1760 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE February 29, 2000 student can look up to. Aleisha Cramer than its parent organization at the an advanced education degree, and had has proved what hard work as a stu- time. It was interracial far before the worked steadily at professional jobs for dent, athlete and community member first ‘‘Negro’’ was appointed to the more than a decade. She knew the can accomplish. board. After she graduated, the Na- value of community activism and edu- Again, I would like to congratulate tional YWCA offered her a secretarial cation and set out to take part in the Aleisha Cramer, the 1999–2000 Gatorade job in one of its Negro branches. A fa- fight. This led her to the Atlanta National High School Girls Soccer vorite psychology professor at AU had Urban League. Player of the Year, for her accomplish- a high regard for the psychology de- From 1943 until 1960, Grace Hamilton ments. She has made the State of Colo- partment at Ohio State and seeing as served as the Executive Director of the rado and this nation proud.∑ how the YWCA job would make it pos- Atlanta Urban League. During her ten- f sible to finance her post-graduate edu- ure, she shaped the path of the League cation at the same time, Grace decided to better serve Atlanta, which was in- GRACE TOWNS HAMILTON (1907– to go. creasingly being seen as the South’s 1992) Grace Towns later admitted that ‘‘hub city.’’ She moved the focus away ∑ Mr. CLELAND. Mr. President, ‘‘A po- there was no way she could have been from the national organization’s em- litical leader who changes his stances prepared for what she faced in Ohio. phasis on philanthropy and job pro- to fit the times is often called a politi- The cocoon of Atlanta University ill- curement to a more Atlanta-focused cian in the dirtiest sense of the word. prepared her for the shock that await- program of housing, equality in school One who refuses to change, who re- ed her in the Ohio capital city. Barred funding, voter registration and better mains with her lifelong ideals, is often from movies, restaurants, hotels, even medical care. Her biographers, Lor- called reactionary and stubborn. But public restrooms, Towns felt accepted raine Nelson Spritzer and Jean B. such a person may also be seen as pos- only within the confines of the Ohio Bergmark, wrote of her legacy that it sessing both honesty and intrigue.’’ So State psychology department. Even the ‘‘. was better appreciated by whites spoke Alton Hornsby, Morehouse Col- YWCA, which in Atlanta had seemed so than blacks. The white world glorified lege historian in 1990 as the city of At- dedicated to the rights of all women, her, clothing her in virtue without lanta remembered one of its greatest without regard to the color of their flaws. The black community viewed treasures, Grace Towns Hamilton. skin, had its barriers and limitations. her with greater ambivalence, seeing Grace Towns was quite simply, a leg- The prejudice and violent attitude to- blemish as well as the best and came end in her own time. Born in Atlanta wards blacks at the time made the closer to discerning the real and impor- in 1907, Grace entered this world during goals and the religious and moral pre- tant person she was, probably because a time of severe racial tension. In fact, cepts professed by the organization a she was truly one of their own.’’ her birthday came only 5 months after challenge that the ‘‘Y’’ often failed to After Mrs. Hamilton resigned in 1960, a ferocious racial massacre in Atlanta. meet. she set out on her path to political suc- For whites, the first decades of the These factors combined to make cess. She ran in a special off-year elec- twentieth century were the ‘‘Progres- Grace Towns not sorry to leave Colum- tion in 1965 which brought her and six sive Era.’’ For blacks, it was indeed a bus, Ohio in the summer of 1928. She other black Democrats into the Geor- most dismal era. The end of Recon- returned to Atlanta to finish the writ- gia state legislature. The first black struction had left blacks as an often ten requirements for her master’s from woman in the Georgia State Legisla- despised and almost always Ohio State, having already finished the ture, Hamilton was called ‘‘Atlanta’s disenfranchised class made up largely course work. After receiving the degree only real integrationist,’’ ‘‘a leader,’’ of dependent laborers with little land in 1929, she went on to teach at the At- and a ‘‘bridge-builder.’’ It was here and even less rights. Atlanta Univer- lanta School of Social Work and also at where she made her most lasting con- sity (AU), on the city’s western Clark College in Atlanta. She married tribution to her city and state, and all reaches, seemed an island of tran- the love of her life, Henry Cooke Ham- agreed she was that rare person who quility in the South, where blacks ex- ilton, in the summer of 1930. They gave politics a good name. I remember perienced the worst of the racial op- moved shortly thereafter to Memphis fondly serving with her while I was in pression and exclusion. Grace Towns’ where her husband had taken a job the Georgia state senate from 1970 father was a professor at AU and she doing triple duty as dean, registrar and until 1974. was able to enjoy a sheltered existence professor of education. While serving in the state legisla- where both the student body and the Grace Hamilton continued teaching, ture, Grace Hamilton sought to faculty were integrated. even through the first months of her strengthen local government, particu- Grace Towns flourished while grow- pregnancy with her first daughter El- larly the Mayor’s role. She also worked ing up at AU. Once she matriculated as eanor, born in March of 1931. She had toward equal justice for blacks, and the a collegiate there, Grace became active taken a position at LeMoyne Junior elimination wasted tax dollars by seek- in the Interracial Student Forum. She College and resumed teaching at ing consolidation of Georgia’s numer- took this advantage of the opportunity LeMoyne while Eleanor was still ous counties. In 1971, she persuaded her to discuss a wide range of topics, in- young. She continued to teach there, colleagues in the Legislature to ap- cluding those which were most racially although circumstances compelled her prove a sales tax increase to finance a sensitive. For her, this was a forum to to undertake courses that she did not city-wide rail and subway system—now bring black and white students to- feel qualified to teach. In 1934, this known in Atlanta as MARTA, a crown gether. While she was editor of the AU frustration came to a head when gen- jewel among the nation’s urban mass student newspaper, the Scroll, Grace der issues and the Great Depression transit systems. Her time in the Legis- wrote of the forum, ‘‘the Forum has forced LeMoyne to terminate her em- lature was infinitely successful and in given us contact. We have heard each ployment. After volunteering with the 1984, at the age of 78 she began to con- other’s music, and talked as fellow stu- NAACP and the YWCA, Grace took a sider retirement. She decided for ‘‘one dents.’’ position with the Works Progress Ad- last go-around’’ but failed to detect the After graduating from AU in 1927, ministration (WPA) conducting a sur- political risk she faced. She was de- Grace Towns went on to pursue a mas- vey on The Urban Negro Worker in the feated by a 26 year-old graduate stu- ter’s degree in psychology at Ohio United States 1925–1936. dent in public administration at Geor- State University in Columbus, Ohio. In 1941, the Hamilton family returned gia State named Mable Thomas. After During her college years, she became to Atlanta where Grace’s husband be- almost twenty years in public office, involved with the YWCA. The Atlanta came principal of Atlanta University’s Grace Hamilton set out for the next chapter had a burgeoning student Laboratory High School. Grace had phase of life. movement that took a divergent ap- never set out to be a leader, but at this Grace Hamilton lived on another proach on race that was less cautious point she was thirty-four years old, had eight years, overseeing the care of her VerDate May 21 2004 10:21 Aug 06, 2004 Jkt 029102 PO 00000 Frm 00074 Fmt 0686 Sfmt 0634 E:\BR00\S29FE0.002 S29FE0 February 29, 2000 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE 1761 ailing husband and guiding the search aged to surround the vehicle after the C.O.P.S., as well as the installation of for a suitable depository for her papers man left I–70 and turned onto a busy defibrillators into every patrol car. and effects. She collected numerous ac- street in Independence, Missouri. The The job of a chief of police is a de- colades and awards before she finally man tried to escape on foot, but was manding task that requires strength of succumbed to illness in 1992, survived stopped by these heroes who tied his character and good judgment. One need by her daughter Eleanor. feet together and sat on him until the not look far for proof of Chief As we come to the end of Black His- police arrived. These men acted swiftly Toscano’s success and ability, for it is tory Month, I respectfully submit this and responsibly.