[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 57 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. J. RES. 57

To authorize the Ralph David Abernathy Memorial Foundation to establish 
        a memorial in the District of Columbia or its environs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 27, 1997

 Mr. Lewis of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mrs. Meek 
 of Florida, Mr. Watts of Oklahoma, Mr. Scott, Mr. Dellums, Mr. Frost, 
Mr. Filner, Ms. McKinney, Mr. Faleomavaega, Mr. Dixon, Ms. Norton, Mr. 
Barrett of Wisconsin, Mr. Evans, Mr. Green, Mr. Bonior, Mrs. Maloney of 
 New York, Mr. Towns, Ms. Christian-Green, Mr. Moran of Virginia, Ms. 
   Lofgren, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. 
Foglietta, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Bishop, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Lipinski, Mr. Rush, and 
  Mr. Jefferson) introduced the following joint resolution; which was 
                 referred to the Committee on Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
To authorize the Ralph David Abernathy Memorial Foundation to establish 
        a memorial in the District of Columbia or its environs.

Whereas, upheld and revered as a noble champion of the poor, Dr. Ralph David 
        Abernathy dedicated his life, spiritually and physically, in service to 
        the monumental ideals of justice and equality and led his people and his 
        Nation along a path of righteous change; and fearless fighter in the war 
        against injustice, poverty, and bigotry, he had the conviction to lead 
        and a vision to offer a country shackled by the chains of segregation;
Whereas, as the cofounder and coleader of the great American civil rights 
        movement, Dr. Abernathy galvanized the conscience of a generation, 
        changed the moral and social direction of a Nation, paved the way for 
        millions of African Americans to realize the American Dream, and earned 
        for himself a place of exaltation among the pantheon of American 
        political and social leaders;
Whereas, recognized as inseparable friends and partners in life and inseparable 
        heroes in death, the perfectly complementary natures of Dr. Abernathy 
        and Dr. King propelled the movement forward with Dr. King articulating 
        its nonviolent philosophy and Dr. Abernathy providing its strategy for 
        success and its spiritual ballast; and the bond between them was 
        indelibly strengthened during the more than 40 times that they were 
        jailed together in their nonviolent quest for justice and equality;
Whereas the grandson of slaves, Ralph David Abernathy was born March 11, 1926, 
        in Linden, Marengo County, Alabama as the 10th of the 12 children of 
        William L. Abernathy, a farmer and a deacon, and Mrs. Louivory Valentine 
        Abernathy, a devout Christian; and he attended high school at Linden 
        Academy; enlisted in the military during World War II and rose to the 
        rank of platoon sergeant; and upon his honorable discharge, enrolled at 
        Alabama State College in Montgomery in 1945 where he became student body 
        and class president and from which he graduated with high honors with a 
        bachelor of arts degree; and he began his professional career in 1950 
        when he was appointed personnel director at Alabama State College and 
        later assumed the position of dean of men and professor of social 
        studies; and in February 1952, he was called as the senior pastor of the 
        historic First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he served 
        for a decade; and shortly after accepting this call, he married Juanita 
        Odessa Jones of Uniontown, Alabama and to their union four children were 
        born: Juandalynn Ralpheda, Donzaleigh Avis, Ralph David III, and Kwame 
        Luthuli;
Whereas, as two young activist preachers in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956, Dr. 
        Abernathy and Dr. King organized the Montgomery bus boycott which led to 
        a successful year long boycott of that city's transit system, eventually 
        ending Alabama's bus segregation and heralding the beginning of 
        America's postwar civil rights movement; and Dr. Abernathy cofounded the 
        Montgomery Improvement Association which was the forerunner of the 
        Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which he 
        also cofounded in 1957;
Whereas the SCLC, which Dr. Abernathy served as financial secretary, treasurer, 
        and vice-president at large, spearheaded the United States civil rights 
        movement and helped to bring about passage of the landmark 1964 Civil 
        Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the abolition of Jim Crow 
        segregation laws in Southern States; and for 13 turbulent years, from 
        1955 until Dr. King's death in 1968, Dr. Abernathy and Dr. King together 
        were swept along by the movement of a fateful odyssey--to Atlanta, 
        Albany, Birmingham, Washington, DC, St. Augustine, Selma, Chicago, and 
        Memphis, and across the country--in a nonviolent quest to achieve 
        justice for all mankind and to tear down the walls of segregation and 
        discrimination;
Whereas, in addition to the resulting legislation, Dr. Abernathy was able to 
        instill in millions of African Americans a new sense of pride and self-
        worth and the movement has served as an inspiration throughout the world 
        as a model of principled, nonviolent struggle for freedom and equality; 
        and remembered by those who were there as the tower of strength even in 
        the darkest days of the movement, Dr. Abernathy endured with equanimity 
        the bombing of his church and his home, the beatings, the arrests, the 
        threats, even the selling of his family inheritance at public auction 
        and still, for the sake of the downtrodden, walked undaunted along the 
        dusty roads of southern towns crying ``let my people go'';
Whereas it was Dr. Abernathy who cradled Dr. King in his arms as he took his 
        last breath April 4, 1968, mortally wounded by an assassin's bullet; 
        and, upon assuming the presidency of the SCLC and the mantle of the 
        American civil rights movement, Dr. Abernathy immediately began to 
        implement plans for the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, DC;
Whereas unprecedented in scope and objectives, the poor people's campaign 
        reflected Dr. Abernathy's deeply held conviction that the key to the 
        salvation and redemption of this Nation lay in its moral and humane 
        response to the needs of its most oppressed and poverty-stricken 
        citizens;
Whereas aiming to rub raw the Nation's conscience on hunger and poverty, in the 
        spring of 1968, Dr. Abernathy led thousands of the country's hungry--
        black, brown, and white--from the hollows of Georgia, the swamps of 
        Mississippi, the hills of Tennessee, the plains of the West, the 
        Eastside barrios of New York City, and the tenements of Chicago, in 
        building Resurrection City in the Nation's Capital;
Whereas the poor people's campaign led to systemic changes in Government 
        policies which now benefit millions of the financially underprivileged 
        and to federally assisted programs which provide for the poor and the 
        elderly;
Whereas Dr. Abernathy, through his close ties with labor as expressed in the 
        Charleston, South Carolina Hospital Worker's Movement, brought a living 
        wage and improved working conditions for thousands of hospital workers 
        throughout the Nation; and he founded a nonprofit organization known as 
        the Foundation for Economic Enterprises Development (FEED) through which 
        he worked diligently to create jobs, job training, and business and 
        trade opportunities for minorities in the United States;
Whereas, as documented by the honorable William Clay, United States Congressman 
        from Missouri, in his book entitled ``Just Permanent Interests,'' Dr. 
        Abernathy was instrumental in building the groundswell of support for 
        the enactment of the Federal Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday that 
        started with a petition drive that resulted in 800,000 signatures in 
        1968, and upon reintroduction of the bill calling for such holiday in 
        1971, he launched a second petition drive that secured more than 
        3,000,000 signatures which he personally brought by train to the White 
        House; his unflagging commitment contributed directly to the passage of 
        the bill in 1983;
Whereas, during his lifetime, he addressed the United Nations and served as 
        president of the World Peace Council, was awarded more than 300 
        citations and awards, 7 honorary doctoral degrees, and was a member of 
        more than 40 organizations, including life membership in the NAACP, the 
        World Commission on Hunger, the Presidential Council on Aging, the 
        Atlanta Baptist Ministers Union, the Progressive National Baptist 
        Convention, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and the American Sociological 
        Society; and while actively involved in the movement, he completed his 
        master's degree in sociology at Atlanta University;
Whereas he remained president of the SCLC for 9 years, from 1968 to 1977, and 
        continued as president emeritus until his death in 1990; and he assumed 
        the pastorate of the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, 
        Georgia in 1961 and served as its senior pastor until the time of his 
        death; and
Whereas Ralph David Abernathy, civil rights leader, minister, sociologist, 
        pastor, husband, father, builder of dreams, humanitarian, distinguished 
        American, died on April 17, 1990; and in honor and recognition of the 
        extraordinary life and spirit of Ralph David Abernathy and his enduring 
        contributions to the elevation of the human conscience and the 
        improvement of the human condition in the United States and around the 
        world and in gratitude for his sacrifices on behalf of the most 
        cherished of our national ideals, freedom, and equality, we hereby 
        support and approve the creation and erection of the Ralph David 
        Abernathy Poor People's Memorial as a lasting tribute and a permanent 
        reminder of our moral and humanitarian duties as individuals and as a 
        Nation: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH MEMORIAL.

