| |
| |
|
|
R E S O L U T I O N
|
|
|
WHEREAS, The country's largest and oldest civil rights |
|
|
organization, the National Association for the Advancement of |
|
|
Colored People, is marking the 100th anniversary of its founding on |
|
|
February 12, 2009; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, In the summer of 1908, the nation was shocked by |
|
|
accounts of mob violence that raged for two days against African |
|
|
Americans in Springfield, Illinois, the birthplace of President |
|
|
Abraham Lincoln; a multiracial group of activists came together in |
|
|
response to this outrage and formed the NAACP in New York on |
|
|
February 12, 1909, which would have been Lincoln's 100th birthday; |
|
|
the next year, founding officer W. E. B. Du Bois, a prominent |
|
|
intellectual, launched the association's widely influential |
|
|
magazine, The Crisis; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The NAACP established itself as a crucial legal |
|
|
advocate with a series of early court battles, and in 1915 it |
|
|
vigorously protested the inflammatory film Birth of a Nation, which |
|
|
glorified the Ku Klux Klan and perpetuated demeaning stereotypes; |
|
|
membership in the NAACP grew rapidly, from around 9,000 in 1917 to |
|
|
90,000 three years later, with more than 300 branches across the |
|
|
country; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, After persistent pressure by the NAACP, President |
|
|
Woodrow Wilson made a public statement against lynching in 1918; |
|
|
the organization continued to battle this heinous practice |
|
|
throughout the 1920s, leading a national debate that brought about |
|
|
a sharp decline in such violence; in the 1930s, NAACP members |
|
|
blocked the nomination of a segregationist judge to the U.S. |
|
|
Supreme Court, and association lawyers Charles Houston and Thurgood |
|
|
Marshall won the legal battle to admit an African American student |
|
|
to the University of Maryland; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Marshall later |
|
|
brought the NAACP one of its greatest legal victories with Brown v. |
|
|
the Board of Education, the landmark case that outlawed segregation |
|
|
in public schools; the organization joined with other groups in the |
|
|
heroic movement ignited by NAACP member Rosa Parks, and its |
|
|
lobbying bureau in Washington helped advance integration of the |
|
|
armed forces and passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and |
|
|
1968, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Through the years, this groundbreaking organization |
|
|
has continued to work tirelessly to end bigotry and discrimination; |
|
|
today, more than half a million members advocate for civil rights in |
|
|
their communities and monitor barriers to opportunity in the public |
|
|
and private sectors; as the NAACP marks its milestone 100th |
|
|
anniversary, president and chief executive officer Benjamin Todd |
|
|
Jealous has affirmed its commitment to human rights and announced |
|
|
heightened efforts in behalf of all Americans to end disparities in |
|
|
educational attainment, income, and health; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The NAACP has played a transformational role in |
|
|
American history, and through their courage and tenacity, its |
|
|
members and distinguished leaders have demonstrated profound |
|
|
allegiance to our nation's founding principles of liberty, |
|
|
equality, and justice; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 81st Texas |
|
|
Legislature hereby congratulate the National Association for the |
|
|
Advancement of Colored People on its centennial and commend the |
|
|
organization for its remarkable record of achievement. |