Bill Text: IL SR1782 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges the U.S. Congress to recognize the Ku Klux Klan as a terrorist organization and pursue dismantling this domestic terrorist hate group with the same fervor used to protect the United States from other manifestations of terrorism.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2016-05-31 - Resolution Adopted [SR1782 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2015-SR1782-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, It is the duty of the United States Congress to
enact measures that establish justice, ensure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for every
resident of this nation; and
WHEREAS, Throughout the course of our nation's history,
there has been one consistent voice supporting racial and
social inequality and promoting the intimidation, subjugation,
and violent repression of individuals solely on the basis of
their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and
immigration status; and
WHEREAS, Since the issuance of the Emancipation
Proclamation, the Ku Klux Klan and its many affiliates have
terrorized African-Americans; and
WHEREAS, Since its founding in 1866, the main objective of
this terrorist group has been to end or interfere with any
policy giving equal rights to African-Americans; and
WHEREAS, In 1964, the Ku Klux Klan was held responsible for
the deaths of three civil rights workers (James Chaney, Andrew
Goodman, and Michael Schwerner), who were shot near Meridian,

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Mississippi; and
WHEREAS, In 1963, the Ku Klux Klan organized the bombing,
which claimed the lives of four young girls, of the Sixteenth
Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; and
WHEREAS, The Ku Klux Klan has used tactics such as
lynching, bombing, tar-and-feathering, shooting, rape,
assaults on both property and persons, assassinations, and a
host of Jim Crow-era laws in an effort to terrorize
African-Americans; they and their affiliates were pioneers in
the use of the Internet to recruit and mobilize members and
remain an active online presence, seeking to indoctrinate and
inspire youth to continue their campaign of hate; and
WHEREAS, The Ku Klux Klan's tactics mirror those of
modern-day terrorist groups such as ISIS, BOKO Haram, and
others whose sole purpose is to intimidate, disenfranchise,
silence, and kill particular groups of people; and
WHEREAS, The Ku Klux Klan's message of racial and social
injustice has led to senseless acts of violence that continue
to terrorize African-American individuals and communities in
our time; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL

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ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge Congress to
recognize the Ku Klux Klan as a terrorist organization and
pursue dismantling this domestic terrorist hate group with the
same fervor used to protect the United States from other
manifestations of terrorism; and be it further
RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
delivered to the Speaker of the United States House of
Representatives Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, and all members of the Illinois Congressional
Delegation.