    (a) In General.--The Ralph David Abernathy Memorial Foundation is 
authorized to establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of 
Columbia to honor Dr. Ralph David Abernathy and the poor people's 
campaign. The memorial shall be known as the Ralph David Abernathy Poor 
People's Memorial and shall be located in area I between the Lincoln 
Memorial and the Washington Monument.
    (b) Compliance With Standards for Commemorative Works.--Except as 
provided in subsection (c) and section 2(c), the establishment of the 
memorial shall be in accordance with the Commemorative Works Act (40 
U.S.C. 1001 et seq.).
    (c) Twenty-Five Year Period Inapplicable.--Section 3(c) of the 
Commemorative Works Act shall not apply to the memorial established 
under this Act.

SEC. 2. PAYMENT OF EXPENSES.

    (a) Construction of Memorial.--The Ralph David Abernathy Memorial 
Foundation shall be solely responsible for acceptance of contributions 
for, and payment of the expenses of, the construction of the memorial.
    (b) Maintenance of Memorial.--Federal funds may be used to pay 
expenses for the maintenance and preservation of the memorial and its 
infrastructure.
    (c) Offset of Costs of Maintenance of Memorial Inapplicable.--The 
offset of the costs of maintenance and preservation of a memorial 
required in the first sentence of section 8(b) of the Commemorative 
Works Act shall not apply to the memorial established under this Act.

SEC. 3. DEPOSIT OF EXCESS FUNDS.

    If, upon payment of all expenses of the construction of the 
memorial, or upon expiration of the authority for the memorial under 
section 10(b) of the Commemorative Works Act, there remains a balance 
of funds received for the construction of the memorial, the Ralph David 
Abernathy Memorial Foundation shall transmit the amount of the balance 
to the Secretary of the Treasury for deposit in an account under 
section 8(b)(1) of such Act for maintenance and preservation of the 
memorial pursuant to section 8(b)(2) of such Act.

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