[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 154 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 154

 Honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of 
        Colored People on the occasion of its 110th anniversary.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 27, 2019

 Mr. Green of Texas (for himself, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Mr. Meeks, Mr. 
   Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Higgins of New York, Mr. 
   Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Clay, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Horsford, Ms. 
 Norton, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. McNerney, 
Mr. Hastings, Ms. Johnson of Texas, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mrs. Beatty, 
   Mr. Khanna, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Young, Ms. Haaland, Mr. Smith of 
   Washington, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Ms. Wilson of 
  Florida, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Plaskett, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mr. 
 Lawson of Florida, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Cummings, Ms. 
 Pressley, Mr. Case, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Lewis, Ms. 
  Moore, Mrs. Lawrence, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Cicilline, Mr. Allred, Mr. 
    Espaillat, Mr. Richmond, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Scott of 
Virginia, Mr. Soto, Mr. Norcross, Mrs. McBath, Ms. Adams, Ms. Bass, Mr. 
   Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Butterfield, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Clyburn, Ms. 
Fudge, Mr. Jeffries, Ms. Sewell of Alabama, Mr. Veasey, and Ms. Waters) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                            on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of 
        Colored People on the occasion of its 110th anniversary.

Whereas the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 
        originally known as the National Negro Committee, was founded in New 
        York City on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's 
        birth, by a multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious, group of activists 
        who met in a national conference to discuss the civil and political 
        rights of African Americans;
Whereas the multiracial founders of the NAACP were a distinguished group of 
        leaders in the struggle for human rights, including Ida Wells-Barnett, 
        W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison 
        Villard, and William English Walling;
Whereas the NAACP is the oldest, largest, and most widely-recognized grassroots 
        based civil rights organization in the United States;
Whereas the NAACP has active membership units in all 50 States, including State 
        conferences of branches and local branches as well as branches in 
        prisons and chapters on college and high school campuses throughout our 
        Nation and branches on military bases in Italy, Germany, Korea, and 
        Japan;
Whereas the NAACP National Headquarters is located in Baltimore, Maryland;
Whereas the mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, 
        social, and economic rights of all persons and to eliminate racial 
        hatred and racial discrimination;
Whereas the NAACP is committed to achieving its goals through nonviolence 
        including negotiation, litigation, and protestation;
Whereas the NAACP advances its mission through reliance upon peaceful protest, 
        the petition, the ballot, and the courts, and has been persistent in the 
        use of legal and moral persuasion, even in the face of overt and violent 
        racial hostility;
Whereas the NAACP has used political pressure, marches, demonstrations, and 
        effective lobbying to serve as the voice, as well as the shield, for 
        minorities in the United States;
Whereas after years of fighting segregation in public schools, the NAACP, under 
        the leadership of Special Counsel Thurgood Marshall, won one of its 
        greatest legal victories in the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. 
        Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954);
Whereas, in 1955, NAACP member Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for refusing to 
        give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, an act of 
        courage that would serve as the catalyst for the largest grassroots 
        civil rights movement in the history of the United States;
Whereas the NAACP was prominent in lobbying for the passage of the Civil Rights 
        Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1991; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the 
        1993 Motor-Voter Act; the 2002 Help America Vote Act; the Fannie Lou 
        Hamer, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Cesar E. Chavez, Barbara C. 
        Jordan, William C. Velasquez, and Dr. Hector P. Garcia Voting Rights Act 
        Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006; and the Fair Housing Act, 
        laws that ensured Government protection for legal victories achieved;
Whereas, in 2005, the NAACP launched the Disaster Relief Fund to help hurricane 
        survivors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, and Alabama to 
        rebuild their lives;
Whereas, in the 110th Congress, the NAACP was prominent in lobbying for the 
        passage of H. Res. 826, a resolution with resolving clauses that express 
        that the hanging of nooses is a horrible act when used for the purpose 
        of intimidation, that under certain circumstances such an act can be 
        criminal, and that such acts should be investigated thoroughly by 
        Federal authorities and any criminal violations arising from such acts 
        should be vigorously prosecuted;
Whereas, in 2008, the NAACP vigorously supported the passage of the Emmett Till 
        Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, a law that puts additional 
        Federal resources into solving the heinous crimes that occurred in the 
        early days of the civil rights struggle that remain unsolved and 
        bringing those who perpetrated such crimes to justice;
Whereas, on July 16, 2009, the NAACP celebrated its centennial anniversary in 
        New York City, highlighting an extraordinary century of Bold Dreams, Big 
        Victories with a historic address from the first African-American 
        President of the United States, Barack Obama;
Whereas, in 2009, the NAACP was instrumental in the enactment of the Matthew 
        Shepard-James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which greatly 
        expanded the legal definition of a ``hate crime'' and encouraged 
        increased cooperation between Federal, State, and local authorities in 
        the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed out of hate for a 
        group of people;
Whereas, in 2010, the NAACP, an advocate for sentencing reform, applauded the 
        passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-220; Stat. 
        2372), a landmark piece of legislation that reduces the quantity of 
        crack cocaine that triggers a mandatory minimum sentence for a Federal 
        conviction of crack cocaine distribution from 100 times that of people 
        convicted of distributing the drug in powdered form to 18 times that 
        sentence;
Whereas throughout its existence, the NAACP has led the charge to defend the 
        constitutional right to vote and to protect that right for all citizens 
        of the United States, whether they be seniors, young voters, the poor, 
        or from minority communities;
Whereas, in 2013, the NAACP signed a historic Memorandum of Agreement with the 
        Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to put mechanisms in place to 
        ensure that the needs of underrepresented communities are more fully 
        integrated into future plans for disaster preparedness;
Whereas, in 2014, the NAACP was a leader in the effort to strengthen the Voting 
        Rights Act and protect the principle of ``one person, one vote'';
Whereas, in 2014, the NAACP released its groundbreaking report ``Born Suspect'' 
        on racial profiling by law enforcement in the United States, which 
        highlighted the problem of racial profiling experienced by individuals 
        of color and communities of color;
Whereas, in 2016, the NAACP led the charge in raising awareness about and 
        challenging voter suppression laws in Federal court across the Nation; 
        and
Whereas, in 2017, the NAACP board unanimously elected Derrick Johnson as 
        President and CEO as the organization re-envisions itself to take on a 
        tumultuous and contentious social and political climate: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Original NAACP Resolution of 2019''.

SEC. 2. HONORING AND PRAISING THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
              ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE.

    Congress--
            (1) recognizes the 110th anniversary of the historic 
        founding of the National Association for the Advancement of 
        Colored People; and
            (2) honors and praises the National Association for the 
        Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 
        anniversary for its work to ensure the political, educational, 
        social, and economic rights of all persons.
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