Bill Text: NY K00850 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Commemorating the 55th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 46-12)

Status: (Passed) 2020-03-11 - adopted [K00850 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-K00850-Introduced.html

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Assembly Resolution No. 850

BY: M. of A. Hyndman

        COMMEMORATING   the  55th  Anniversary  of  Bloody
        Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery march across  the
        Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, which served
        as  a catalyst for passage of the 1965 Voting Rights
        Act

  WHEREAS, The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil
rights protests that occurred in 1965 in  Alabama,  a  state  which  was
deeply entrenched racist policies; and

  WHEREAS,  In  March  of  that  year,  in an effort to register black
voters in the South, protesters marching the 54-mile route from Selma to
the state capital of Montgomery were  confronted  with  deadly  violence
from local authorities and white vigilante groups; and

  WHEREAS,  As  the world watched, the protesters under the protection
of federalized  National  Guard  troops  finally  achieved  their  goal,
walking  around  the  clock for three days to reach Montgomery, Alabama;
the historic march, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s participation  in  it,
raised awareness of the difficulties faced by black voters, and the need
for a national Voting Rights Act; and

  WHEREAS,   Even   after   the  Civil  Rights  Act  of  1964  forbade
discrimination in voting on the basis of race, efforts by  civil  rights
organizations  such  as the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC)
and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating  Committee  (SNCC)  to  register
black  voters were met with fierce resistance in southern states such as
Alabama; and

  WHEREAS, On March 17, 1965, even as the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers
fought for the right  to  carry  out  their  protest,  President  Lyndon
Johnson  addressed  a  joint  session  of  Congress, calling for federal
voting rights legislation to protect  African  Americans  from  barriers
that prevented them from voting; and

  WHEREAS, That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
which guaranteed the right to vote, first awarded by the 15th Amendment,
to all African Americans; and

  WHEREAS, Specifically, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy
tests  as  a requirement for voting, mandated federal oversight of voter
registration in areas where tests had previously been used and gave  the
U.S.  attorney general the duty of challenging the use of poll taxes for
state and local elections; and

  WHEREAS, Along with the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act  was
one of the most expansive pieces of civil rights legislation in American
history; it greatly reduced the disparity between black and white voters
in the United States and allowed greater numbers of African Americans to
participate  in politics and government at the local, state and national
level; and

  WHEREAS, On March 7, 2015, marchers walked over the Brooklyn  Bridge
in  solidarity  with  the  50th  Anniversary  of  Bloody  Sunday and the
Selma-to-Montgomery march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge; the Selma  is
Everywhere  march  honored  those  who  fought and continue to fight for
social  injustice  and  to  remind  all  United States citizens to never
forget the pain which was endured in the movement to attain basic  civil
rights; and

  WHEREAS,  To  commemorate  the 55th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and
the historic march, a myriad of events were held from Selma to New York,
and across this great Nation to remember and  recall  that  pivotal  day
which  forever changed the lives of each and every American citizen; one
such event included the Manhattan kick off of  the  nationwide  tour  of
Turning  15  on the Road to Freedom, a musical filled with songs telling
the story of Lynday Blacmon Lowery, the youngest child to walk  all  the
way from Selma to Montgomery; now, therefore, be it

  RESOLVED,  That  this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate  the   55th   Anniversary   of   Bloody   Sunday   and   the
Selma-to-Montgomery  march  across  the  Edmund  Pettus Bridge in Selma,
Alabama, which served as a catalyst  for  passage  of  the  1965  Voting
Rights Act; and be it further

  RESOLVED,  That  a  copy  of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to Hazel N. Dukes, President, National Association  for  the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), New York State Conference.