HR0011 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0011 LRB094 06077 CSA 36138 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Danny Glover, a native of San Francisco, was born on July 22, 1947, and attended San Francisco State University receiving his dramatic training at the American Conservatory Theatre's Black Actors' Workshop; and

WHEREAS, He is an internationally known, award-winning actor, producer, and director, best known for his many works in film, theater, and television, including the "Lethal Weapon" series, "Places in the Heart", and "The Color Purple"; he also directed the cable television movie "Buffalo Soldiers", directed and starred in "Mandela", and produced and acted in the award-winning "To Sleep with Anger"; and

WHEREAS, He is set apart from many of his peers by a remarkable lifetime of accomplishment as an advocate for social causes, ranging from literacy for troubled youth to international justice, utilizing both his celebrity and passion for human rights to impact both social and political change; and

WHEREAS, Danny Glover, a self-described child of the Civil Rights Movement, was raised by active Union organizers who shaped his consciousness with discussion of empowerment, and spent his teens and twenties in the crucible of activism that was San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury, and Oakland in the late 1960s and 1970s; and

WHEREAS, While a student at San Francisco State University, he joined the Black Student's Union, worked in the Black Panther's free-breakfast-for-children program, embraced the anti-Vietnam War movement and global liberation struggles in Africa, and became inspired to include the performing arts in his activities; and

WHEREAS, While pursuing a career in government service and acting on the side, he became greatly inspired by the work of South African playwright, Athol Fugard, after which he moved to New York to pursue a stage career, making his successful off-Broadway debut in "Master Harold and the Boys"; and

WHEREAS, As a recipient of multiple NAACP Image Awards and the Amnesty International USA Lifetime Achievement Award, Danny Glover has continued to dedicate time and energy to social activism; he serves as Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nation's Development Program, as Board Chairman of the TransAfrica Forum, which played a crucial role in promoting sanctions to protest Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, and today lobbies on behalf of African and Caribbean countries addressing the problems of HIV/AIDS, debt relief, and reparations; and

WHEREAS, He has most recently traveled to Venezuela to study the successful social programs of Hugo Chavez, to address the near half million protestors of the Republican National Convention in New York, and was arrested in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington D.C. for protesting the genocide in Darfur; and

WHEREAS, Danny Glover has proven his tireless commitment to human rights and epitomizes the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., standing as an example to young and old alike who believe that equity and equality are still beyond the grasp of too many in our world; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize and honor Danny Glover for his contributions to society, thank him for his efforts on behalf of the persecuted, forgotten, and oppressed and wish him many more years of health and success in his role as a leader among men.