EXTENSIONS of REMARKS July 29, 1975 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS DR
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25766 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS July 29, 1975 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS DR. MILTON K. CURRY: NEW PRESI moving to the point where they can support work on the part of several members of DENT OF THE UNITED NEGRO their colleges, churches and other community the Armed Forces during the Vietnam COLLEGE FUND activities." Which gets back to Dr. Curry's main con evacuation. I believe their outstand: ng tention about the need for the continued work deserves special recognition and existence of black colleges-that they pro would like to bring Mr. Bintliff's let ;er HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL vide an education that wouldn't otherwise be to the attention of my colleagues in OF NEW YORK available to large numbers of black students. Congress. "Our very existence provides a basis for in IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DEAR CONGRESSMAN ARCHER: Thank you spiration to young people, and the fact that so much for your kind assistance for my Tuesday, July 29, 1975 more and more of our graduates are going Saigon project. Thanks to you and your to the best graduate schools in the country Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, Dr. Milton staff, especially Mrs. M. L. Schwartzman, the means that we must be giving them some mission was an unqualified success. K. Curry has been named president of thing." I am compiling a report in the form of the United Negro College Fund. He takes The oldest of six brothers and one sister, excerpts from a diary I kept during the 30 office at a time when the economy and he was born in Magnolia, Ark., but the family days of April, 1975, and I will send you a reduced Federal assistance threaten the moved to McKinney, a small town 30 miles copy when it is completed. existence of a nuniber of predominantly north of Dallas when he was very young. It We followed the ongoing reports of the was to be the first of many such moves as black colleges in this country. As a pro his father, the Rev. Milton King Curry, Sr., evacuation program, and as a totally in fessional educator, Dr. Curry faces a a Baptist minister, was being called to other volved participant, I am concerned that challenge which, if unmet, will deny edu churches in larger communities. Meanwhile, the Armed Forces are not getting any where his mother, the former Lena Clabon Easter, near the credit deserved them for their ac cational opportunity to tens of thousands tivities. The way the services, all of them, of young men and women. His mission is taught English and math in the local black have conducted their operation is one of too important to fail. schools. He went to high school in Wichita Falls, the finest annals of our history. I should like I am pleased to include in the CoN Tex., and got his BA in mathematics at to specifically commend the following: GREssiONAL RECORD at this time a profile Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1932. "One M/Sgt. J.W. Smith, B.E.E.F., Clark AB, of Dr. Curry: of the things that the teachers at Morehouse APO SF 96286. instilled in us was that we were invincible M/Sgt. A.R. Farebrother, PSC No. 1, Box A CONTINUED NEED 3737, APO SF 96286. (By Sandra Satterwhite) there were no problems that couldn't be solved, no obstacles that couldn't be over M/Sgt. Donald Robinson, 3rd Supply With the ingrained drawl acquired in boy come.'' Squadron, Clark AB, APO SF 96286. hood moving from one small Texas town to It's a philosophy which Dr. Curry believes Captain Louis Williams, USN, Commander, another, Dr. Milton K. Curry says convinc the black Southern colleges pass on to their NAVASN Guam. ingly that he'd decided back in 1935 that students. "We encourage them to feel that James P. Brown, Office of the Secretary Texas was probably the best place in the they are somebody," he says in the words of of Defense, Washington, D.C. (Formerly), South for personal and professional growth the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Chief, Defense, Audit Office, RVN. "for blacks, whites, Chicanos. There's a cer While a student at Morehouse, he met Mar M/Sgt. Smith of Austin, Texas worked tain openness about the state; you had the jorie Alexander Stewart from Tuskeegee, Ala .. around the clock to provide emergency opportunity to provide leadership." whose father was the late Booker T. Wash shelter (tents) at Clark AB. His crew. "Prime At 55, he's contributed his share as an edu ington's personal business manager. She was Beef", worked at peak effort !or days on end cator and administrator of black public a student at neighboring Spelman College and a day was defined roughly as 20 hours schools and colleges in the state. As the re but "we didn't start 'keeping company' until on duty and 4 hours off. Furthermore, M/Sgt. cently elected president of the United Negro the last semester of my senior year." Smith, who had just returned from Saigon College Fund, which represents 41 mostly They were married in Tuskeegee in 1937 where he was second in command of the black, private and fully accredited four-year after both had acquired masters degrees from team that picked up the pieces of the tragic or graduate schools, he'll be flying back and Atlanta University-he in math, and she in C-5A "Babylift" plane, is the proud father forth from Dallas to New York and other history. (A daughter died shortly after child of a 16 year old daughter who a.s a volunteer parts of the country spearheading a fund birth and there've been no other children.) was matching him hour !or hour in her raising drive for member schools. Before he was asked to become the presi cheerful assistance for the refugees. It won't be too much di1ferent from what dent of Bishop in 1952, Dr. Curry had spent M/Sgts. Robinson and Farebrother, the he's always done as an active UNCF member, close to ten years preaching in a Baptist men-on-the-spot at Tent City, Clark AB, he says, and as a firm believer in the validity church in Wichita Falls (having taken di· were men to make all Americans proud. Each of the black Southern college. vinity courses at the University of Chicago) morning they turned out in spanking fresh For 23 years now, he's been the president and after breaking a promise to himself that uniforms, shoes glittering, conducting them of Bishop College and moved the black Bap he wouldn't follow his father into preach selves with pride, dignity and yet full of tist school from the small town of Marshall ing because it was so hard making a living. understanding. They were unfailingly cour in 1961 to Dallas, where, with a campus of "We're getting increased support from the teous and attentive to all of our problems, 26 buildings, on 387 acres, it is worth some black Baptist churches," he says about large or small, and seemed to be able to $20 million. money now coming to Bishop College. solve any predicament. They made me very Spreading his arms to indicate the wide, proud to be an American. green open · spaces now attracting many He and his wife live off-campus and he's active in Dallas community affairs, sitting Mr. Brown stepped in to the panic situa young urban blacks to campuses such as his tion caused by the Communists in Saigon in the South, he says that since his tenure on the advisory board of the Dallas Sym phony, for instance, and enjoying athletics and as one of the Senior Civilian Officers of began, enrollment at Bishop has increased the DOD proceeded to bring space age from 350 to 2085 students. in his spare time, almost all sports, "but I don't go for wrestling too much." processing to the pandemonium. Dr. Curry also takes credit for having Captain Louis Williams was the epitome brought in more than $50 million in gifts and grants and for having substantially in of Naval "cool". His men and officers also creased the number of faculty members with worked around the clock receiving the brunt doctorate degrees. of the first evacuees dumped on Guam and GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS the way the Navy calmly proceeded to At UNCF's new modern offices at 500 E. 62d DUE st., Dr. Curry said the other day that the process, feed, house, clothe and "man the Fund's goal this year is to raise $14 million, broom" where needed was a classic study, "but I think we should be raising between a text book example, in how to do everything $25 million and $30 million, and in five years HON. BILL ARCHER right. "Well done" to Captain Williams and about $40 million. OF TEXAS all his men. In closing I wish to repeat my profound "We've been underfinanced for years," he IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES said, articulating the most serious problem thanks to you and Mrs. Schwartzman for of the black colleges, which ~re sustained by Tuesday, July 29, 1975 your kind assistance. I should like to say corporate and foundation grants and alumni that in my own refugee program I did not contributions. Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I w.as re use any U.S. Government funds. · An interesting trend is that more and more cently very pleased to receive a letter Thank you. alumni are contributing to their schools, he's from Mr.