Honoring Mamie Oliver

Today, I join with the Idaho Black History Museum in honoring a special Idahoan--Dr. Mamie Oliver--for her outstanding record of achievement and efforts on behalf of Idaho's communities. A historian, professor, and community leader, Dr. Oliver truly embodies what Black History Month is all about.

When Mamie Oliver accepted a position at Boise State University in 1972, she became Idaho's first African-American professor. At Boise State, Dr. Oliver and her students completed foundational research on African-American history in Idaho, launching the early development of what was previously untold history .

Dr. Oliver was influential in getting the St. Paul Baptist Church building on the Historical Register. The church, established in 1909, was one of two African-American churches in Idaho and is now the home of the Idaho Black History Museum. Together with her husband and fellow community leader, Dr. H. Lincoln Oliver, Ph.D., B.D., she sought to meet the needs of the less fortunate in the community by founding the Treasure Valley Council for Church and Social Action 25 years ago.

For her remarkable service, Dr. Oliver was recognized as a Distinguished Citizen by the Idaho Statesman and as one of the ten Outstanding Women in Idaho by the Boise March of Dimes. Dr. Oliver was selected for the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities by the American Institute for Public Services and received the 2004 Women of Today and Tomorrow Award from the Girl Scouts of Silver Sage Council (Boise).

Dr. Oliver was appointed by Governor Evans to chair the first Martin Luther King, Jr., Task Force and by Governor Kempthorne to serve two terms on the Governor's Coordinating Council for Families and Children.

Dr. Oliver and her late husband, Dr. Lincoln Oliver, have two adult children and two grandchildren. Currently, she teaches at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, ID.

We in Idaho are proud to have individuals such as Dr. Mamie Oliver in our community. It is through the dedication of people like Dr. Oliver that we realize as a Nation our strengths and are empowered by what is integrally part of our American history and brought to the forefront this February--Black History Month .

Our Nation has made great strides in putting civil and human rights challenges behind us. But we must be ever vigilant in pursuing the fundamental principles of equality and justice and in continuing the legacy that so many individuals have worked so hard to achieve. In Congress, one of our most important duties is to protect these core personal freedoms that we as American citizens enjoy.

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