BILL NUMBER: ACR 41	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Chávez

                        MARCH 21, 2013

   Relative to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 41, as introduced, Chávez. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge.

   This measure would designate the Mission Avenue bridge over
Interstate 5 in the City of Oceanside as the Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. Bridge to honor the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. The measure would request the Department of Transportation
to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special
designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources
covering that cost, to erect those signs.
   Fiscal committee: yes.



   WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4,
1968) was an American clergyman, doctor of theology, activist, and
leader in the African American Civil Rights Movement, who is best
known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using
nonviolent civil disobedience; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. King, who has become a national icon, became a
Baptist minister and a civil rights activist early in his career; and

   WHEREAS, Dr. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped
found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957,
serving as its first president. With the SCLC, Dr. King led an
unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia in 1962,
and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama that
attracted national attention following television news coverage of
the brutal police response; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on
Washington, D.C., where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators
in American history and said to the crowd: "With this faith we will
be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With
this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our
nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood"; and
   WHEREAS, On October 14, 1964, Dr. King received the Nobel Peace
Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965,
he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches,
and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago. In the
final years of his life, Dr. King expanded his focus to include
poverty and the Vietnam War; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis,
Tennessee and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
was established as a United States federal holiday in 1986 and a
memorial statue on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was opened
to the public in 2011; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature designates the Mission
Avenue bridge (Bridge No. 57-0266) over Interstate 5 in the City of
Oceanside as the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge to honor the life
and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and be it further
   Resolved, That when our children cross this bridge they can be
reminded of an American hero who preached love, understanding, and
peace for all; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to
determine the cost of erecting appropriate signs consistent with the
signing requirements for the state highway system, showing this
special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate
sources covering that cost, to erect those signs; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the Department of Transportation and to the author
for appropriate distribution.