[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1521 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1521

              Honoring organizers for promoting equality.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 29, 2008

Mr. Gutierrez (for himself, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. 
 Clay, Mr. Meeks of New York, Ms. Linda T. Sanchez of California, Mr. 
Hinojosa, Ms. Norton, Mr. Watt, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, 
Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Johnson 
 of Georgia, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, and Mr. Kucinich) submitted the 
   following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
              Honoring organizers for promoting equality.

Whereas the United States was founded on the notion that political power in a 
        democracy derives from the expressed will of the people;
Whereas our great country believes that its citizens must be able to organize 
        themselves, petition their government, and work together to improve 
        their lives and their communities;
Whereas community organizing is a proud American tradition that helps Americans 
        engage in the political process and make a difference in their 
        communities and in the lives of their neighbors;
Whereas the values that community organizers represent are among the truest of 
        American values, the values of our people;
Whereas whether working in small towns, rural areas, or big cities, community 
        organizers recognize that citizens are all interconnected and that each 
        citizen plays an important role in making our country work;
Whereas community organizers place their country first by strengthening the 
        democratic principle of public participation;
Whereas the accomplishments of community organizers constitute an illustrious 
        list, from helping slaves reach freedom, to gaining rights for farming 
        families, to raising money to fight disease, to the civil rights 
        movement's success changing the way we understand race and dismantling 
        legal discrimination, to the women's movements that earned women the 
        right to vote and the opportunity to break glass ceilings in all parts 
        of society;
Whereas community organizer Jane Addams helped organize the Women's Peace Party 
        and the International Congress of Women in an effort to avert World War 
        I, and was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
Whereas abolitionist, women's suffragist and community organizer Susan B. 
        Anthony cofounded the National Women's Suffrage Association, traveled 
        the United States giving speeches in support of equal rights for women, 
        was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the passage of the 19th 
        Amendment to the United States Constitution giving women the right to 
        vote, and was honored as the first American woman on a circulating 
        United States coin;
Whereas teacher, nurse, and community organizer Clara Barton established an 
        agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers during the 
        American Civil War, convinced the Union Army to allow her to bring her 
        own medical supplies to the battlefields, and organized the American Red 
        Cross;
Whereas labor leader and community organizer Cesar Chavez cofounded the National 
        Farm Workers Association, worked tirelessly to register new immigrants 
        to vote, led boycotts and protests that resulted in higher wages and 
        better working conditions for American farm laborers, and received the 
        Pacem in Terris award from the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1994 was 
        posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom;
Whereas founding father and inventor Benjamin Franklin helped organize common 
        citizens to create one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in 
        America, obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to 
        establish Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in what was to 
        become the United States, organized the Pennsylvania Militia, led the 
        ``anti-proprietary party'' in the struggle against the Penn family, the 
        proprietors of the colony, and was an active abolitionist, serving as 
        president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society;
Whereas Baptist minister and community organizer Martin Luther King, Jr. led the 
        Montgomery Bus Boycott, helped found the Southern Christian Leadership 
        Conference, was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington, 
        became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and was 
        posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the 
        Congressional Gold Medal in 2004;
Whereas native Tlingit Alaskan and community organizer Elizabeth W. Peratrovich 
        worked tirelessly for the equal rights of indigenous Alaskan peoples and 
        was the single driving force behind the passage of the State's Anti-
        Discrimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the 
        United States;
Whereas escaped slave, nurse, Union spy, and community organizer Harriet Tubman 
        made more than 15 missions to rescue hundreds of slaves using the 
        network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the 
        Underground Railroad; and
Whereas as Thomas Jefferson wrote, ``Enlighten the people, generally, and 
        tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the 
        dawn of day'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) the House of Representatives--
                    (A) honors the contributions that community 
                organizers, past and present, have made to our Nation 
                and our communities; and
                    (B) recognizes that community organizing is a 
                vision of participatory democracy in which a change 
                comes from the people, not the powerful, the 
                privileged, or the government, and where the electorate 
                is empowered and called upon to act on their behalf; 
                and
            (2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
                    (A) participation in community organizing is an 
                American tradition that should be encouraged; and
                    (B) regardless of religion, gender, race, 
                ethnicity, sexual preference, or point of view, the 
                right of American citizens to organize and petition 
                their government is crucial to achieving a profoundly 
                democratic, just, moral, and honorable society.
                                 <all>