[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 11 (Wednesday, January 27, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KENTUCKY COMMISSION ON 
                              HUMAN RIGHTS

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                          HON. JOHN A. YARMUTH

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 27, 2010

  Mr. YARMUTH. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the Kentucky 
Commission on Human Rights on the occasion of the organization's 
fiftieth year.
  In 1960, while the civil rights debate was raging across the country 
over the extension of Civil Rights to all Americans, Kentucky became 
the first state south of the Mason-Dixon line to establish a human 
rights commission.
  Since that time, the pioneering members of the Commission have been 
an ally of all Kentuckians fighting for equality, fairness, and the 
equal application of justice. The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights 
is charged with enforcing State and Federal Civil Rights law. It is 
also tasked with a powerful mandate, remarkable in its scope and 
comprehensive in its aims;
  ``To safeguard all individuals within the state from discrimination 
because of familial status, race, color, religion, national origin, 
sex, age 40 and over, or because of the person's status as a qualified 
individual with a disability,'' reads the mandate. ``Thereby to protect 
their interest in personal dignity and freedom from humiliation, to 
make available to the state their full productive capacities, to secure 
the state against domestic strife and unrest which would menace its 
democratic institutions, to preserve the public safety, health, and 
general welfare, and to further the interest, rights, and privileges of 
individuals within the state.''
  Those who have worked with the Commission throughout the last five 
decades have committed themselves to meeting the goals of that mandate. 
And that dedication is reflected not just in the law books of the 
Commonwealth, but in communities throughout Kentucky.
  It was Kentucky that was the first southern state to pass a civil 
rights act and the first in the Nation to enact a fair housing law. And 
each and every day, the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights continues 
to fight to educate our citizens about how far we have come and how far 
we still have to go.
  Every citizen of our Commonwealth can be proud of the legacy of the 
Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. I urge my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating the Commission for fifty years of dedication to the 
expansion of equal rights across our Commonwealth and honor their 
vision of a people united against discrimination and united for 
equality.

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