BILL NUMBER: SR 14	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 4, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Hall

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   Relative to the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday  and the
Selma Voting Rights Movement  .


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
             HOUSE OR SENATE RESOLUTIONS DO NOT CONTAIN A DIGEST



   WHEREAS, March 7, 2015, will mark 50 years since the brave Foot
Soldiers of the  Selma  Voting Rights Movement first
attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery on Bloody Sunday in
protest against the denial of their right to vote and were brutally
assaulted by Alabama state troopers; and
   WHEREAS, Beginning in 1964, members of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee attempted to register 
African-Americans   African Americans  to vote
throughout the State of Alabama; and
   WHEREAS, These efforts were designed to ensure that every American
citizen would be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote
and have their voices heard; and
   WHEREAS, By December of 1964, many of these efforts remained
unsuccessful. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., working with leaders from
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, began to organize protests
throughout Alabama; and
   WHEREAS, On March 7, 1965, over 500 voting rights marchers, known
as Foot Soldiers, gathered on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma,
Alabama, in peaceful protest of the denial of their most sacred and
constitutionally protected right--the right to vote; and
   WHEREAS, Led by John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee and Rev. Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, these Foot Soldiers began the march towards
the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama; and
   WHEREAS, As the Foot Soldiers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge,
they were confronted by a wall of Alabama state troopers who brutally
attacked and beat them; and
   WHEREAS, Americans across the country witnessed this tragic turn
of events as news stations broadcast the brutality on a day that
would be later known as Bloody Sunday; and
   WHEREAS, Two days later, on Tuesday, March 9, 1965, nearly 2,500
Foot Soldiers led by Dr. Martin Luther  King  
King, Jr.,  risked their lives once more and attempted a second
peaceful march starting at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This second
attempted march was later known as Turnaround Tuesday; and
   WHEREAS, Fearing for the safety of these Foot Soldiers who
received no protection from federal or state authorities during this
second march, Dr. King led the marchers to the base of the Edmund
Pettus Bridge and stopped. Dr. King kneeled and offered a prayer of
solidarity and walked back to the church; and
   WHEREAS, Lyndon B. Johnson, inspired by the bravery and
determination of these Foot Soldiers and the atrocities they endured,
announced his plan for a voting rights bill aimed at securing the
precious right to vote for all citizens during an address to Congress
on March 15, 1965; and
   WHEREAS, On March 17, 1965, one week after Turnaround Tuesday,
U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson ruled that the Foot Soldiers had
a First Amendment right to petition the government through peaceful
protest and ordered federal agents to provide full protection to the
Foot Soldiers during the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March; and

   WHEREAS, Judge Johnson's decision overturned Alabama Governor
George Wallace's prohibition on the protest due to public safety
concerns; and
   WHEREAS, On March 21, 1965, under the court order, the U.S. Army,
the federalized Alabama National Guard, and countless federal agents
and marshals escorted nearly 8,000 Foot Soldiers from the start of
their heroic journey in Selma, Alabama  ,  to their safe
arrival on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol Building on March
25, 1965; and
   WHEREAS, The extraordinary bravery and sacrifice these Foot
Soldiers displayed in pursuit of a peaceful march from Selma to
Montgomery brought national attention to the struggle for equal
voting rights, and served as the catalyst for Congress to pass the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, which President Johnson signed into law on
August 6, 1965; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the  Selma  Voting
Rights Movement and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it
is befitting for the California State Senate to commemorate March 7,
2015, in honor of the Foot Soldiers who participated in Bloody
Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, or the final Selma to Montgomery Voting
Rights March during March of 1965, which served as a catalyst for the
Voting Rights Act of 1965; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate provide copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.