Floor SpeechCeremonial2026-06-22

HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. BENJAMIN A. HOLDEN

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On 2026-06-22, Representative Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA-2) delivered a floor speech titled "HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. BENJAMIN A. HOLDEN" in the House.

Full Text

HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. BENJAMIN A. HOLDEN

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 104 (Monday, June 22, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 104 (Monday, June 22, 2026)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E593] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. BENJAMIN A. HOLDEN ______ HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR. of georgia in the house of representatives Monday, June 22, 2026 Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, and on behalf of a grieving community, to honor a man whose life enriched my district, my state, and indeed this entire Nation--Mr. Benjamin A. Holden--who departed this life on June 10, 2026. at the age of sixtythree. On Saturday, June 20th. his beloved famijy, his Columbus community, and friends from across this country gathered at the Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia, to celebrate his remarkable life and lay him to rest. Mr. Speaker, Ben Holden believed, with his whole heart, in the power of two things--stories, and people. And across sixty-three years, he gave his life to both. His own story began far from Georgia, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was born on June 3, 1963, to Lorine and Percy Holden. He found his calling early. At just seventeen years old, he was already a cub reporter in the sports department of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, covering high school athletics--and his gift was so evident that it earned him a scholarship from the Pulitzer family to attend the University of Missouri. It was there, in 1983, that he became a proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, joining the ranks of the Divine Nine that so many of us hold dear. He went on to the University of California at Berkeley, earning both his law degree and his M.B.A., and meeting the love of his life, Melanie. And then Ben Holden became one of the finest journalists of his generation. As a Los Angeles-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he chronicled the most consequential stories of his time--the painful aftermath of the Rodney King trial, the O.J. Simpson case that gripped the entire nation, and more. His front-page Journal piece dissecting the staggering economics of the Simpson spectacle--which he wittily titled ``O.J. G.D.P.''--earned him a national journalism award. He was a truth-teller, Mr. Speaker, and he told the truth with style. But Ben understood that journalism is more than a profession--it is a pillar of freedom itself. A licensed attorney in both California and Georgia, he gave himself to the cause of a free press and an accountable judiciary. As director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for the Courts and Media, he carried the First Amendment far beyond our borders. On behalf of our own State Department and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, he traveled to Kosovo--a young nation still struggling to trust its own institutions-- and there he trained its judges, its prosecutors, and its journalists in the principles of liberty, because he believed a free press and an honest court were essential to that fragile republic's democratic future. And right here at home, from 2004 to 2010, he led the newsroom of our own Columbus Ledger-Enquirer through one of the most turbulent eras journalism has ever known. He gave the next generation his wisdom, too, on the faculties of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University's storied Medill School of Journalism, where he taught young people that the press is the only profession the Constitution itself protects by name. And he fought for his students as if they were his own children. But Mr. Speaker, of all the chapters in Ben Holden's remarkable story, the one he loved the most was written right here in Columbus, Georgia. Nelson Mandela taught the world that ``education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world''--and Ben Holden took up that weapon on behalf of children too often overlooked. In 2009, he founded a nonprofit he called Columbus Scholars. He carried a simple and stubborn conviction--that the only thing standing between a bright child who makes it and a bright child who does not is somebody willing to support them. And he did not merely say it. He spent more than forty years of his life proving it. Partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Chattahoochee Valley, Columbus Scholars pairs economically disadvantaged young people with mentors and with scholarships--and in just seventeen years, it has raised more than one million dollars and lifted more than one hundred students toward a future they could not have reached on their own. Think of that, Mr. Speaker. A man who had reported on the most powerful people in America, a man who had trained judges across an ocean, found his deepest joy in a Columbus child with ability and empty pockets--and in becoming the very support that child needed. He helped those young people write brand-new stories for their lives. And there is one last story I must share. The celebrated poet and author Maya Angelou once wrote that ``there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.'' Mr. Speaker, Benjamin Holden refused to carry his story to the grave. In his final days, he completed the draft of a novel he called Spirit of St. Louis--the tale of two first generation Black men coming of age in America, navigating race and class and the long odds of making it as an outsider. In so many ways, it was his own story. He did not live to see it published. But his family has vowed to finish what he began and bring his words into the world--and so this storyteller, who gave his life to telling the stories of others, will at last have his own story told. For that is who Ben Holden was. A devoted husband to Melanie, his wife of thirty-one years. A loving father to his daughter, Joy. A brother, an uncle, and the very heart of a family that gathered for reunions they lovingly called ``Fling Dings.'' He was a man who never missed a birthday, a wedding, or a ballgame--a faithful Atlanta Hawks seasonticket holder who lived and died by his Missouri Tigers and his Northwestern Wildcats. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life and legacy of Benjamin A. Holden. We give thanks for a life lived with conviction, with generosity, and with an unshakable faith in the power of stories and of people to make this world better. On behalf of Georgia's Second Congressional District, I extend my deepest sympathy to his wife, Melanie; to his daughter, Joy; to his entire family; and to the countless students and colleagues whose lives he forever changed. Their loss is immeasurable. But the truth he defended, the students he lifted, and the love he gave will go on speaking long after his pen has been laid down. Well done to Ben, and I wish him eternal rest. We will help tell the rest of his story. ____________________

