Full Text of HR0779 98th General Assembly
HR0779 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Income inequality has risen significantly since | 3 | | the early 1970s, after several decades of stability; while it | 4 | | has risen among most developed countries, it is highest in the | 5 | | United States; income inequality continues to hurt the growth | 6 | | of both the State and country; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign was a 1968 effort to | 8 | | gain economic justice for poor people in the United States; it | 9 | | was organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern | 10 | | Christian Leadership Conference and carried out in the wake of | 11 | | Dr. King's assassination; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign demanded economic and | 13 | | human rights for poor Americans of a diverse background; | 14 | | organizers presented a set of demands to the United States | 15 | | Congress and executive agencies; participants set up a | 16 | | 3000-person tent city on the Washington Mall, "Resurrection | 17 | | City", where they stayed for 6 weeks; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign was motivated by a | 19 | | desire for economic justice - the idea that all people should | 20 | | have what they need to live; the campaign would help the poor | 21 | | by dramatizing their needs and united all races under the | 22 | | commonality of hardship and presenting a plan to start a |
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| 1 | | solution; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, In addition to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the | 3 | | Poor People's Campaign included such leaders as Rev. James | 4 | | Bevel, Stanley Levison, Ralph Abernathy, Bernard Lafayette, | 5 | | Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, Reies Tijerina, Stoney Cooks, Hosea | 6 | | Williams, Rev. Fred C. Benette, Andrew Young, Walter Fauntroy, | 7 | | and Rev. Jesse Jackson, "Mayor" of Resurrection City; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign was designed to put the | 9 | | plight of America's poor into stark images that those in power | 10 | | in the United States could witness; therefore, be it
| 11 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 12 | | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 13 | | we recognize the Poor People's Campaign of 1968 and continue to | 14 | | work towards the original goal of the campaign - to gain | 15 | | economic justice for poor.
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