFIN, JR.: A COURAGEOUS MAN
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HON. BERNARD SANDERS
of vermont
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, Vermont has lost one of its finest, most ethical and courageous residents. The Reverend William Sloan Coffin, Jr., who lived in Strattford, Vermont, has died at the age of 81.
When the Civil Rights Movement began, when a brave coalition of black and white Americans brought the attention of the Nation to the injustice of segregation, Rev. Coffin was there, standing up for what was right. He was a Freedom Rider in Montgomery, Alabama in the early years of the Civil Rights struggle, and was arrested there in 1961. He was arrested in Baltimore two years later in an anti-segregation protest and again a year later in St. Augustine, Florida as he tried to integrate a lunch counter. He was one of those who, in the phrase of the day, ``put their bodies on the line'' to bring about a more equitable and just America.
When the United States entered Vietnam, and the war escalated, Rev. Coffin was an articulate voice for peace. As Chaplain at Yale University, he offered the chapel as a sanctuary for those who refused to serve in Vietnam. He delivered the draft cards of antiwar protesters to the Justice Department in an effort to mount a legal challenge to the draft. Instead, the government challenged him, arresting Rev. Coffin, Dr. Benjamin Spock and three others for counseling draft evasion. He was convicted but the verdict was subsequently overturned by an appellate court.
In his years at Yale and later at Riverside Church in New York, his was an eloquent voice for the disadvantaged and disinherited in America. He showed great courage in questioning the ethics of America's military decisions and unstintingly opposed the nuclear arms race. He was a foremost proponent of nuclear disarmament, calling for a nuclear freeze. He opposed both the Persian Gulf War in 1991 under first President Bush, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the current President Bush.
William Sloan Coffin, Jr. was a man of strong and passionate views. Needless to say, not everyone agreed with all of his positions. But whoever knew him--and I count myself fortunate to be among them--
recognized his courage, his dedication to ethical reasoning, and his profound commitment to social justice. He served as a model of the engaged intellectual to generations of students and to countless Americans. The Nation will miss him, Vermont will miss him, and I will miss his strength and passion for justice.
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