State of Illinois
92nd General Assembly
Legislation

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92_HR0630

 
                                               LRB9215473BHcs

 1                          HOUSE RESOLUTION

 2        WHEREAS, Native  Chicagoan  Robert  Townsend,  actor  and
 3    director,  stepped  forward  to take part in the making of an
 4    historically important, factually-based film by the  ShowTime
 5    Network  that  acknowledges  on  a national level the African
 6    American contributions to the  success  of  the  historically
 7    significant  Pullman  story and most importantly to America's
 8    Labor History; and

 9        WHEREAS, Robert Townsend directed the film  10,000  Black
10    Men  Named George, the factually-based historically important
11    film based on the life of labor organizer  and  civil  rights
12    leader  Asa  Philip  Randolph, who faced racism and political
13    corruption in a 12-year battle to unionize railway porters in
14    the  1920s  and  '30s;  the  porters  worked   in   demeaning
15    conditions  for  shameful  wages  while  the powerful Pullman
16    Company waged a campaign of fear fuelled by the spreading  of
17    lies  and  destructive  innuendo  to  the  public against Mr.
18    Randolph and the porters; and

19        WHEREAS,  Through  that  struggle,  the   first   African
20    American labor union was chartered in the United States under
21    the  American  Federation  of  Labor  as  the  Brotherhood of
22    Sleeping Car Porters; and

23        WHEREAS, Many of those men and  women  were  Illinoisans;
24    and

25        WHEREAS, The telling of this story will help to introduce
26    this  important  overlooked  piece  of history as well as the
27    existence of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, an
28    Illinois institution named in their honor for new generations
29    for years to come; therefore, be it

30        RESOLVED,  BY  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES   OF   THE
31    NINETY-SECOND  GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS that
 
                            -2-                LRB9215473BHcs
 1    we congratulate Robert Townsend for his excellence in  acting
 2    and  the direction of the film 10,000 Black Men Named George;
 3    and be it further

 4        RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be sent
 5    to Robert Townsend with our most sincere gratitude.

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