BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: ACR 2
Author: Mitchell (D), et al.
Amended: 1/18/13 in Assembly
Vote: 21
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Read and adopted, 1/18/13
SUBJECT : Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This resolution designates that January 21, 2013, be
observed as the official memorial of the late Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.s birth and commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and
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. Also, recognizes the anniversaries of
the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington in
connection with the advancement of civil rights.
ANALYSIS : This resolution makes the following legislative
findings:
1.This year, 2013, marks the anniversary of two important
anniversaries in the history of African Americans in the
United States, the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation
Proclamation in 1863 and the 50th anniversary of March on
Washington in 1963.
2.The Emancipation Proclamation, a wartime measure issued by
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2
President Abraham Lincoln, freed relatively few slaves, but it
fueled the fire of the enslaved to strike for their freedom,
often by enlisting in the Union Army, in an effort to
dismantle the "peculiar institution" of slavery.
3.One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, on
August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others
organized hundreds of thousands of blacks and whites, Jews and
gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, in a march to the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington D.C. where Dr. King made his famous "I
Have a Dream" speech announcing that the days of segregation
in the United States were numbered; Dr. King and the Civil
Rights Movement helped change public policy from legal and
socially acceptable discrimination and segregation to an open
and accessible policy of racial integration leading to equal
participation and access to primary and higher education,
housing, employment, transportation, federal, state, and local
governmental elections, and other aspects of public policy
relating to human rights.
4.These public policy changes at the national level influenced
many changes in California that culminated in the passage of
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.
This resolution designates that January 21, 2013, be observed as
the official memorial of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
birth and commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and 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. Also, recognizes the anniversaries of the Emancipation
Proclamation and the March on Washington in connection with the
advancement of civil rights.
Related Legislation
SCR 7 (Wright) was adopted by the Senate (32-0) on January 18,
2013.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
ACR 2
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3
MW:nl 2/13/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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