Bill Text: PA HR772 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Honoring the life of civil rights leader Benjamin L. Hooks and expressing condolences upon his death on April 15, 2010.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 34-14)

Status: (Passed) 2010-09-14 - Adopted [HR772 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2009-HR772-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 3639
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No. 772 Session of2010
INTRODUCED BY BISHOP, McCALL, DONATUCCI, SIPTROTH, LONGIETTI, McGEEHAN, WHEATLEY, MAJOR, KORTZ, SANTARSIERO, MILLARD, WATERS, BRENNAN, GEORGE, DALEY, GRUCELA, CALTAGIRONE, COHEN, BOYLE, HARPER, BUXTON, BEYER, PAYTON, SANTONI, FAIRCHILD, GODSHALL, PRESTON, ROEBUCK, O'NEILL AND PARKER, APRIL 27, 2010
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35, APRIL 27, 2010
A RESOLUTION
Honoring the life of civil rights leader Benjamin L. Hooks and
expressing condolences upon his death on April 15, 2010.
WHEREAS, Benjamin L. Hooks, 85, a lawyer and Baptist minister
who led lunch-counter sit-in demonstrations during the 1960s and
was a longtime leader of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as it struggled to find
its way in the post-civil rights era, died April 15 at his home
in Memphis Tennessee; and
WHEREAS, In a career spanning six decades, Reverend Hooks
achieved many milestones; in 1965, he became the first black
judge to sit on the bench of a Tennessee state court since
Reconstruction, and in 1972, he became the first black member of
the Federal Communications Commission where he championed
minority ownership of television and radio stations; and
WHEREAS, A charismatic orator, Reverend Hooks was a Baptist
minister in Memphis, Tennessee, and Detroit, Michigan, and sat
on the board of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and
WHEREAS, In 1977, Reverend Hooks succeeded Roy Wilkins as
executive director of the NAACP and led it through the post-
civil rights era, confronting and overcoming declining
membership and bolstering efforts for equal housing, affirmative
action and school integration through busing; and
WHEREAS, A man who could remember having to pack his lunch
for car trips because there were no eating places on his travel
route where "colored" were welcome to eat or use the restroom,
Reverend Hooks made our nation a better place for all people to
live, and for this he will be long remembered; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives honor the life of
civil rights leader Benjamin L. Hooks and express its
condolences upon his death on April 15, 2010.
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