Full Text of HR0053 98th General Assembly
HR0053 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Albert Einstein is | 3 | | well-known for his contributions to the various fields of | 4 | | science; a much-less known aspect of his life was his deep | 5 | | aversion to racism and the manner in which African Americans | 6 | | were treated in the United States and his friendship with Paul | 7 | | Robeson, a famous African-American athlete, singer, actor, and | 8 | | advocate for the civil rights of people around the world; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, Paul Robeson was born on April 9, 1898, in | 10 | | Princeton, New Jersey, the youngest of 5 children born to a | 11 | | runaway slave; the Robeson family knew both hardship and the | 12 | | determination to rise above it; in 1915, he received a 4-year | 13 | | academic scholarship to Rutgers and despite racism and violence | 14 | | from teammates, won 15 varsity letters in sports (baseball, | 15 | | basketball, track) and was twice named to the All-American | 16 | | Football Team; he received the Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior | 17 | | year, belonged to the Cap & Skull Honor Society, and graduated | 18 | | as Valedictorian; he attended Columbia Law School from | 19 | | 1919-1923, where he met and married Eslanda Cordoza Goode; he | 20 | | took a job with a law firm, but left when a white secretary | 21 | | refused to take dictation from him; he left the practice of law | 22 | | to use his artistic talents in theater and music to promote | 23 | | African and African-American history and culture;
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Albert Einstein was sensitized to racism by the | 2 | | years of Nazi-inspired threats and harassment he suffered while | 3 | | in Germany; after coming to the U.S., although grateful to find | 4 | | a safe place, he did not refrain from criticizing the ethical | 5 | | shortcomings of his new home concerning the treatment of | 6 | | African Americans; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, While in London, Raul Robeson earned | 8 | | international acclaim for his roles and won the Donaldson Award | 9 | | for Best Acting Performance in 1944; his travels taught him | 10 | | that racism was not as virulent in Europe as in the U.S; at | 11 | | home, it was difficult to find restaurants that would serve | 12 | | him, theaters in New York would only seat blacks in the upper | 13 | | balconies, and his performances were often surrounded with | 14 | | threats or outright harassment; in London, his opening night | 15 | | performance of Emperor Jones brought the audience to its feet | 16 | | with cheers for twelve encores; he used his deep baritone voice | 17 | | to promote black spirituals, to share the cultures of other | 18 | | countries, and to benefit the labor and social movements of his | 19 | | time; he sang for peace and justice in 25 languages throughout | 20 | | the U.S., Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa; he became known | 21 | | as a citizen of the world, equally comfortable with the people | 22 | | of Moscow, Nairobi, and Harlem; and | 23 | | WHEREAS, Albert Einstein's response to the racism and | 24 | | segregation he found in the U.S. was to cultivate relationships |
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| 1 | | in Princeton, New Jersey's African-American community; he paid | 2 | | the college tuition of a young man from the community and | 3 | | invited the singer Marian Anderson to stay at his home when the | 4 | | singer was refused a room in town; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, During the 1940s, Paul Robeson continued to | 6 | | perform and to speak out against racism, in support of labor, | 7 | | and for peace; he was a champion of working people and | 8 | | organized labor; he spoke and performed at strike rallies, | 9 | | conferences, and labor festivals worldwide; in 1945, he headed | 10 | | an organization that challenged President Truman to support an | 11 | | anti-lynching law; in the late 1940s, when dissent was scarcely | 12 | | tolerated in the U.S., he openly questioned why African | 13 | | Americans should fight in the army of a government that | 14 | | tolerated racism; because of his outspokenness, he was accused | 15 | | by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of being a | 16 | | communist; he saw this as an attack on the democratic rights of | 17 | | everyone who worked for international friendship and for | 18 | | equality; the accusation nearly ended his career; eighty of his | 19 | | concerts were canceled, and in 1949, 2 interracial outdoor | 20 | | concerts in Peekskill, N.Y. were attacked by racist mobs while | 21 | | state police stood by; and | 22 | | WHEREAS, Albert Einstein began a 20-year friendship with | 23 | | Paul Robeson when he met the singer when he came to perform at | 24 | | Princeton's McCarter Theatre in 1935; the shared a concern |
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| 1 | | about the rise of fascism and worked together on the American | 2 | | Crusade to End Lynching, in response to an upsurge in racial | 3 | | murders as black soldiers returned home following World War II; | 4 | | and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, In 1950, the U.S. revoked Robeson's passport, | 6 | | leading to an 8-year battle to reacquire it and to travel | 7 | | again; during those years, he studied Chinese, met with Albert | 8 | | Einstein to discuss the prospects for world peace, published | 9 | | his autobiography, 'Here I Stand', and sang at Carnegie Hall; | 10 | | and | 11 | | WHEREAS, State law mandates that all elementary and | 12 | | secondary schools incorporate black history into their | 13 | | curriculum and a renewed focus should be put on this | 14 | | little-known aspect of Albert Einstein's life; therefore, be it
| 15 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 16 | | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 17 | | we commemorate the friendship and partnership formed by Paul | 18 | | Robeson and Albert Einstein around the issue of Civil Rights | 19 | | and for it to be an example that we are more alike than we are | 20 | | different and should be used as an example of how we can work | 21 | | together to improve the lives of all citizens in Illinois; and | 22 | | be it further
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be made | 2 | | available to all elementary and secondary schools in the State | 3 | | of Illinois.
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