Bill Text: IL HR0110 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Congratulates the members of the NAACP on the occasion of the organization's 100th anniversary.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-0)
Status: (Passed) 2009-02-24 - Resolution Adopted [HR0110 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2009-HR0110-Introduced.html
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1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
3 | Representatives are pleased to congratulate the members of the | ||||||
4 | NAACP on the occasion of the organization's 100th anniversary | ||||||
5 | on February 12, 2009; and
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6 | WHEREAS, The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, partly | ||||||
7 | in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and | ||||||
8 | the 1908 race riots in Springfield; appalled at the violence | ||||||
9 | that was committed against blacks, a group of white liberals | ||||||
10 | that included Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, | ||||||
11 | William English Walling, and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call | ||||||
12 | for a meeting to discuss racial justice; some 60 people, seven | ||||||
13 | of whom were African American, signed the call, which was | ||||||
14 | released on the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth; the | ||||||
15 | group's stated goal was to secure for all people the rights | ||||||
16 | guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United | ||||||
17 | States Constitution; and
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18 | WHEREAS, In 1910, the NAACP established its national office | ||||||
19 | in New York City and named a board of directors as well as a | ||||||
20 | president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer and | ||||||
21 | former president of the American Bar Association; the only | ||||||
22 | African American among the organization's executives, W.E.B. | ||||||
23 | Du Bois, was made director of publications and research and, in |
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1 | 1910, established the official journal of the NAACP, The | ||||||
2 | Crisis; The Crisis, one of the oldest black periodicals in | ||||||
3 | America, is well known as the premier crusading voice for civil | ||||||
4 | rights; and
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5 | WHEREAS, By 1913, the NAACP had established branch offices | ||||||
6 | in such cities as Boston, Massachusetts, Kansas City, Missouri, | ||||||
7 | Washington, D.C., Detroit, Michigan, and St. Louis, Missouri; a | ||||||
8 | series of early court battles, including a victory against a | ||||||
9 | discriminatory Oklahoma law that regulated voting by means of a | ||||||
10 | grandfather clause (Guinn v. United States, 1910), helped | ||||||
11 | establish the NAACP's importance as a legal advocate; the | ||||||
12 | fledgling organization also learned to harness the power of | ||||||
13 | publicity through its 1915 battle against the inflammatory | ||||||
14 | "Birth of a Nation", a motion picture that perpetuated | ||||||
15 | demeaning stereotypes of African Americans and glorified the Ku | ||||||
16 | Klux Klan; and
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17 | WHEREAS, NAACP membership grew rapidly during the 1910s, | ||||||
18 | from around 9,000 in 1917 to around 90,000 in 1919, with more | ||||||
19 | than 300 local branches; writer and diplomat James Weldon | ||||||
20 | Johnson became the association's first black secretary in 1920, | ||||||
21 | and Louis T. Wright, a surgeon, was named the first black | ||||||
22 | chairman of its board of directors in 1934; and
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23 | WHEREAS, The NAACP waged a 30-year campaign against |
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1 | lynching, an issue among the association's top priorities; the | ||||||
2 | NAACP strongly supported the federal Dyer Bill, which would | ||||||
3 | have punished those who participated in or failed to prosecute | ||||||
4 | lynch mobs; although the bill would pass the U.S. House of | ||||||
5 | Representatives, the U.S. Senate never passed the bill or any | ||||||
6 | other anti-lynching legislation; most credit the resulting | ||||||
7 | public debate, which was fueled by the NAACP report "Thirty | ||||||
8 | Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1919", with | ||||||
9 | drastically decreasing the incidence of lynching; and
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10 | WHEREAS, In 1930, Walter F. White became the NAACP's new | ||||||
11 | secretary; Mr. White was instrumental not only in his research | ||||||
12 | on lynching but also in his successful block of segregationist | ||||||
13 | Judge John J. Parker's nomination by President Herbert Hoover | ||||||
14 | to the U.S. Supreme Court; Mr. White presided over the NAACP's | ||||||
15 | most productive period of legal advocacy; in 1930, the | ||||||
16 | association commissioned the Margold Report, which became the | ||||||
17 | basis for the successful reversal of the separate-but-equal | ||||||
18 | doctrine that had governed public facilities since 1896's | ||||||
19 | Plessy v. Ferguson; in 1935, Mr. White recruited Charles H. | ||||||
20 | Houston, the Howard University law school dean whose strategy | ||||||
21 | on school-segregation cases paved the way for his protege | ||||||
