Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 7

Introduced by Senator Wright

(Principal coauthor: Senator Price)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bradford, Brown, Hall, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Mitchell, and Weber)

January 9, 2013

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 7—Relative to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 7, as introduced, Wright. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: observance.

This measure would designate that January 21, 2013, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. 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. This measure would also recognize the anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington in connection with the advancement of civil rights.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, 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 150th Anniversary of the March on
Washington in 1963; and

WHEREAS, The Emancipation Proclamation, a wartime
measure issued by 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; and

WHEREAS, 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; and

WHEREAS, Monday, January 21, 2013, marks the 27th National
Celebration of the National Holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. and his fight for civil and human rights; and

WHEREAS, On Tuesday, January 15, 2013, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. would have been 84 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 Martin Luther King,
Jr. 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 “Jim Crow Laws,”
thereby leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, and other antidiscrimination laws aimed
at ending economic, legal, and social segregation in America; and

WHEREAS, 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; and

WHEREAS, 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; 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 Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That Monday, January 21, 2013, 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 California Legislature encourages all
Americans to pay tribute to the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. through participation in community service projects on
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; and be it further

Resolved, That the California Legislature recognizes the inherent
value of community service and volunteerism in the creation of a
civil society and as a means of nonviolent community progress
consistent with the works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and be
it further

Resolved, That the California Legislature recognizes the benefits
of the collaborative work by many organizations that promote,
facilitate, and carry out needed service projects nationwide; and
be it further

Resolved, That the California Legislature encourages its
members and colleagues to urge their constituents to participate
in community service projects; and be it further

Resolved, That the California Legislature acknowledges that,
by serving one’s country, one’s community, and one’s neighbor,
our nation makes progress in civility, equality, and unity consistent
with the values and life’s work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and
be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit a copy of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.