Full Text of HR0161 99th General Assembly
HR0161 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 8 | | legislation to secure the right to vote for all Americans; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, A great multitude of marchers departed Selma for | 10 | | Montgomery on Sunday, March
21, 1965 under federal troop | 11 | | protection; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Dr. King gave his "How long? Not long" address to | 13 | | over 25,000 people
assembled at the United States Capitol; and
| 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
| 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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