22 | Thurgood Marshall to prevail in 1954's Brown v. Board of | ||||||
23 | Education, as the NAACP chief counsel; and
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24 | WHEREAS, During the Great Depression, which was |
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1 | disproportionately disastrous for African Americans, the NAACP | ||||||
2 | began to focus on economic justice; after years of tension with | ||||||
3 | white labor unions, the association cooperated with the newly | ||||||
4 | formed Congress of Industrial Organizations in an effort to win | ||||||
5 | jobs for black Americans; throughout the 1940s, the NAACP saw | ||||||
6 | enormous growth in membership, recording roughly 600,000 | ||||||
7 | members by 1946; it continued to act as a legislative and legal | ||||||
8 | advocate, pushing for a federal anti-lynching law and for an | ||||||
9 | end to state-mandated segregation; and
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10 | WHEREAS, By the 1950s, the NAACP Legal Defense and | ||||||
11 | Educational Fund, headed by Mr. Marshall, secured the last of | ||||||
12 | these goals through Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which | ||||||
13 | outlawed segregation in public schools; the NAACP's | ||||||
14 | Washington, D.C. bureau, led by lobbyist Clarence M. Mitchell | ||||||
15 | Jr., helped advance not only integration of the armed forces in | ||||||
16 | 1948 but also passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, | ||||||
17 | and 1968, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the NAACP | ||||||
18 | also provided legal representation and aid to members of other | ||||||
19 | protest groups, including hundreds of Freedom Riders in the | ||||||
20 | 1960s who had traveled to Mississippi to register black voters | ||||||
21 | and challenge Jim Crow policies; and
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22 | WHEREAS, Led by Roy Wilkins, who succeeded Walter White as | ||||||
23 | secretary in 1955, the NAACP cooperated with organizers A. | ||||||
24 | Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin in planning the 1963 March on |
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1 | Washington; with the passage of major civil rights legislation | ||||||
2 | the following year, the Association accomplished what seemed an | ||||||
3 | insurmountable task and, in the following years, began to | ||||||
4 | diversify its goals; and
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5 | WHEREAS, Roy Wilkins retired as executive director in 1977 | ||||||
6 | and was replaced by Benjamin L. Hooks, whose tenure included | ||||||
7 | the Bakke case (1978), in which a California court outlawed | ||||||
8 | several aspects of affirmative action; during his tenure, Dr. | ||||||
9 | Hooks is credited with implementing many NAACP programs that | ||||||
10 | continue today, including the NAACP ACT-SO (Academic, | ||||||
11 | Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics) competitions, | ||||||
12 | a major youth talent and skill initiative, and the Women in the | ||||||
13 | NAACP; Dr. Hooks served as executive director/chief executive | ||||||
14 | officer (CEO) of the NAACP from 1977 until 1992; and
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15 | WHEREAS, In 1993, Benjamin F. Chavis (now Chavis Muhammad) | ||||||
16 | became executive director/CEO of the NAACP; in 1995, Myrlie | ||||||
17 | Evers-Williams, the widow of Medgar Evers, became the third | ||||||
18 | woman to chair the NAACP, a position she held until 1998, when | ||||||
19 | she was succeeded by current Chairman Julian Bond; and
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20 | WHEREAS, In 1996, the NAACP National Board of Directors | ||||||
21 | changed the executive director/CEO title to president and CEO | ||||||
22 | when it selected Kweisi Mfume, a former congressman and head of | ||||||
23 | the Congressional Black Caucus, to lead the body; he was |
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1 | followed by former telecommunications executive Bruce S. | ||||||
2 | Gordon in 2005; in May of 2008, the NAACP National Board of | ||||||
3 | Directors confirmed Benjamin T. Jealous, a former community | ||||||
4 | organizer, newspaper, editor and Rhodes Scholar, as the 14th | ||||||
5 | national executive of the esteemed organization; and
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6 | WHEREAS, Heading into the 21st century, the NAACP is | ||||||
7 | focused on disparities in economics, health care, education, | ||||||
8 | voter empowerment, and the criminal justice system, while also | ||||||
9 | continuing its role as legal advocate for civil rights issues | ||||||
10 | that affect millions of African Americans on a daily basis; | ||||||
11 | therefore, be it
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12 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
13 | NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
14 | congratulate the members of the NAACP on the occasion of the | ||||||
15 | organization's 100th anniversary and wish them continued | ||||||
16 | success and happiness in their future endeavors; and be it | ||||||
17 | further
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18 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
19 | presented to NAACP Chairman Julian Bond as a symbol of our | ||||||
20 | esteem and respect.
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