10/21/2019
Well done sir! RIP
He carried the scar all of his life.
He was 11-years-old, when he and a group of black boys decided to visit the public pool. He didn't know it then, but he was among the first black children to integrate the Riverside Park swimming pool in the summer of 1962.
A crowd of angry white residents, surrounded them, carrying signs that said “Keep Our Pool Germ Free” and shouting, “Go back to where you came from.”
“People were throwing bottles, rocks, and screaming,” he remembered, “calling us everything but a child of God.”
One of the flying objects hit him in the face, that's how he got the scar.
He also remembered a black woman, who tried to help them, the boys knew her as “Miss Mitchell”. One of the flying objects hit her, and although she was bleeding, she still had the courage to protect the boys.
He said, "I will never forget that as long as I live.”
He found out later that the black lady known to the boys only as “Miss Mitchell” was an attorney in his town. Her name was Juanita Jackson Mitchell, who was a legendary civil rights lawyer with the NAACP.
“And at 11 years old," he said, "I declared in that moment that I was going to become a lawyer.”
Elijah Eugene Cummings, shown in the attached picture wearing a tie, did become a lawyer, becoming one of the most respected lawyers in Baltimore, then a United States House Representative. When he died on October 17, 2019, he would be remembered for his courage and for the respect he received from both sides of the aisle.
In the Maryland House of Delegates, he became the youngest chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus and the first African American to serve as speaker pro tem, the member who presides in the speaker’s absence.
Even Rep. Trey Gowdy, whose political confrontations with Cummings made headlines, would say of Cummings:
“It’s not about politics to him; he says what he believes. And you can tell the ones who are saying it because it was in a memo they got that morning, and you can tell the ones who it’s coming from their soul. And with Mr. Cummings, it’s coming from his soul.”
"Cummings was the son of South Carolina sharecroppers who had followed the Great Migration north to factory jobs in Baltimore," according to the Washington Post. "His parents struggled to feed all seven of their kids, but still canned fruit for others in need."
He attended a poor, still segregated elementary school, according to Baltimore Magazine. On Sundays, he remembered running home from the church where his father was a preacher to listen to Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches on the radio.
“Of the many things I learned from my father — and neither he nor my mother completed elementary school because they went to work in the fields — was to treat everyone with equal respect and not to speak or act out of anger,” Cummings said. “Because when you do, the person only hears your tone, they don’t get the message."
According to Baltimore Magazine, he remembered being told "so often that he 'couldn’t' — couldn’t swim in the pool; couldn’t go to the newer, nicer white school; couldn’t go to college or get into law school."
Which is why he also remembered the people who had helped him succeed, like Miss Mitchell. Another helper was the kind owner of a neighborhood drugstore, “Doc” Friedman, a Jewish pharmacist who gave him a job. “Doc” Friedman also paid the fee for Cummings’ application to Howard University.
While away at school, “Doc” continued encouraging him academically, going so far as to send him notes that read “Hang in there.” Every once in a while, he would send him a $10 bill.
He became student body president and earned his bachelor’s degree, followed by a law degree from the University of Maryland.
When he was sworn into Congress in 1996, he remembered how his father cried because of the opportunities his son had that he hadn't.
In his speech, he would say, "Our world would be a much better world, a much better place, if we would only concentrate on the things we have in common."
The rest of the nation eventually would learn about Cummings, after his response to the death of Freddie Gray and his impassioned arguments against an immigration policy he believed was wrong.
At Gray's funeral, Cummings cried out, “Did you see him? Did you see him?”
“I’ve often said, our children are the living messages we send to a future we will never see,” he said, his voice rising. “But now our children are sending us to a future they will never see! There’s something wrong with that picture!"
Bemoaning the current political climate, Cummings said, "Those at the highest levels of government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior. As a country, we finally must say that enough is enough. That we are done with the hateful rhetoric.”
Because of his passion, Cummings would receive a "vitriolic stream of racist mail, e-mail, social-media commentary, and phone messages," according to a former staffer. But Cummings never spoke about the hate he received and instead focused on the work that was needed.
“Congressman Cummings was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion and humility, said his wife, Maryland Democratic Party Chair Maya Rockeymoore Cummings in a statement. "He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem. It’s been an honor to walk by his side on this incredible journey. I loved him deeply and will miss him dearly.”
Cummings would say in an interview with John Heilemann, when asked whether he had an answer to the divisive, political climate in the country, "The answers are painful . . . To see this as I walk through the evening of my life . . . it makes me want to work night and day for the rest of my life to make sure that we make the best of the situation . . . this is about the soul of our democracy."
At his swearing in in 1996, Cummings said his time in Congress would be centered on "a mission and a vision to empower people."
He then recited a poem by Benjamin Elijah Mays, Baptist minister and civil rights leader who was credited with laying the intellectual foundations of the Civil Rights Movement.
"I only have a minute,
60 seconds in it.
Forced upon me, I did not choose it.
But I know that I must use it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Suffer if I lose it.
Only a tiny little minute,
but eternity is in it."
~ Rep. Elijah Cummings, January 18, 1951 – October 17, 2019
