BILL NUMBER: ACR 44 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Dymally
FEBRUARY 20, 2003
Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 44--Relative to Earl Warren.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 44, as introduced, Dymally. Earl Warren.
This measure would request that a bronze bas relief memorial be
installed on the southwest front greensward of Capital Office
Building No. 1, and dedicated to the memory of Chief Justice Earl
Warren. This measure would also request the State Architect to
install the California Capitol Historic Preservation Society's bas
relief of former Governor Warren at the Earl Warren Walk.
Fiscal committee: yes.
WHEREAS, May 17, 2004, marks the 50th anniversary of the United
States Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
(1953) 347 U.S. 483, and it is deemed appropriate to establish a
memorial to commemorate Earl Warren as former Chief Justice of the
United States for writing the landmark decision that was unanimously
adopted by the court as well as serving as an outstanding Governor of
California; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren was born March 19, 1891, in Los Angeles, and
was raised and educated in the public schools of Bakersfield while
delivering newspapers, groceries, and blocks of ice during grade
school. Later, in high school, at age 15, he worked 12 hours a day,
six days a week as a railway mechanic's helper and later a call boy
who rounded up crews before the train departures, and at age 17, as a
brakeman on freight trains out of Bakersfield. All of these boyhood
tasks made him keenly aware of labor conditions and railroad
injuries; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren saved his earnings and graduated from the
University of California at Berkeley, earning a Bachelor of Law
degree in 1912 and a Doctorate of Jurisprudence in 1914; and
WHEREAS, After a brief law practice and service in World War I, he
served as an Assemblyman's assistant and clerk to the Assembly
Judiciary Committee; and
WHEREAS, He served honorably as Deputy City Attorney for the City
of Oakland from 1919 to 1920, Deputy District Attorney of Alameda
County from 1920 to 1925, and Alameda County District Attorney for 14
years, from 1925 to 1939. During that time, no case that Warren
ever tried was reversed by a higher court. He succeeded in cleaning
up graft and corruption in local public offices, hospitals, and
county jails, and illegal gambling. In 1930, he was reelected to a
second term by the largest majority for a district attorney in
Alameda County history; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren earnestly introduced administrative reforms
for the office, revitalizing it to the extent that a prominent
national survey concluded that his office was the most efficient
district attorney's office in the country and he was further declared
in 1934 "the best District Attorney in the United States"; and
WHEREAS, In 1938 Earl Warren won the Republican, Progressive, and
Democratic nominations for Attorney General, serving a four-year term
from 1939 to 1943. He reorganized the office for more powerful
responsibilities, helping establish legal aid associations and a
public defender system, and winning $7,000,000 for California Native
Americans under the so-called "lost" 1851-52 treaties; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren was elected president of the National
Association of Attorneys General in 1940; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren was elected Governor of California three
times with unprecedented bipartisan support in 1942, 1946, and 1950.