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HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. BENJAMIN A. HOLDEN Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 104 (Monday, June 22, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 104 (Monday, June 22, 2026)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E593] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. BENJAMIN A. HOLDEN ______ HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR. of georgia in the house of representatives Monday, June 22, 2026 Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, and on behalf of a grieving community, to honor a man whose life enriched my district, my state, and indeed this entire Nation--Mr. Benjamin A. Holden--who departed this life on June 10, 2026. at the age of sixtythree. On Saturday, June 20th. his beloved famijy, his Columbus community, and friends from across this country gathered at the Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia, to celebrate his remarkable life and lay him to rest. Mr. Speaker, Ben Holden believed, with his whole heart, in the power of two things--stories, and people. And across sixty-three years, he gave his life to both. His own story began far from Georgia, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was born on June 3, 1963, to Lorine and Percy Holden. He found his calling early. At just seventeen years old, he was already a cub reporter in the sports department of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, covering high school athletics--and his gift was so evident that it earned him a scholarship from the Pulitzer family to attend the University of Missouri. It was there, in 1983, that he became a proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, joining the ranks of the Divine Nine that so many of us hold dear. He went on to the University of California at Berkeley, earning both his law degree and his M.B.A., and meeting the love of his life, Melanie. And then Ben Holden became one of the finest journalists of his generation. As a Los Angeles-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he chronicled the most consequential stories of his time--the painful aftermath of the Rodney King trial, the O.J. Simpson case that gripped the entire nation, and more. His front-page Journal piece dissecting the staggering economics of the Simpson spectacle--which he wittily titled ``O.J. G.D.P.''--earned him a national journalism award. He was a truth-teller, Mr. Speaker, and he told the truth with style. But Ben understood that journalism is more than a profession--it is a pillar of freedom itself. A licensed attorney in both California and Georgia, he gave himself to the cause of a free press and an accountable judiciary. As director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for the Courts and Media, he carried the First Amendment far beyond our borders. On behalf of our own State Department and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, he traveled to Kosovo--a young nation still struggling to trust its own institutions-- and there he trained its judges, its prosecutors, and its journalists in the principles of liberty, because he believed a free press and an honest court were essential to that fragile republic's democratic future. And right here at home, from 2004 to 2010, he led the newsroom of our own Columbus Ledger-Enquirer through one of the most turbulent eras journalism has ever known. He gave the next generation his wisdom, too, on the faculties of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University's storied Medill School of Journalism, where he taught young people that the press is the only profession the Constitution itself protects by name. And he fought for his students as if they were his own children. But Mr. Speaker, of all the chapters in Ben Holden's remarkable story, the one he loved the most was written right here in Columbus, Georgia. Nelson Mandela taught the world that ``education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world''--and Ben Holden took up that weapon on behalf of children too often overlooked. In 2009, he founded a nonprofit he called Columbus Scholars. He carried a simple and stubborn conviction--that the only thing standing between a bright child who makes it and a bright child who does not is somebody willing to support them. And he did not merely say it. He spent more than forty years of his life proving it. Partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Chattahoochee Valley, Columbus Scholars pairs economically disadvantaged young people with mentors and with scholarships--and in just seventeen years, it has raised more than one million dollars and lifted more than one hundred students toward a future they could not have reached on their own. Think of that, Mr. Speaker. A man who had reported on the most powerful people in America, a man who had trained judges across an ocean, found his deepest joy in a Columbus child with ability and empty pockets--and in becoming the very support that child needed. He helped those young people write brand-new stories for their lives. And there is one last story I must share. The celebrated poet and author Maya Angelou once wrote that ``there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.'' Mr. Speaker, Benjamin Holden refused to carry his story to the grave. In his final days, he completed the draft of a novel he called Spirit of St. Louis--the tale of two first generation Black men coming of age in America, navigating race and class and the long odds of making it as an outsider. In so many ways, it was his own story. He did not live to see it published. But his family has vowed to finish what he began and bring his words into the world--and so this storyteller, who gave his life to telling the stories of others, will at last have his own story told. For that is who Ben Holden was. A devoted husband to Melanie, his wife of thirty-one years. A loving father to his daughter, Joy. A brother, an uncle, and the very heart of a family that gathered for reunions they lovingly called ``Fling Dings.'' He was a man who never missed a birthday, a wedding, or a ballgame--a faithful Atlanta Hawks seasonticket holder who lived and died by his Missouri Tigers and his Northwestern Wildcats. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life and legacy of Benjamin A. Holden. We give thanks for a life lived with conviction, with generosity, and with an unshakable faith in the power of stories and of people to make this world better. On behalf of Georgia's Second Congressional District, I extend my deepest sympathy to his wife, Melanie; to his daughter, Joy; to his entire family; and to the countless students and colleagues whose lives he forever changed. Their loss is immeasurable. But the truth he defended, the students he lifted, and the love he gave will go on speaking long after his pen has been laid down. Well done to Ben, and I wish him eternal rest. We will help tell the rest of his story. ____________________