Full Text of HR1118 93rd General Assembly
HR1118 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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HR1118 |
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LRB093 22746 HSS 52465 r |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, In the 1960 presidential election campaign John F. | 3 |
| Kennedy argued for a new Civil Rights Act; after the election | 4 |
| it was discovered that over 70% of the African-American vote | 5 |
| went to President Kennedy, however, during the first two years | 6 |
| of his presidency, President Kennedy failed to put forward his | 7 |
| promised legislation; and
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| WHEREAS, The Civil Rights bill was brought before Congress | 9 |
| in 1963, and in a speech on television on June 11, 1963, | 10 |
| President Kennedy said "The Negro baby born in America today, | 11 |
| regardless of the section of the nation in which he is born, | 12 |
| has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as | 13 |
| a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third | 14 |
| as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance | 15 |
| of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of | 16 |
| becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of | 17 |
| earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is seven years | 18 |
| shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much."; and
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| WHEREAS, President Kennedy's Civil Rights bill was still | 20 |
| being debated by Congress when he was assassinated in November | 21 |
| of 1963; the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who had a | 22 |
| poor record on civil rights issues, took up the cause; and
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| WHEREAS, On February 10, 1964, the House of Representatives | 24 |
| passed the measure by a lopsided 290 to 130 vote, but everyone | 25 |
| knew that the real battle would be in the Senate, whose rules | 26 |
| had allowed southerners in the past to mount filibusters that | 27 |
| had effectively killed nearly all civil rights legislation; and | 28 |
| WHEREAS, President Johnson pulled every string he knew and | 29 |
| had the civil rights leaders mount a massive lobbying campaign, | 30 |
| including inundating the Capitol with religious leaders of all | 31 |
| faiths and colors; the strategy paid off, and in June the |
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HR1118 |
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LRB093 22746 HSS 52465 r |
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| Senate voted to close debate; a few weeks later, the U.S. | 2 |
| Senate passed the most important piece of civil rights | 3 |
| legislation in the nation's history by a total of 73 votes to | 4 |
| 27, and on July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed it into law; | 5 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, The 1964 Civil Rights Act made racial | 7 |
| discrimination in public places, such as theaters, | 8 |
| restaurants, and hotels, illegal; it also required employers to | 9 |
| provide equal employment opportunities; projects involving | 10 |
| federal funds could now be cut off if there was evidence of | 11 |
| discrimination based on color, race, or national origin; and
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| WHEREAS, The Civil Rights Act also attempted to deal with | 13 |
| the problem of African Americans being denied the vote in the | 14 |
| Deep South; the legislation stated that uniform standards must | 15 |
| prevail for establishing the right to vote; schooling to sixth | 16 |
| grade constituted legal proof of literacy and the Attorney | 17 |
| General was given power to initiate legal action in any area | 18 |
| where he found a pattern of resistance to the law; therefore, | 19 |
| be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 21 |
| NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 22 |
| remember and commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the | 23 |
| nation's most important civil rights legislation, The Civil | 24 |
| Rights Act of 1964.
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