{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgE25", "1994-12-20", 103, 2, null, null, "A SPECIAL SALUTE TO DR. SELMA BURKE", "HOUSE", "EXTENSIONS", "FRONTMATTER", "E", "E", "[{\"name\": \"Louis Stokes\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "140 Cong. Rec. E", "Congressional Record, Volume 140 Issue 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994)]\n[Extensions of Remarks]\n[Page E]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n[Congressional Record: December 20, 1994]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]\n\n                  A SPECIAL SALUTE TO DR. SELMA BURKE\n\n                                 ______\n\n                           HON. LOUIS STOKES\n\n                                of ohio\n\n                    in the house of representatives\n\n                       Tuesday, December 20, 1994\n\n  Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, there are many African-Americans and other\npeople of color who have made significant contributions to the\ndevelopment of this Nation. Today I come to share with my colleagues a\nspecial article which appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper\nabout one such individual. The article explores the life of Dr. Selma\nBurke, a remarkably gifted African-American sculptor whose outstanding\nartwork has been featured at the Malcolm Brown Gallery in the 11th\nCongressional District.\n  Dr. Burke, now 93 years of age, was first noted for her mastery of\nart during the Harlem Renaissance period of the 1920's and 1930's. Her\ninvolvement in the field of art spans more than 5 decades. In fact, Dr.\nBurke remains one of the oldest African-American artists still actively\ninvolved in the visual arts. She is the founder of the Selma Burke\nSchool of Sculpture in New York City and the Selma Burke Art Center in\nPittsburgh.\n  Despite the success Dr. Burke has enjoyed in the field of art,\nhowever, the recognition for one of her most famed works eluded her for\nmany years. In 1943, Dr. Burke won the District of Columbia Fine Arts\nCommission competition for her bronze plaque of President Roosevelt.\nToday, this plaque hangs in the Recorder of Deeds Office here in\nWashington, DC, and according to scholars, is the basis for the image\nof President Franklin D. Roosevelt which appears on the United States\ndime.\n  Mr. Speaker, I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Burke\nduring a special exhibition in Shaker Heights, OH. On Sunday, December\n11, 1994, she was the guest of Ernestine and Malcolm Brown, two of\nCleveland's outstanding individuals who are also the owners of the\nMalcolm Brown Gallery. To mark the occasion, I was proud to present Dr.\nBurke with a Congressional Proclamation in honor of her significant\naccomplishments. During her visit to Cleveland, this gifted artist\nspoke and told a fascinating story of how she began her career. Dr.\nBurke is an articulate and engaging speaker who held our attention to\nevery word she spoke. Her appearance in Cleveland and other places was\nhighlighted on the CBS Morning News. Thus, the Nation is now aware of\nthe work of this great woman who says, ``I was born to be a sculptor.''\n  Mr. Speaker, I believe that Dr. Selma Burke deserves special\nrecognition for her continued efforts to foster a greater appreciation\nfor the arts. I am pleased to share with my colleagues the Plain Dealer\narticle which traces the phenomenal history of this great African-\nAmerican.\n\n                Sculptor, 93, Carving Artworks, Opinions\n\n                            (By Steven Litt)\n\n       Selma Burke, 93, has earned more honors in her long career\n     than many other 20th-century American artists. She first\n     garnered attention as a sculptor in the Harlem Renaissance,\n     the burst of art, music and literature by blacks in New York\n     during the 1920s and '30s. She later studied in Europe,\n     founded an art school in New York and an art center in\n     Pittsburgh, and was awarded nearly a dozen honorary degrees.\n       But one thing eludes her. It is credit for the portrait of\n     Franklin D. Roosevelt that appears on the dime, which was\n     issued by the U.S. Mint in 1946.\n       The dime bears the tiny initials ``JS,'' which stand for\n     John Sinnock, the former mint chief engraver who, according\n     to Burke, copied a bronze portrait plaque of Roosevelt\n     created by Burke in 1944 for the Recorder of Deeds Office in\n     Washington, D.C.\n       ``I'm so mad at that man,'' she says of Sinnock.\n       Officials at the mint say their records show Sinnock\n     deserves full credit for the Roosevelt dime. But Burke isn't\n     convinced. She says that because she is black, she will never\n     get the recognition she feels she deserves.