[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 17 (Wednesday, January 28, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S998-S999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 3--HONORING AND PRAISING THE NATIONAL 
 ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE ON THE OCCASION OF 
                         ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. Reid, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Levin, Mr. Cardin, 
Mr. Harkin, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Bennet of 
Colorado, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Brown, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
Lautenberg, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Crapo, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. 
Voinovich, Mr. Reed, and Ms. Mikulski) submitted the following 
concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the 
Judiciary:

                             S. Con. Res. 3

       Whereas the National Association for the Advancement of 
     Colored People (referred to in this resolution as the 
     ``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 met in 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 Villard, 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 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, and 1964, the Voting 
     Rights Act of 1965, 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 survivors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, 
     Florida, and Alabama to rebuild their lives;

[[Page S999]]

       Whereas in the 110th Congress, the NAACP was prominent in 
     lobbying for the passage of H. Res. 826, whose resolved 
     clause expresses that: (1) the hanging of nooses is a 
     horrible act when used for the purpose of intimidation and 
     which under certain circumstances can be criminal; (2) this 
     conduct should be investigated thoroughly by Federal 
     authorities; and (3) any criminal violations should be 
     vigorously prosecuted; and
       Whereas in 2008 the NAACP vigorously supported the passage 
     of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 
     (28 U.S.C. 509 note), 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: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That the Congress--
       (1) recognizes the 100th 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 equality of all persons.

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