Education
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today presided at a historic hearing entitled "Continuing Injustice: The Centennial of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre." The hearing featured three survivors of the May 31 – June 1, 1921 massacre that destroyed the Black Greenwood section of Tulsa, a prosperous community known as "the Black Wall Street." One survivor, 106-year-old Lessie Beddingfield Randle, told the panel: "I have waited so long for justice."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today spoke from the House floor in support of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, intended to address violence aimed at Asian Americans during the pandemic and intended to improve the reporting and enforcement of all hate crimes more broadly.
The measure is expected to pass the House later today.
In his remarks, Congressman Cohen said in part:
WASHINGTON – Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09), Barbara Lee (CA-13) and Bobby L. Rush (IL-01) will hold a virtual forum on the FBI's notorious COINTELPRO program recently featured in the Academy Award-winning film "Judas and the Black Messiah," which dramatizes the FBI-orchestrated assassination of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in 1969. The forum will be on Monday, May 10, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will receive research grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The grant to St. Jude, for $448,750, is for work on interneuron circuits in the spinal motor system. The grant to UTHSC, for $154,000, is for genetic research involving mice.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, watched President Biden's address to a joint session of Congress this evening and made the following statement:
MEMPHIS -- Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that Porter-Leath Inc. will receive a $110,456 emergency supplemental grant to operate its Head Start Programs in Shelby County from the Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the University of Memphis will receive two grants from the National Science Foundation totaling $918,830. The first grant, for $443,830, involves tectonic modeling and earthquake cycles. The second, for $475,000, supports research on "water catalyzed by molecular cobalt complexes."
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the Shelby County Board of Education will receive an emergency supplemental grant of $963,101 for Head Start from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, released this statement after a Minneapolis jury convicted former Officer Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd.
"The jury has spoken and justice has been served."
Congressman Cohen, the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, was a co-sponsor and voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which includes provisions for police accountability that he authored.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the University of Memphis will receive a grant of $349,813 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a project entitled "Ending the HIV Stigma Syndemic: Reframing Health Education for Southern Black Churches."
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
"I'm pleased that the University of Memphis is taking on the challenge of HIV stigma. This project may help open eyes and lead to better health and social outcomes."