118 HRES 661 IH: Honoring the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and calling on Congress to fulfill the demands of the March participants, including decent housing, the right to vote, and a fair wage. U.S. House of Representatives 2023-08-22 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

118th CONGRESS1st Session

H. RES. 661

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

August 22, 2023

Ms. Norton (for herself, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Brown, Mr. Carbajal, Mr. Carson, Mr. Case, Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Crockett, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. DelBene, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Frost, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Ivey, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Landsman, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Mrs. McBath, Ms. McClellan, Mr. Mfume, Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. Neguse, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. Sewell, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Wilson of Florida, Mr. Doggett, and Mr. McGarvey) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability

RESOLUTION

Honoring the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and calling on Congress to fulfill the demands of the March participants, including decent housing, the right to vote, and a fair wage.

Whereas, on August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC;Whereas the March on Washington marked the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation;Whereas the March on Washington was the largest civil rights protest of its time;Whereas civil rights activists also marched that day in Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam, London, Oslo, Madrid, The Hague, Tel Aviv, Cairo, Toronto, and Kingston, Jamaica;Whereas the March on Washington was led by the Big Six of the Civil Rights Movement, James L. Farmer, Jr., Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney M. Young, Jr.;Whereas the March was attended by Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, Dick Gregory, Charlton Heston, Lena Horne, Mahalia Jackson, Rita Moreno, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, and Jackie Robinson;Whereas women were excluded from the official program of the March;Whereas, nonetheless, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was only possible because of the courageous work of women in the Black Freedom Movement, including Ella Baker, Daisy Bates, Septima Clark, Myrlie Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dorothy Height, Coretta Scott King, Pauli Murray, Diane Nash, and Rosa Parks;Whereas the logistics of the March were coordinated by Bayard Rustin, who also pioneered nonviolent, direct action protest theory;Whereas the March on Washington was organized in response to the twin evils of racism and economic deprivation;Whereas the demands of the March participants included decent housing, the right to vote, and a national minimum wage;Whereas participants in the March on Washington also demanded home rule for the District of Columbia;Whereas the March culminated in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, iconic I Have a Dream speech;Whereas in his I Have A Dream speech, Martin Luther King, Jr., called the March on Washington the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation;Whereas Dr. King’s speech exhorted Americans to to make justice a reality for all of God’s children, and added that the whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges;Whereas civil rights organizing led Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965;Whereas Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968; andWhereas the demands made by the March on Washington participants for decent housing, the right to vote, and a fair wage remain unfulfilled: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives supports the designation of March on Washington Commemoration Day.