BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SCR 7
Author: Wright (D), et al.
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
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
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s birth, and
commemorates 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 150th Anniversary of the
March on Washington in 1963.
2. 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
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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.
4. 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.
5. 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 Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, and commemorates 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.
Prior Legislation
SCR 7
Page
3
SCR 3 (Price, 2011-12) was adopted by the Senate (32-0) on
January 20, 2011, but died in the Assembly.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
MW:d 1/17/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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