\n       ``This has happened to so many black people,'' she says.\n     ``I have never stopped fighting this man and have never had\n     anyone who cared enough to give me the credit.''\n       It is a warm Friday afternoon in June, and Burke is musing\n     over her career while visiting the Malcolm Brown Gallery in\n     Shaker Heights, where a solo show of her work is on view\n     through July 31. The artists sits in a carved wooden chair in\n     the corner of the gallery, gazing at 15 stone and bronze\n     sculptures as if they were children she loves despite their\n     flaws.\n       ``There are things you wished you had done differently, and\n     things you're glad you did,'' she says, wistfully.\n       The 15 works on view include a plaster portrait bust of\n     Duke Ellington, a wood carving of a falling angel clutching a\n     snake to her chest, and a semi-abstract brass sculpture of a\n     nude female torso with liquid contours and highlights. The\n     work blends African-American subjects with a style rooted in\n     the academic realism of the Works Progress Administration\n     (WPA) Art Project, in which Burke took part. The FDR plaque\n     is not part of the show.\n       As she speaks about her career, Burke oscillates between\n     grandmotherly warmth and righteous anger. But the artist is\n     not consumed in bitterness.\n       She speaks rapturously about how she still works three\n     hours a day in her studio in Solebury Township, Pa., and\n     occasionally teaches classes of young schoolchildren in the\n     area.\n       ``Oh, I love it!'' she says, ``I love carving wood and\n     stone.'' And she talks about how she finds peace attending a\n     local Quaker meeting because ``I like the silence.''\n       Burke was born on Dec. 31, 1900, in Mooresville, N.C.\n     Despite an early interest in art, she followed her parents'\n     urgings that she became a nurse.\n       It was in New York in the mid-1920s that the wealthy\n     heiress who employed Burke as a nurse encouraged her to take\n     lessons at the Art Student's League. Burke also worked as a\n     model for sculptor Paul Manship and photographers Edward\n     Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz.\n       In 1935, she met the Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay,\n     whom she later married. On the eve of World II, Burke earned\n     fellowships that allowed her to travel in Europe, where she\n     studied with Henri Matisse and Aristide Maillol.\n       In 1943, while working as a truck driver for the U.S. Navy\n     in a New York navy yard, Burke entered a competition to\n     sculpt a profile of Roosevelt for the Recorder of Deeds\n     office in Washington, DC. Burke tried for months to work from\n     photographs, but failed to find a precise profile of the\n     president. Finally, she wrote the president and requested a\n     visit.\n       To her surprise, Roosevelt agreed. During a 45-minute\n     sketching session in the White House on Feb. 22, 1944, the\n     loquacious commander in chief peppered the sculptor with so\n     many questions she couldn't concentrate. Finally, she grabbed\n     Roosevelt's head in both hands and said: ``Mr. President,\n     could you hold your head like this?'' Roosevelt stood still,\n     which allowed Burke to sketch his profile on a sheet of brown\n     supermarket paper. To her surprise, the president invited her\n     back the next day for a second session.\n       A year later, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the artist's New\n     York studio to view the finished plaque, and told Burke, ``I\n     think you've made Franklin too young.''\n       But the artist said: ``I didn't make it for today, I made\n     it for tomorrow and tomorrow. There's something of a Roman\n     gladiator in there, a strong ruler in a time of war.''\n       Burke and some scholars believe that Sinnock used her\n     sketches and plaques to design the profile of Roosevelt that\n     appears on the dime.\n       But Brenda Gatling, public information officer for the\n     mint, says ``both Ms. Burke and Sinnock did live sittings\n     with the president. Historical records do not bear out Ms.\n     Burke's statements that he copied her design. Those who could\n     have provided eyewitness accounts have long passed on.''\n       But Burke isn't discouraged. ``Everybody knows I did it,''\n     she says.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgE25"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.030904008075595, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}