Bill Text: GA HR57 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Rosa Parks and others; portrait placements in state capitol; urge
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-01-31 - House Second Readers [HR57 Detail]
Download: Georgia-2011-HR57-Introduced.html
11 LC
21 0986
House
Resolution 57
By:
Representatives Brooks of the
63rd,
Abdul-Salaam of the
74th,
Smyre of the
132nd,
Williams of the
165th,
Abrams of the
84th,
and others
A
RESOLUTION
Honoring
Mrs. Rosa Parks, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., Reverend Hosea L. Williams,
Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, and Reverend Joseph Everhart Boone, recognizing
their accomplishments as worthy of enduring memorials, and urging the placement
of their portraits in the state capitol; and for other purposes.
PART
I
WHEREAS,
on December 1, 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks became a beacon of courage and a
symbol of the Civil Rights Movement when she refused to give up her seat on a
city bus to a white passenger, accepting arrest, trial, and conviction rather
than humiliation; and
WHEREAS,
her quiet insistence on human dignity in the face of segregation, racism, and
Jim Crow laws sparked the city-wide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, that
brought an unknown young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to national
prominence; and
WHEREAS,
alongside Dr. King, Rosa Parks became a leader and an icon in the national
effort that resulted in the United States Supreme Court decision outlawing the
segregation of city buses and gave critical momentum to the larger battle for
civil rights; and
WHEREAS,
Rosa Parks has been hailed as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" in
America for her pivotal act on that day in Alabama, as well as for her lifelong
commitment to justice for black Americans; and
WHEREAS,
Rosa Parks received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Congressional Gold Medal, and following her
death at age 92, she become the first woman to lie in state in the United States
Capitol Rotunda.
PART
II
WHEREAS,
Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., was born in Linden, Alabama, on March 11, 1926;
and
WHEREAS,
his involvement in political activism began while he was a student at Alabama
State University when he led demonstrations protesting the lack of heat and hot
water in his dormitory; and
WHEREAS,
in 1951, he earned a Master of Arts degree in sociology from Atlanta University
and then became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama;
and
WHEREAS,
while living in Montgomery, he formed a close and enduring partnership with Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.; and
WHEREAS,
in 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus,
Dr. Abernathy and Dr. King organized the bus boycott in Montgomery that
ended when the United States Supreme Court affirmed the ruling that segregation
on buses was unconstitutional; and
WHEREAS,
Dr. Abernathy was the secretary-treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) and assumed the presidency of the SCLC after Dr. King's death;
and
WHEREAS,
in May, 1968, he organized the Poor People's Campaign March on
Washington, D.C., hoping to bring attention to the plight of the nation's
impoverished, and for which he was jailed for nearly three weeks;
and
WHEREAS,
Dr. Abernathy, a giant in the civil rights struggle whose legacy endures, died
April 17, 1990.
PART
III
WHEREAS,
Reverend Hosea L. Williams was an activist fueled by compassionate understanding
and raw courage, whose activism over the course of a career that spanned four
decades was always in service to God, his family, his people, the nation, and
all of humanity; and
WHEREAS,
it was in leading the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on "Bloody
Sunday" in 1965 that Hosea L. Williams's courage was most evident, and that
pivotal event was instrumental in securing passage of the 1965 Voting Rights
Act; and
WHEREAS,
Reverend Williams served with distinction as a member of the Georgia House of
Representatives from 1974 to 1983, representing District 54; and
WHEREAS,
as chief executive of "Hosea's Feed the Hungry and Homeless in Metro Atlanta,"
founded in 1970, Reverend Williams assumed responsibility for feeding thousands
of Atlanta's homeless during the holidays each year; and
WHEREAS,
Hosea L. Williams served the citizens of the State of Georgia with great
effectiveness and unparalleled dedication and it is only fitting and proper that
he be duly recognized and honored for decades of service in devotion to timeless
principles.
PART
IV
WHEREAS,
Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery is one of the State of Georgia's most
distinguished citizens, a nationally recognized preacher, and a renowned civil
rights leader; and
WHEREAS,
when
Ebony
magazine named him one of the nation's 15 greatest black preachers, he was
described as "the consummate voice of biblical social relevancy, a focused
voice, speaking truth to power"; and
WHEREAS,
when the NAACP honored him at its 1997 convention, he was called the "dean of
the civil rights movement"; and
WHEREAS,
as head of the Civic Affairs Association in Mobile, Alabama, he led the movement
for the desegregation of buses and public accommodations; and
WHEREAS,
in 1957, he cofounded with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference and served as its president and chief executive officer
from 1977 to 1998; and
WHEREAS,
Dr. Lowery led protests in Warren, North Carolina, against the dumping of toxic
waste in poor communities, which led to the environmental justice movement;
and
WHEREAS, he served as pastor of Atlanta's oldest predominantly black Central United Methodist Church for 18 years, and, from 1986 to 1992, he was the esteemed leader of the Cascade United Methodist Church; and
WHEREAS, he served as pastor of Atlanta's oldest predominantly black Central United Methodist Church for 18 years, and, from 1986 to 1992, he was the esteemed leader of the Cascade United Methodist Church; and
WHEREAS,
as convener of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda, he is a strong
force for election reform, criminal justice system reform, and government
reform.
PART
V
WHEREAS,
premier clergyman and civil rights activist Reverend Joseph Everhart Boone had a
career that spanned nearly four decades, transforming thousands of African
American lives as he carried the message of economic dignity from the pulpit,
through the streets, and to the boardrooms of America; and
WHEREAS,
Reverend Boone was a man of uncommon vision, charged and driven by formidable
dedication as he carried forth with unflagging courage his conviction that each
citizen has the right to dignified participation in the American economy's
mainstream, both as producers and consumers; and
WHEREAS,
Reverend Boone's miraculous achievements included serving as Chief Negotiator
for Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference; presiding as Pastor at Rush Memorial Congregational Church in
Atlanta, the meeting and organizational base for the Student Non-Violent Civil
Rights movement, and at the First Congregational Church in Alabama, where he
organized the first "Selective Buying Campaign" in Alabama; acting as Director
of the Metropolitan Atlanta Summit Leadership Congress, Inc., during which time
he was designated by Mrs. Coretta Scott King to coordinate the first leg of the
"Poor People's Campaign"; leading the P.J. Woods Center for the Blind as its
director, coordinating programs including a 24 hour residential treatment
facility; and persuading the FCC as the cochairperson of Atlanta Against
Unfairness in Broadcasting to condition license renewals for all major
television and radio companies on providing credible programming which is
relative to the needs of black people in Georgia; and
WHEREAS,
Reverend Boone's career in public service earned him a distinguished series of
honors and awards, including "Civic Leader of the Year" in 1959 from the First
Congregational Church in Anniston, Alabama; "The Young Man of the Year in
Religion" in 1964 from the Atlanta International Chapter of the Wise Men; The
Excelsior Knights Citizenship Award in 1967; an appointment by Governor Jimmy
Carter to the Governor's Council on Human Relations in 1971; WGUN's Outstanding
Citizen Radio Award in 1971; "Civil Rights Fighter of the Year" in 1975 from the
Bronner Brothers; and the "Civil Rights Award" in 1991 from Clark Atlanta
University.
PART
VI
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY that the members of this body
honor Mrs. Rosa Parks, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., Reverend Hosea L.
Williams, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, and Reverend Joseph Everhart Boone for
their gallant service to this state and this nation as leaders of the Civil
Rights Movement and in recognition of that service urge the Capitol Arts
Standards Commission to authorize the placement of a portrait of each of them on
the second floor of the state capitol building alongside the portrait of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized
and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the public
and the press.