Congressman Cohen Speaks on Kenneth T. Whalum, Sr. Post Office Bill

Thank you Mr. Speaker, and Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2587, which would designate the postal facility at 555 South 3rd Street Lobby in Memphis, Tennessee, as the Kenneth T. Whalum, Sr. Post Office building. For a man who gave so many years to this facility and to the postal service, I cannot imagine a more fitting tribute.

I'm not sure if many post offices in this country have been named in honor of people who worked in those facilities. If so, there have been very few. Most are named for political figures, war heroes. Kenneth Whalum was a political figure, a clergyman of great renown, but also a man who spent a career in the postal service and was respected by the rank-and-file and rose to prominence in the postal service.

For those reasons particularly, I think it's most fitting that this building be named for this gentleman as an inspiration to the other employees at the postal service and to the postal service nationally.

Kenneth Twigg Whalum, Sr., was born to H.D. Whalum, Sr., and Thelma Twigg Whalum March 23, 1934. His lifelong dedication and service to the people of Memphis is matched by few others. He served in the United States Navy from 1950-1954 and was a Reservist until 1959. He worked for the United States Postal Service in various human resources capacities, eventually becoming the director of personnel for the main Memphis post office and director of employee relations for the southern region. He also served in Michigan, I believe, in Representative Conyers' district in the postal service as well. He served as a Memphis city councilman from 1988-1996.

And not only did he serve on the Memphis City Council, he was special and he’s been special in everything he's ever done. He was first elected as a district councilman of the City of Memphis from the Orange Mound community, but he was dissatisfied with Memphis City Council with a majority vote of the people, at a time when the City of Memphis was not majority African American.

His victory is a testament to his fortitude to give up a safe district seat to win an at-large seat, knowing that it meant more representation for issues of which he championed, and the fact that he risked his safe seat to make progress on progressive issues and put a progressive in that at-large position. Dissatisfied with the representation of one of the at-large members, a Caucasian, Kenneth Whalum, an African American, ran for an at-large position, and he, like Myron Lowery, also African American, became the first two African Americans elected in that at-large position.

Reverend Whalum is well-respected as a man of faith in his community as well. He played a key role in convincing an alliance of local ministers to bring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Memphis, the city, my hometown, in which we all know he would give one of his most famous, yet ultimately final speeches. In 1969, Olivet Baptist Church called upon Kenneth Whalum to serve the people as senior pastor, a position he held until 1999. During his tenure, the church thrived and grew to a membership of thousands.

I personally was in his church on many occasions. I most remember being there when J.O. Patterson, Jr., was running for mayor of the City of Memphis, a position he held temporarily in an interim appointment, and when President Bill Clinton came there and we shared the podium. President Clinton gave one of his great speeches there.

Like Dr. King, Rev. Whalum was a strong proponent of diversity in the workplace. His advocacy led to the promotion of many qualified African Americans and women to supervisory and managerial positions in the Memphis post office.

After retirement, Rev. Whalum began to experience transient ischemic attacks, TIAs or minor strokes, the most recent of these occurring just a few months ago. Unfortunately, at this time, he's in a nursing facility, but he's improving. We hope he will regain all of his faculties. He's a strong man. One year he experienced 28 such TIAs, causing his family to reach out to the Stroke of Hope Foundation, which his son Kirk knew of through their work with the late Luther Vandross. Most recently, Rev. Whalum has been featured in Stroke of Hope's Survivor of the Month Spring 2007 column.

Rev. Whalum has received various honors and awards throughout his career. In the past, he has served on the board of directors of the Memphis branch of the NAACP, the Morehouse School of Religion of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, the LeMoyne-Owen College Board and was a founding board member of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. He has garnered certificates from the University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Business, United States Postal Service Advanced Management Program, as well as the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business's Executive Development Program.

I'm honored that my eight colleagues from the State of Tennessee's congressional delegation could lend their full support through cosponsoring this measure. Kenneth Whalum was a dedicated public servant in the best sense of the phrase, and the rest of us can learn a great deal from the example he set.

Rev. Whalum has a wonderful, loyal wife in Dr. Rosie Richmond Whalum, as well as three remarkable sons. Memphis has many great families, some of whom have served in this body, but no family in Memphis, Tennessee, has given the city more pride and more service than the Whalum family. All three of his sons, as he said, grew up right behind him. They enjoyed the church, and as he said, they didn't have any choice. They enjoyed the church.

Of his three sons, Dr. Kenneth Whalum, Jr., the oldest, has followed in his father's footsteps in becoming a pastor and a dedicated public servant. He's taken over the church where Dr. Whalum was the pastor, and he's a member of the Memphis City School Board. He was elected in December 2006.

His son Kirk Whalum is one of the great saxophone players in the United States of America. He's had many top hits. He played this Friday at an event which I attended for the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences in Memphis in a tribute to Booker T. and the MGs who were being honored with other musicians. Kirk Whalum made that saxophone sing, as he always does. I know Steve Cropper and ``Duck'' Dunn were in awe of the talent exhibited there. And what was even nicer, besides the fact that Kirk Whalum played such a great saxophone, as he always does, was that his son, another generation of Whalums, played the base, and they played it on ``Hip Hugger'' and ``Green Onions,'' two great Booker T. songs. Kirk Whalum has played backup on saxophone for such renowned artists as Whitney Houston and others. He's come back to Memphis to serve as an artist-in-residence at the Stax Soul Academy of Music in Memphis, Tennessee.

Kevin Whalum, another son, is a talented musical artist and poet, having signed a recording contract with Rendezvous Entertainment this past February.

Like his father, Kenneth, Jr., has three sons: Kenneth, III; Kortland; and Kameron. Kevin has twin daughters: Kellen and Kaylah. And Kirk has five children: Courtney, Kori, Kyle, Kobe and Evan.

For the Whalum family and the great many people of Memphis who have benefited from his decade of public service, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. This is a family of renown and a man who has had a great impact on the City of Memphis and the postal department, and it's justifiably fitting that this building be named for him. I yield back the balance of my time.