Amended in Assembly August 20, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

House Resolution No. 22

Introduced by Assembly begin delete Member end delete begin insert Members end insert John A. Pérez begin insert and Weber end insert

August 5, 2013

House Resolution No. 22—Relative to the March on Washington 50th anniversary.

WHEREAS, The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
on August 28, 1963, was one of the largest rallies for human rights
in United States history and called for civil and economic rights
for African Americans; and

WHEREAS, The March on Washington included musical
performances by Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and
Mahalia Jackson, and a series of speeches by various civil rights
leaders, including Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religious leaders,
as well as begin insert now Congressman end insert John Lewis and the only female
speaker, Josephine begin delete Baker, who introduced Rosa Parks during her
remarks; end delete begin insert Baker; end insert and

WHEREAS, At the March on Washington, Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial,
delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history,
his “I Have a Dream” speech, advocating racial harmony and social
justice; and

WHEREAS, The March on Washington was organized by a
group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations, under the
theme “jobs and freedom,” with an estimated 200,000 to 300,000
people participating; and

WHEREAS, The 1963 March on Washington played an
important part in the rapidly expanding civil rights movement, and
it also marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln; and

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WHEREAS, The March on Washington is widely credited with
helping to pave the way for passage of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and

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WHEREAS, The March on Washington was planned and
initiated by A. Philip Randolph, the President of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters -- the first predominantly black labor union.
He was also President of the Negro American Labor Council and
Vice President of the AFL-CIO; and

WHEREAS, begin delete In 1957, when end delete begin insert When end insert schools in the South resisted
school integration following Brown v. Board of Education,
Randolph organized a Prayer Pilgrimage with Martin Luther King,
Jr., and in 1958 and 1959, Randolph organized youth marches for
integrated schools in Washington, D.C.; and

WHEREAS, Randolph inspired the “Freedom Budget,”
sometimes called the “Randolph Freedom Budget,” which aimed
to deal with the economic problems facing the African American
community, particularly workers and the unemployed; and

WHEREAS, Bayard Rustin was the chief organizer of the March
on Washington and instrumental in organizing its logistics. He
drafted off-duty police officers to be marshals and bus captains to
direct traffic, and scheduled the podium speakers; and

WHEREAS, Rustin was an American leader in social
movements for civil rights, nonviolence, and gay begin delete rights; end delete begin insert rights and
became a leading strategist in the civil rights movement from 1955
to 1968, helping to organize the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference to strengthen Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership
and promote the philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance; end insert
and

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WHEREAS, Rustin became a leading strategist and activist in
the civil rights movement from 1955 to 1968, helping to organize
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s leadership and promote the philosophy and
practice of nonviolent resistance, which he had observed while
working with Gandhi’s movement in India; and

end delete begin delete

WHEREAS, Despite the shunning of Rustin by some civil rights
leaders, when the moment came for the unprecedented March on
Washington, Randolph pushed Rustin forward as the logical choice
to organize it; and

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WHEREAS, Commemorating the 1963 March on Washington
affirms our nation’s and our state’s commitment to achieving the
social and economic justice sought by the marchers and their vision
of social equality, opportunity, and racial harmony embodied in
the begin delete Reverend Dr. end delete Martin Luther King, Jr.’s captivating “I Have A
Dream” speech; and

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WHEREAS, In his remarks, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. exhorted, “Let freedom ring” across the nation and
concluded with, “And when this happens, when we allow freedom
to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet,
from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that
day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews
and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands
and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free
at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ ”; now, therefore,
be it

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Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That
Wednesday, August 28, 2013, be observed as the official memorial
of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom; and be it further

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WHEREAS, Bayard Rustin proclaimed the demands of the March
on Washington to be “effective civil rights legislation,” an end to
segregation “in every school district in the year 1963,” “the
enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment” to the United States
Constitution, a ban on “discrimination in all housing supported
by federal funds,” “an increase in the national minimum wage so
that men may live in dignity,” and that “all of the rights that are
given to any citizen be given to black men and men of every
minority group” including a strong Fair Employment Practices
Commission; and

end insert begin insert

WHEREAS, The March on Washington is widely credited with
helping to pave the way for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and

end insert begin insert

WHEREAS, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 laid the foundation of
civil rights legislation in the United States when it outlawed major
forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national, and
religious minorities, and women; and

end insert begin insert

WHEREAS, In addition, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became the
landmark federal legislation in the United States to prohibit
discrimination in voting. This act, echoing the language of the
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibits
states and local governments from imposing any “voting
qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or
procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the
United States to vote on account of race or color”; and

end insert begin insert

WHEREAS, In recent years, states have enacted voting laws
that could potentially disenfranchise voters; now, therefore, be it

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Resolved, By the Assembly of the State of California, That
the Assembly commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1963
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and how it served
as a catalyst for the passage of landmark legislative reforms, such
as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964;
and be it further

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Resolved, That the sacrifices made by the leaders and
participants of the March on Washington 50 years ago are
recognized and honored for their role in the advancement of civil
rights and social justice in the United States; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.