BILL NUMBER: ACR 7	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	ADOPTED IN SENATE  JUNE 26, 2009
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 15, 2009
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 15, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Swanson, Lieu, and Mendoza
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Adams, Anderson, Arambula, Bass,
Beall, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto,
Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans,
Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani,
Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John
A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas,
Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Torlakson,
Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, and Yamada)

                        JANUARY 6, 2009

   Relative to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 7, Swanson. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
   This measure would designate that January 19, 2009, be observed as
the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
birth, and commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the work of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in
changing public policy in California and in the United States of
America.



   WHEREAS, Monday, January 19, 2009, marks the 23rd National
Celebration of the National Holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
and his fight for civil and human rights; and
   WHEREAS, On Thursday, January 15, 2009, Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. would have been 80 years of age; and
   WHEREAS, On April 10, 1970, California became the first state to
pass legislation making Dr. King's birthday a school holiday and,
subsequently, a statewide holiday; and
   WHEREAS, Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) submitted the
first legislation for a national King Holiday, which was signed into
law by President Ronald Wilson Reagan, on November 2, 1983; and
   WHEREAS, January 20, 1986, marked the first observance of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement helped change
public policy from segregation to integration, resulting in the
repeal of the post-Reconstruction era state laws mandating racial
segregation in the South known as the "Black Codes," in the passage
of laws aimed at ending economic and social segregation in the North,
and in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, and other antidiscrimination, full citizen
participation laws; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement specifically
changed public policy from closed access to open access in education,
including higher education, employment and labor laws,
transportation policy, election laws, and other aspects of public
policy, particularly those relating to human rights; and
   WHEREAS, These public policy changes at the national level
influenced many changes in California public policy manifest in the
Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Rumford Fair Housing Act, in open
enrollment and access to higher education, specifically with respect
to the California State University and the University of California,
and in employment and labor laws, transportation policy, election
laws, and other aspects of public policy; and
   WHEREAS, The unfinished business of Dr. King and the Civil Rights
Movement was and is the plight of the poor, the fight against war and
for worldwide peace, and the struggle for a fair, equitable, and
sensible economic system; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement noted that a
majority of Americans lived below the poverty line, and that the huge
income gaps between rich and poor, called for "changes in the
structure of our society"; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. King, in the last months of his life, began
organizing a Poor People's Campaign to, among other things, assemble
"a multiracial army of the poor that would descend on
Washington--engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol,
if need be--until Congress enacted a poor people's bill of rights";
and
   WHEREAS, All of the aforementioned concerns and more continue to
be the quest of civil and human rights organizations in the great
State of California, across America, and throughout the world; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought to change public
policy from the "self-inflicted wound of segregation to the
pluralistic diverse democracy" we continue to construct today; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement
serve as a model for principled leadership and forward thinking,
bipartisan public policy; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That Monday, January 19, 2009, be observed as the
official memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth and his
work in the Civil Rights Movement; and be it further
   Resolved, That this day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil
Rights Movement be commemorated for their help in changing public
policy from segregation to integration, for the betterment of this,
the great State of California and these United States of America; and
be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.