[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 26 (Monday, February 12, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S1869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S1869]]
  SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 10--HONORING AND PRAISING THE NATIONAL 
 ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE ON THE OCCASION OF 
                          ITS 98TH ANNIVERSARY

  Mrs. CLINTON (for herself, Mr. Reid, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Schumer, Ms. 
Mikulski, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Brown, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Lugar, 
Mr. Sanders, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Landrieu, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. 
Levin, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Stabenow, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Biden, 
Mr. Webb, Mr. Byrd, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Warner, Mr. 
Casey, and Mr. Baucus) submitted the following concurrent resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

                            S. Con. Res. 10

       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 group of activists who answered ``The Call'' for 
     a national conference to discuss the civil and political 
     rights of African Americans;
       Whereas the NAACP was founded by a distinguished group of 
     leaders in the struggle for civil and political liberty, 
     including Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, 
     Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard, and William 
     English Walling;
       Whereas the NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights 
     organization in the United States;
       Whereas the mission of the NAACP is to ensure the 
     political, educational, social, and economic equality of 
     rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and 
     racial discrimination;
       Whereas the NAACP is committed to achieving its goals 
     through nonviolence;
       Whereas the NAACP advances its mission through reliance 
     upon the press, 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 minority Americans;
       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 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of 
     Education, 347 U.S. 483;
       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, and 1964 (Public Laws 
     85-315, 86-449, and 88-352), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 
     (Public Law 89-110), the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (Public Law 
     90-284), and the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta 
     Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments 
     Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-246), laws that ensured 
     legislative protection for victories in the courts; and
       Whereas, in 2005, the NAACP launched the Disaster Relief 
     Fund to help survivors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, 
     Florida, and Alabama to rebuild their lives after Hurricanes 
     Katrina and Rita: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That the Congress--
       (1) recognizes the 98th 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 for its work to ensure the 
     political, educational, social, and economic equality of all 
     persons.

  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, as today marks the 98th anniversary of 
the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People (NAACP), I am proud to submit a concurrent resolution to honor 
our country's oldest and largest civil rights organization for the work 
they have done to change the path of our Nation. The legacy of pioneers 
such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, hundreds more 
cannot and must not be forgotten. I urge my colleagues to support this 
resolution honoring and praising the NAACP for 98 years of championing 
the cause of equality in the United States.
  At the dawn of the 20th century--over half a century after the Civil 
War--African Americans were still denied the full rights of 
citizenship. They were forced to endure the daily humiliation and 
struggle of economic exploitation, social segregation, and sometimes 
even physical brutality. Racial tensions began to escalate, resulting 
in riots and lynchings.
  It was at this critical juncture in our Nation's history that a group 
of concerned citizens, recognizing the urgent need to address these 
intolerable conditions, gathered to form the National Association for 
the Advancement of Colored People in New York City.
  Since its founding, the NAACP has sought to eliminate racial 
discrimination and has fought for the social, political, and economic 
equality of all Americans, while maintaining its commitment to 
nonviolence in achieving these goals.
  In 1918, the NAACP successfully persuaded President Wilson to 
publicly condemn lynching and continued to raise awareness about this 
horrifying crime. The NAACP fought for, and ultimately achieved, 
desegregation of the military as well as other federal government 
institutions.
  They were also deeply influential in watershed court cases such as 
Buchanan vs. Warley, where the Supreme Court held that states cannot 
restrict and segregate residential districts. In the landmark case 
Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP successfully argued that the 
``separate, but equal'' doctrine was unconstitutional, thereby making 
segregation in public schools illegal. The NAACP has also played an 
integral role in the passage of essential civil rights legislation, 
including the Civil Rights Act of 1957, 1960, and 1964, the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Rights Act. Their efforts 
continue today. The NAACP led efforts to reauthorize the Voting Rights 
Act last year. They recognize that we must continue vigilantly to guard 
against the resurgence of discriminatory practices that would deprive 
African Americans of the most fundamental right of democracy--the right 
to vote.
  Notwithstanding its powerful voice and extraordinary accomplishments, 
we must never forget that the NAACP works through the tireless efforts 
of its individual members united around a common vision of justice and 
equality. One act of civil disobedience, by NAACP member Rosa Parks, 
helped to spark the civil rights movement. Another member, Medgar 
Evers, worked tirelessly, despite many threats, to desegregate schools 
and to investigate the murder of Emmett Till.
  Mary Burnett Talbert, a teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of 
the founders of the NAACP and eventually became its president. She once 
wrote that ``by her peculiar position the colored woman has gained 
clear powers of observation and judgment--exactly the sort of powers 
which are today peculiarly necessary to the building of an ideal 
country.'' The NAACP continues to take us closer to the ``ideal 
country'' that Mary Talbert envisioned, with every public education 
campaign, every fight over a judicial nomination, and every lobbying 
effort to pass progressive legislation.
  The NAACP's has always been a multiracial and multicultural 
organization. Many of its founding members were white, including Oswald 
Garrison Villiard, Mary White Ovington, and Henry Moscowitz.
  Despite the last century of achievements, substantial racial 
disparities still persist today in educational achievement, access to 
health care, and economic prosperity. Hurricane Katrina highlighted the 
tragic and enduring link between race and poverty in our country, as 
well as emphasized our nation's failure to care for those among us 
least able to provide for themselves. It is no surprise that the NAACP 
raised nearly $2 million to aid the victims of the hurricane.
  The NAACP has always stood ready to face these and other challenges. 
Ninety-eight years after a group of concerned citizens assembled in New 
York around the common goal of creating a more just society, the 
NAACP's half million members continue to lead the way towards positive 
social change.
  For striving and continuing to push our nation closer to the promise 
of equality envisioned in our Constitution, we must honor the NAACP.

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