Honoring the Life of Don Edwards

October 21, 2015

Floor Statements

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for giving me the opportunity to speak in honor of the recently departed Congressman William Donlon ``Don'' Edwards, a civil rights champion, supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, defender of the Constitution.

I am proud to say that, as a freshman in Congress, I had the honor to serve with Congressman Edwards on the Committee on the Judiciary. I would just like to say a few words about his work on that committee.

Congressman Edwards was the living embodiment of the phrase ``Equal Justice Under Law,'' the words etched above the main entrance of the United States Supreme Court Building. When he arrived to Congress in 1963, he noted: ``11 States in the Old South practiced apartheid. There was a House Un-American Activities Committee. And the FBI was out of control threatening individual liberties.''

As a freshman, he wasted no time adapting to his new role in Congress because he recalled that, when he arrived on Capitol Hill, ``Black people couldn't vote in large parts of the country, and if they did, they'd get hanged.''

After visiting the American South where his son Leonard worked to register African Americans to vote, he wrote a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, telling him that he understood ``the absolute necessity for the immediate passage'' of the Civil Rights Act, and he told Dr. King that ``we stand ready to support your efforts here in Washington.'' With that, he proceeded to work to secure the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

He rose quickly to the rank of chairman of the House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights in 1971. In that capacity, he took on major issues, such as the Equal Rights Amendment, which fell just three States short of ratification.

Congressman Edwards said, ``It is the irresistible impulse of government to assume more power. My role has been to say no.'' That statement perfectly captures his drive to eliminate the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1975 and his disapproval of President Nixon's unauthorized use of government agencies to harass political opponents.

Congressman Edwards worked tirelessly to gain the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the Fair Housing Amendments Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

He successfully fought to extend the Voting Rights Act in 1982 over the objections of President Reagan, who wanted to end the Justice Department's preclearance power. At the time, Congressman Edwards said simply, ``If you can't vote, you are not a real citizen.''

Unfortunately, in 2013, the Supreme Court essentially struck down the Justice Department's preclearance powers under the Voting Rights Act in the Shelby County v. Holder decision.

When Congressman Edwards retired in 1994, the late Republican Congressman and former chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, Henry Hyde, said this of Congressman Edwards: ``He is relentlessly liberal, but that's not a vice. The battle for the fullest expression of civil liberties is losing a general, not a foot soldier.''

Mr. Speaker, I was honored to serve, although briefly, with this great general who battled for equal justice and equal rights.