Full Text of HR0615 101st General Assembly
HR0615 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 | | Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of former | 4 | | U.S. Representative John James Conyers Jr.; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Conyers was born in Highland Park, Michigan | 6 | | on May 16, 1929 and grew up in Detroit; he attended Wayne State | 7 | | University, where he received both his undergraduate and law | 8 | | degrees; he served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War as | 9 | | part of a unit of African-American combat engineers; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Conyers became a civil rights activist and | 11 | | took part in the voting rights efforts in Selma, Alabama in | 12 | | 1963; he also served as an aide to U.S. Rep. John Dingell; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Conyers made his first run for Congress after | 14 | | Michigan's congressional districts had been redrawn after a | 15 | | 1962 Supreme Court decision that made it unconstitutional to | 16 | | draw districts in a way that under-represents minority voters; | 17 | | one of his early supporters in his 1964 campaign was Rosa | 18 | | Parks; he hired her after the election, and she remained on his | 19 | | staff until she retired in 1988; and | 20 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Conyers was consistently a progressive | 21 | | voice; he supported such liberal causes as gun control, |
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| 1 | | anti-poverty programs, and universal health care; he held | 2 | | hearings to spotlight police misconduct and also supported | 3 | | legislation urging a study of the possibility of offering | 4 | | reparations to the descendants of slaves; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, Just days after the 1968 assassination of the Rev. | 6 | | Martin Luther King Jr., Rep. Conyers introduced a resolution | 7 | | calling for a national holiday in his name, which took 15 years | 8 | | to come to fruition; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Conyers retired on December 5, 2017; his | 10 | | service in Congress spanned 10 presidencies and 52 years; he | 11 | | was in the U.S. House of Representatives for over one-fifth of | 12 | | the entire existence of the U.S. Congress; in 1964, he went to | 13 | | Jim Crow Mississippi during Freedom Summer and offered legal | 14 | | representation to black voting-rights activists, and one year | 15 | | later, he was in Congress supporting the Voting Rights Act as a | 16 | | member of the U.S. House of Representatives; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Conyers was the only congressman ever | 18 | | endorsed by Martin Luther King Jr.; therefore, be it
| 19 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 20 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 21 | | we mourn the passing of former U.S. Representative John Conyers | 22 | | and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and |
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| 1 | | all who knew and loved him; and be it further
| 2 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 3 | | presented to the family of Rep. Conyers as an expression of our | 4 | | deepest sympathy.
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