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HONORING DR. ATTORNEY JOHNNIE JONES, SR.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Carter) for 5 minutes.
Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, this week, a Louisiana legend turned 102 years old. Dr. Attorney Johnnie Jones, Sr., has lived a lifetime fulfilling every day with service, activism, and love for family and country.
Born in 1919, he was one of eight children in a successful family who leased land in eastern Louisiana. He attended Southern University until being drafted into the Army in 1942 during World War II where he was the first-ever African-American warrant officer in United States Army history.
Jones was injured in the battle at Normandy on D-day 77 years ago. Before landing on the beach, his ship hit a mine, and he flew from the second deck down to the first. As he described it, he flew like a bullet, but he survived, coming ashore on Omaha Beach, facing off with German snipers. Later in the war, he was hit with shrapnel during a bomber attack and finished his military service in the Battle of the Bulge. These nightmarish memories have remained with Mr. Jones until today.
Much of his paperwork and records of service were lost during Hurricane Katrina, so it was earlier this year, at the age of 101, that Dr. Attorney Jones finally received the Purple Heart award in recognition of his battle injuries.
Through all that he endured, he persisted. He returned home to Louisiana, where he began to serve in a different capacity, this time as a lawyer. Just 15 days out of Southern University's law school in 1953, the Reverend T.J. Jemison recruited him to organize the United Defense League's 8-day bus boycott in Baton Rouge and defend the participants.
After the Baton Rouge City Council revoked the licenses of Black-
owned transportation companies, many African Americans were forced to ride segregated buses and sit in the back of the bus or stand.
When hundreds of patrons boycotted riding in protest, some positive changes were made, though segregation still remained the law of the land. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King used the Baton Rouge protest as a model for his bus boycott in Montgomery 2 years later.
Dr. Jones defended students in drugstore sit-ins and other actions as civil rights protests spread throughout the South. During these efforts, his car was bombed twice. Immediately after his return from war, he was beaten by a White officer on his way to a doctor's appointment.
``Things weren't right,'' said Dr. Jones. ``I wanted to fight and make it better.''
Here is a man who has been through so much, who has tasted the evils of the world and has every reason to be bitter, but he isn't. However, he has insisted on focusing his life on sharing love for our State and fighting for equality.
Jones was the first African-American member of the Baton Rouge Bar Association. He served in the Louisiana House of Representatives. Throughout his career as a lawyer, he successfully sought pay equity for teachers and sued to desegregate parks and communities in Louisiana.
He also represented student protesters at Southern University during the civil rights movement and countless indigent defendants, and he challenged voter discrimination practices throughout the South.
I was grateful to have the opportunity to speak with Dr. Attorney Johnnie Jones on Veterans Day to thank him for his incredible service to our people in America.
On his birthday, he celebrated with friends, family, and good Louisiana seafood. Today, let's all thank Dr. Jones for his great advice that he shares with us, which is: ``You have to deal with the past, and you have to deal with the history. You have to read and understand so we don't repeat the past.''
Let's build better. Let's build a future for everyone.
Please join me in wishing Dr. Attorney Johnnie Jones, Sr., a happy 102nd birthday.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 207
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