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Congressman Elijah
E. Cummings |
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Congressman Elijah
E. Cummings |
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May 1, 2003
Statement of Representative Elijah E. Cummings, D-Maryland
on the Floor of the United States House of Representatives
U.S. House of Representatives
108th Congress
Washington, D.C
Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Maryland Senator, Clarence W. Blount 末 a man whose life exemplified the greatness that lives within us all.
I am saddened to inform that in the afternoon of April 12, 2003, State Senator Clarence Blount passed away from complications related to a stroke at the age of 81. He is survived by his wife, Gordine, two sons, Michael and Mark, and many, many more family and friends in Maryland who mourn the loss of this great statesman.
Mr. Speaker, W.E.B. Du Bois once wrote that "the roots of the tree, rather than its leaves, are the source of its life."
Today, I honor a man who devoted his life to that principle.
When Clarence Blount died he was best known as the former Majority Leader of the Maryland Senate (where he served the people of Maryland for over 31 years after stepping aside last year to let in some "new blood") and as a champion of public education.
However, I recall this wonderful human being as my teacher, my mentor and my friend.
Clarence Blount, by his own self-description, was an ordinary man called to the extraordinary mission of uplifting the lives of others.
He remained steadfast in the pursuit of that calling 末 and, in the process, he became extraordinary himself.
When Clarence Blount was born to Lottie and Charles Johnson Blount Sr., in South Creek, N.C., on April 20, 1921, I doubt whether anyone outside his own family could have anticipated just how far his determination and talent would carry him in life.
His father worked on a tobacco plantation. His mother would die when he was just five years old. The Blount family was so poor that they could not afford to buy their children shoes.
It was only after the family moved to Baltimore that Clarence Blount was able to begin school at the age of 10.
At that time, he was unable to read or count on his fingers, but through determination and with the help of dedicated teachers, this young man persevered to graduate from Frederick Douglass High School at the age of 21.
He would become one of the greatest champions of American public education.
One month after Clarence Blount entered Morgan State College (now Morgan State University), he was drafted into the then segregated United States Army to fight in World War II.
He served with distinction in Italy as a member of the all-black Buffalo Division of the 92nd Infantry.
The courage and dedication to duty that he demonstrated while removing mines from a river passage earned him a battlefield commission.
After fighting for his country against both the enemy and the barriers of Jim Crow, Mr. Blount returned to Morgan State in 1946 and graduated in 1950.
He became a teacher, earned a Master's Degree in education from the Johns Hopkins University, and eventually advanced to become the principal of Baltimore's Dunbar High School.
Mr. Speaker, the education of children became Clarence Blount's passion and mission in life.
He used his own prior hardships and life experience as a passport to helping others improve their lives.
As a teacher, principal and, later, Chairman of the Social Services Department at the Community College of Baltimore, Clarence Blount opened the doors to educational opportunity for thousands of young people in our community.
That same calling 末 and the determination to address the inadequate funding of our public schools 末 led Mr. Blount into public life.
He sought and won election to the Maryland Senate in 1971.
He became the first African American to chair a Senate Committee (the Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee) in 1987.
And he became the Maryland Senate's first African-American majority leader in 1983, a post that he held until his retirement last year.
It was during that period of public service that Senator Clarence Blount directly influenced the course of my life.
When I was a young legislator serving my second year in the Maryland House of Delegates, Senator Blount, then Chair of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, encouraged me to run for and win that position. He had seen something in me that I had not yet seen in myself.
Our personal relationship became even closer when we traveled together to Israel in the 1980s. He became like a second father to me.
Senator Blount later encouraged me to run for and become Speaker Pro Tem of the Maryland House of Delegates. And he was the first person to encourage me to run for the Congress in 1996.
I recount these personal influences, Mr. Speaker, because Clarence Blount's impact upon my life was not unique, he touched everybody he could.
He never ceased being a teacher who found his greatest reward in the accomplishment of his students.
About a year and a half ago, Senator Blount and I were both asked to speak at a neighborhood housing event in the Ashburton section of Baltimore.
I thanked him for being such a magnificent and significant part of my life 末 for seeing qualities in me that I had not yet realized.
I also thanked him for fighting for our neighborhoods in Baltimore and for giving our communities a voice in Annapolis.
Senator Clarence Blount was a man of great personal talents and capability. Perhaps the greatest of these was his ability to see 末 and his commitment to realizing 末 the talents of others.
He shared this gift 末 this vision 末 without regard to the stereotypes of gender or race that too often influence our perception of other human beings.
He inspired and worked to help people of talent without regard to their race.
Clarence Blount realized and accepted the truth that our lives do not belong to us alone.
He led his life on the principle that he was placed upon this earth to lead others through the same doors to opportunity that he had opened for himself.
Clarence Blount was a man whose humility and compassion for others was his greatest strength, an ordinary man called to the extraordinary mission of uplifting other human beings.
When we expand the power of education to all of our people, Mr. Speaker, we honor the memory of this great American.
There are millions of young Americans today who, like Clarence Blount, are desperate for the opportunity to learn and contribute to our national life.
Like Senator Blount, they, too, can exemplify the truth of Du Bois' eternal insight.
Senator Clarence W. Blount, a son of sharecroppers raised up in life by the power of his character and the education that he received, realized the true source of America's greatness in the world.
"The roots of the tree,
rather than its leaves,
are the source of its life."
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.