In January 1943, during the World War II years, Earl Warren led the
state with calmness and tolerance, initiating modern and progressive
programs that included raising pensions for old age assistance,
reforming workers' compensation, and expanding unemployment insurance
benefits for workers of small businesses to include widows and
children of killed workers. He provided more funds for poor school
districts, constructed more schools and hospitals than any Governor
in United States history, obtained more beaches and parks,
established child care centers for employed mothers, and created what
is now the Department of the Youth Authority in California, which
was adopted by other states; and
WHEREAS, He continually urged the Legislature to create a Fair
Employment Practices Commission, and enact legislation limiting
exorbitant interest rates suffered by wage earners and the poor; and
WHEREAS, In 1945, he made valiant attempts to have the Legislature
create a statewide mandatory health insurance program, which was
criticized as "socialized medicine," despite outlining his prepaid
medical insurance proposal beforehand; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren lived simply in the historic Governor's
Mansion at 15th and H Streets with his wife Nina and six children,
Virginia, Earl, Jr., Dorothy, Nina, Elizabeth, and Robert, having his
home number publicly listed in the telephone book. Their sole
income was his state salaries but he never deviated from his duties
to augment his modest state income; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren was the last Governor in Sacramento to walk
the town's streets, usually from the Governor's Mansion to the
Capitol, generally diverging from his walk and wandering into a
barbershop to wait for a haircut, talking to gardeners, greeting
secretaries and elevator operators, and wearing a path on the
greensward of State Office Building No. 1 when leaving his Capitol
office to lunch at the Sutter Club or small ethnic cafes; and
WHEREAS, In 1948 he was the vice presidential candidate on the
Republican ticket headed by Thomas E. Dewey; and
WHEREAS, On September 30, 1953, Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th
President of the United States announced that he was nominating Earl
Warren to be the 14th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme
Court, an interim appointment until the Senate could confirm the
nominee; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren resigned as Governor on October 4, 1953, and
took two solemn oaths of office on October 5 in the Supreme Court
chamber, one before President Eisenhower; and
WHEREAS, On May 17, 1954, two months after Senate confirmation of
his permanent appointment, Earl Warren wrote the landmark opinion in
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, holding that segregated public
schools violated the 14th Amendment. "Separate educational
facilities," he wrote, "are inherently unequal." That decision,
which began a series of attacks on the Warren Court and later was
extended to public transportation, recreation, and other public
areas, has struck down every different type of treatment on racial
grounds that had come before the court, including laws against
interracial marriages; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren, during his international travels on behalf
of the President and the judiciary, discovered that he was an
international celebrity and symbolized America as a humane nation in
many emerging countries due to his desegregation decisions; and
WHEREAS, Earl Warren lived to see his concepts of American society
accepted by most of the nation despite bitter and continuing
controversy. His appointment to the Court may historically be the
single most important judicial act of President Eisenhower; and
WHEREAS, The California Capitol Historic Preservation Society has
maintained an oval bronze bas relief of former Governor Warren that
was intended to commemorate his three terms as the state's chief
executive; and
WHEREAS, The Chair of the State Historical Resources Commission
wrote to the society chair regarding the proposed dedication of the
Earl Warren Walk with the bronze bas relief that "All commissioners
join me in applauding your efforts to commemorate this site"; now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That a bronze bas relief memorial in an
appropriate scale be installed on the southwest front greensward of
Capitol Office Building No. 1, facing the Library and Courts
Building, and dedicated to the memory of Chief Justice Earl Warren,
whose outstanding service to California and the nation will always be
remembered; and be it further
Resolved, That the selected sculptor design the memorial in a
style befitting the august neoclassic architecture of those Capitol
extension buildings as well as that of the United States Supreme
Court building; and be it further
Resolved, That the State Architect install the California Capitol
Historic Preservation Society's bas relief at the Earl Warren Walk,
acknowledging his service as Governor of the state and his long
association with the Sutter Club, for which the California Capitol
Historic Preservation Society and the Sutter Club may organize an
appropriate dedication ceremony; and be it further
Resolved, That plans for this Warren Memorial project be developed
with the review and approval of the California Capitol Historic
Preservation Society's preservation architect, Chairman Emeritus of
the Historic State Capitol Commission and former Capitol Restoration
Architect, and be submitted to the Historic State Capitol Commission
for review; and be it further
Resolved, That the California Capitol Historic Preservation
Society's Warren Memorial Advisory Committee develop the design,
construction, and dedication of the two commemorative memorials, the
former honoring Governor Warren's service to the state, and the
latter his honorable service to the United States Supreme Court and
the nation; and be it further
Resolved, That funds for the design and construction of the grand
national memorial shall be collected from private and foundation
sources by the California Capitol Historic Preservation Society, in
conjunction with its Warren Memorial Advisory Committee that will
consist of no less than 11 persons, in consultation with the Speaker
of the Assembly and the Senate Committee on Rules; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.