BILL NUMBER: ACR 126	CHAPTERED
	BILL TEXT

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER  156
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  SEPTEMBER 19, 2008
	ADOPTED IN SENATE  AUGUST 27, 2008
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  AUGUST 30, 2008
	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 21, 2008
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 17, 2008

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Dymally

                        APRIL 3, 2008

   Relative to the Honorable Augustus Freeman (Gus) Hawkins.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 126, Dymally. Augustus Freeman (Gus) Hawkins.
   This measure would commend and recognize the late Honorable
Augustus Freeman (Gus) Hawkins for his great accomplishments and his
contributions to this state and our country as both a former Member
of this Assembly and as a United States Representative in Congress
and would declare that the second Monday of September of each year
shall be Gus Hawkins Day in California.



   WHEREAS, The Honorable Augustus Freeman (Gus) Hawkins was a
soft-spoken, articulate man whose public service as a Member of the
Assembly and as a United States Representative in Congress spanned
the years from 1935 to 1991, making him the longest serving Member of
the Assembly, 28 years, and the first African American to serve in
Congress from this state; and
   WHEREAS, In the Assembly and as the first African American United
States Representative in Congress from the western part of the
country, Augustus Hawkins was elected from districts populated by
African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and Caucasian
Americans, and he devoted his energy to issues of civil rights,
employment, education, child care, housing, slum clearance, and age
discrimination; and
   WHEREAS, Augustus Hawkins was the son of Nyanza Hawkins, a
pharmacist, and Hattie Freeman Hawkins, and was born in Shreveport,
Louisiana, on August 31, 1907; Augustus, the youngest of five
children, was 10 when his father sold his business and moved the
family to Los Angeles; he worked in a drug store and in the post
office during his high school years, and as a janitor in the girls'
gymnasium when he studied at the University of California at Los
Angeles (UCLA) for a B.A. degree in economics, which he earned in
1931; and
   WHEREAS, Mr. Hawkins' original intention was to enter graduate
school at UCLA to prepare for a career in civil engineering, but the
lack of sufficient financial support made it more attractive to take
classes in the Institute of Government of the University of Southern
California while he worked in the real estate business he established
with his brother, Edward; before long, his increasing interest in
the plight of minorities in his area led to political ventures in
support of Upton Sinclair's unsuccessful campaign for Governor of
California and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's candidacy that ended with
election to his first term as President of the United States in 1932;
and
   WHEREAS, In 1935, Mr. Hawkins won a seat in the Assembly by
defeating another African American, Frederick Roberts, a longtime
Assembly Member; Hawkins' tenure stretched into more than a quarter
of a century--from 1935 to 1962--and he served an identical longevity
in the United States House of Representatives; and
   WHEREAS, As an Assembly Member, Mr. Hawkins chaired the powerful
Assembly Committee on Rules and was an influential figure in
Sacramento, sponsoring laws that reflected his concern about the
status of the ethnic minorities in his district and working people in
the state; although he initiated or coauthored more than 100 other
laws, he is best remembered in the state for the five years of
struggle leading to the passage of the California Fair Employment
Practices Act, which was signed in 1959; Mr. Hawkins used his
willingness to work hard and his innate capabilities to chair
powerful Assembly committees that dealt with unemployment, labor and
capital, rules, and public utilities; and
   WHEREAS, Mr. Hawkins, with Speaker of the Assembly Jesse Unruh,
was responsible for upgrading both the services for and the role of
Members of the Assembly in his capacity as Chair of the Assembly
Committee on Rules; and
   WHEREAS, When Mr. Hawkins went from the Assembly to the House of
Representatives in 1963, he was the spokesman for the same
constituency he had in the state government of California, and he
brought to Washington, D.C., his valuable legislative experience; Mr.
Hawkins hoped that he could bring about more meaningful and more
widespread changes at the federal level than in the state house; in
April of 1970, Mr. Hawkins was cosponsor of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, which improved the quality of
education for children from lower income families and in his early
years in the House of Representatives, he helped to establish the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964; and
   WHEREAS, When Mr. Hawkins chaired the powerful House Committee on
