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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, Millions of enslaved Africans were denied the | ||||||
| 3 | right of citizenship and the natural
protections of government | ||||||
| 4 | during their time of servitude in North America; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, The 15th Amendment of the United States | ||||||
| 6 | Constitution declared that the "right of
citizens of the United | ||||||
| 7 | States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United | ||||||
| 8 | States or by
any state on account of race, color, or previous | ||||||
| 9 | condition of servitude"; and | ||||||
| 10 | WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, "Give us the | ||||||
| 11 | ballot", in an address given in
Washington, D.C. on May 17, | ||||||
| 12 | 1957 on the third anniversary of the Brown v. Board of | ||||||
| 13 | Education decision; and | ||||||
| 14 | WHEREAS, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference | ||||||
| 15 | (SCLC) launched the "Crusade for
Citizenship" campaign in 1957 | ||||||
| 16 | to begin registering disenfranchised voters throughout the
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| 17 | South; and | ||||||
| 18 | WHEREAS, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee | ||||||
| 19 | (SNCC) began voter registration
and education campaigns | ||||||
| 20 | throughout the South in 1961; and | ||||||
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| 1 | WHEREAS, The bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in | ||||||
| 2 | Birmingham, Alabama on
September 15, 1963 prompted the "Program | ||||||
| 3 | for Action
in Alabama" to secure the right to vote; and | ||||||
| 4 | WHEREAS, More than 300 Dallas County residents stood in | ||||||
| 5 | line at the Dallas County
courthouse in an attempt to register | ||||||
| 6 | to vote on Freedom Day on October 7, 1963; and | ||||||
| 7 | WHEREAS, In 1964, only 2% (335 people) of 15,115 eligible | ||||||
| 8 | black voters in Selma, Alabama
were registered to vote; and | ||||||
| 9 | WHEREAS, Members of the "Courageous Eight" invited Dr. King | ||||||
| 10 | to come to Selma in December of 1964; and | ||||||
| 11 | WHEREAS, 600 marchers assembled at Brown Chapel in Selma to | ||||||
| 12 | embark on a 54-mile walk to
Montgomery, Alabama on Sunday, | ||||||
| 13 | March 7, 1965; and | ||||||
| 14 | WHEREAS, Dr. King made a call to clergy and all citizens of | ||||||
| 15 | goodwill to join the
people of Selma to continue the march to | ||||||
| 16 | Montgomery; and | ||||||
| 17 | WHEREAS, Marchers assembled from around the country at the | ||||||
| 18 | request of Dr. King and knelt and
prayed at the bridge on | ||||||
| 19 | Turnaround Tuesday on March 9, 1965; and | ||||||
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| 1 | WHEREAS, Tuskegee University students, SNCC members, and | ||||||
| 2 | other students who came to
help the people of Selma initiated | ||||||
| 3 | demonstrations in Montgomery in support of the right of
the | ||||||
| 4 | people to march; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, President Lyndon Baines Johnson declared "We | ||||||
| 6 | Shall Overcome" in an address to a
joint session of Congress on | ||||||
| 7 | March 15, 1965 as he announced his plan to introduce
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| 8 | legislation to secure the right to vote for all Americans; and
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| 9 | WHEREAS, A great multitude of marchers departed Selma for | ||||||
| 10 | Montgomery on Sunday, March
21, 1965 under federal troop | ||||||
| 11 | protection; and
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| 12 | WHEREAS, Dr. King gave his "How long? Not long" address to | ||||||
| 13 | over 25,000 people
assembled at the United States Capitol; and
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| 14 | WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act was introduced by President | ||||||
| 15 | Lyndon Baines Johnson and
signed into law on August 6, 1965; | ||||||
| 16 | therefore, be it
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| 17 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 18 | NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 19 | commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Selma voting rights | ||||||
| 20 | movement and recognize the continuing struggle to ensure the | ||||||
| 21 | voting rights of all Americans.
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