Bill Text: TX SR15 | 2021 | 87th Legislature 1st Special Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Commemorating the first anniversary of the death of Congressman John Lewis.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)
Status: (N/A - Dead) 2021-07-22 - Received by the Secretary of the Senate [SR15 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-SR15-Introduced.html
By: Miles, et al. | S.R. No. 15 | |
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WHEREAS, July 17, 2021, marks the first anniversary of the | ||
death of civil rights icon and longtime congressman John Lewis; | ||
and | ||
WHEREAS, The son of sharecroppers, John Robert Lewis was | ||
born in Troy, Alabama, on February 21, 1940; while trying to win | ||
admission to segregated Troy State University, he sought the | ||
guidance of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and became a | ||
valued colleague in the civil rights movement; he challenged | ||
segregated interstate travel in the South as one of the original | ||
13 Freedom Riders, and when an angry mob attacked the group, he | ||
was left in a pool of his own blood outside a bus terminal in | ||
Montgomery, Alabama; as a co-founder and chair of the Student | ||
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he coordinated lunch-counter | ||
sit-ins to protest segregated facilities; in 1963, he was one of | ||
the "Big 6" who organized the historic March on Washington, and | ||
he energized the crowd as the event's youngest and fieriest | ||
speaker; and | ||
WHEREAS, While leading demonstrations, Congressman Lewis | ||
stood strong in the face of violence, police beatings, and more | ||
than 40 arrests; his skull was fractured by state troopers during | ||
a voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, | ||
Alabama, on a day known ever since as Bloody Sunday; televised | ||
images of the violence galvanized support for the Voting Rights | ||
Act that was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson five | ||
months later, in August 1965; and | ||
WHEREAS, Congressman Lewis worked his way through college, | ||
graduating from the American Baptist Theological Seminary and | ||
completing his bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy at | ||
Fisk University; he led the Voter Education Project, | ||
participated in anti-poverty efforts, and after serving on the | ||
Atlanta City Council, he won election to the U.S. House of | ||
Representatives in 1986; working tirelessly in behalf of the most | ||
vulnerable, he became known as "the conscience of the Congress"; | ||
he rose to become chair of the Oversight Subcommittee of the | ||
House Ways and Means Committee and advocated passionately for the | ||
Voter Empowerment Act, which seeks to modernize the electoral | ||
process and increase access to the ballot; and | ||
WHEREAS, Over the course of more than three decades in | ||
office, Congressman Lewis continued to engage in nonviolent | ||
protest, community organizing, and grassroots activism; | ||
following the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016, he led Democrats | ||
in a 26-hour sit-in on the House floor to demand a debate over gun | ||
control measures; he reminded the many audiences he addressed to | ||
embrace "good trouble," and every year, he journeyed to Selma to | ||
lead a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge; despite severe | ||
health challenges, he made one last trip in 2020 for the | ||
observance of the 55th anniversary of Bloody Sunday; and | ||
WHEREAS, Congressman Lewis received such accolades as the | ||
NAACP Springarn Medal, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage | ||
Award, and the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential | ||
Medal of Freedom; he was presented with honorary degrees by | ||
universities across the country, among them Duke, Howard, | ||
Brandeis, and Emory Law, which also established the John Lewis | ||
Chair for Civil Rights and Social Justice; in 2016, he won a | ||
National Book Award for the third volume of his graphic novel | ||
about the civil rights movement, March; and | ||
WHEREAS, A lifelong student of history, John Lewis | ||
introduced a bill every session for 15 years to create an | ||
institution dedicated to the unvarnished truth about the | ||
struggles and triumphs of the African American people; when the | ||
National Museum of African American History and Culture finally | ||
opened on the National Mall in 2016, he wrote, "By bringing the | ||
uncomfortable parts of our past out of the shadows, we can better | ||
understand what divides us and seek to heal those problems | ||
through our unity"; and | ||
WHEREAS, The year since the death of John Lewis has been | ||
one of the most challenging and tumultuous our nation has ever | ||
seen, but his life continues to stand as a beacon of hope for the | ||
unity that can only be achieved through the steadfast pursuit of | ||
equal rights and justice for all; now, therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the Senate of the 87th Texas Legislature, | ||
1st Called Session, hereby commemorate the first anniversary of | ||
the death of Congressman John Lewis and pay tribute to his | ||
remarkable legacy. | ||