Education and Labor, his charge was to monitor existing programs and
provide legislation and funding for their operation at a time of
severe budget cuts proposed by the Reagan administration; he opposed
President Reagan's cuts in social programs, such as financial aid to
students, grants to educational institutions, unemployment insurance,
funds for school lunches, and job training; Mr. Hawkins also chaired
the Committee on House Administration during the 97th and 98th
Congresses, and his greatest success in Congress was the passage of
the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, also known as
the Humphrey-Hawkins Act; and
   WHEREAS, Mr. Hawkins also succeeded in restoring an honorable
discharge for the entire 1st Battalion of the Twenty-fifth Infantry
Regiment of the United States Army, 167 African American soldiers in
all, after they were falsely accused of a public disturbance in
Brownsville, Texas, in 1906, and throughout his years in Congress,
Mr. Hawkins pointed to failures in federal action; he emphasized that
unemployment, lack of adequate education, and the sense of isolation
among financially distressed people were the chief causes of
disruptive behavior that affects the population as a whole; over and
over he pleaded for tax reform and encouraged citizens to be involved
in the workings of their government at the grassroots level; and
   WHEREAS, Mr. Hawkins openly voiced dissatisfaction with military
spending coupled with continued mistreatment of African American
veterans returning from Vietnam; a survey he requested confirmed that
of 523 higher level positions in the Pentagon, only three were held
by African Americans, and not one was involved in decisionmaking;
during the war in Vietnam, Mr. Hawkins and William R. Anderson, the
Representative from Tennessee, by their protest to President Richard
M. Nixon, caused an immediate correction of the inhumane treatment of
civilians in a prison in South Vietnam; and
   WHEREAS, In February 1986, Mr. Hawkins, then Chair of the
Education and Labor Committee of the House of Representatives, called
together a nationally representative group of African American
educators and leaders of organizations interested in the welfare of
African American children, and charged them with the responsibility
of developing a plan and procedure for improving the quality of
education for African American youth. He insisted that the plan be
guided by the correlates found in the "Effective" Schools research of
noted African American educator, the late Dr. Ron Edmonds. The
product of that effort was the establishment of the National
Conference (now Council) on Educating Black Children (NCEBC); and
   WHEREAS, When Congressman Hawkins announced his plans to retire in
January of 1991, he did so anticipating passage of the civil rights
legislation that was ultimately signed on November 21 of that year;
this was a fitting reward for a man whose sole purpose in public life
was to better conditions for people without the means or the
knowledge to take action for themselves; in retirement, he lived in
Washington, D.C., engaged in tasks that mirrored his tenure as an
elected official; and
   WHEREAS, With characteristic energy, Mr. Hawkins in retirement
served as director of the Hawkins Family Memorial Foundation for
Educational Research and Development, which he founded in 1969, and
supported by Members of Congress and educational institutions, the
foundation formulates and implements policies aimed at more effective
education of young people in preparation for employment; this
employment increases the chances for young adults to be more
productive and free from the problems that beset large numbers of
minority populations; and
   WHEREAS, Augustus Freeman (Gus) Hawkins, no longer bound to the
demanding and often unpredictable schedules in state and federal
government, maintained an active membership in the NAACP and the
Masonic Lodge; the widespread esteem felt for the former United
States Representative is shown by the honorary doctorates that have
been conferred upon him by 12 universities in states all over the
country; and
   WHEREAS, Mr. Hawkins was succeeded in the California State
Assembly by Mervyn M. Dymally, who subsequently joined him in
Congress and served with him on the House Committee on Education and
Labor; and
   WHEREAS, Mr. Hawkins died on November 10, 2007; now, therefore, be
it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature commends and recognizes the
Honorable Augustus Freeman (Gus) Hawkins for his great
accomplishments and his contributions to this state and our country
as both a former Member of this Assembly and as a United States
Representative in Congress; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Legislature declares that the second Monday of
September of each year shall be Gus Hawkins Day in California and
encourages all schools in California to teach about Mr. Hawkins and
reflect on his legacy; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the family of the Honorable Augustus Freeman (Gus)
Hawkins and to the author for appropriate distribution.