Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 126

Introduced by Senator Lara

March 31, 2016

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 126—Relative to Honorable Edward Ross Roybal.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 126, as introduced, Lara. Honorable Edward Ross Roybal.

This measure would recognize the contributions of Honorable Edward Ross Roybal on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The Honorable Edward Ross Roybal was among
the country’s most influential Latino leaders, serving in the United
States Army during the Second World War, as a member of the
Los Angeles City Council for 13 years, and as a Member of the
United States Congress for 30 years; and

WHEREAS, Edward Ross Roybal was one of 10 children born
to Baudilio Roybal, a carpenter, and Eloisa Roybal on February
10, 1916, in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, At the age of six, Mr. Roybal moved with his
family to Los Angeles, California, where he attended local public
schools and graduated from Roosevelt High School; and

WHEREAS, After graduating high school, Mr. Roybal worked
for the Civilian Conservation Corps before studying accounting
and business administration at the University of California, Los
Angeles, and Southwestern University; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Roybal worked as a public health educator
with the California Tuberculosis Controllers Association and later
served four years as director of health education for the Los
Angeles County Tuberculosis and Health Association; and

WHEREAS, In World War II, Mr. Roybal served as an
accountant for an infantry unit in the United States Army; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Roybal married Lucille Beserra on September
27, 1940, and the couple raised three children: Lucille, Lillian, and
Edward, Jr; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Roybal helped start the Community Service
Organization (CSO), which sought to ally the city’s diverse
neighborhoods to push progressive issues such as challenging
discrimination in southern California, especially its effects on
economic, education, and housing conditions around Los Angeles;
and

WHEREAS, In 1949, Mr. Roybal was elected as a Los Angeles
City Council member, becoming the first Latino to hold that
position since 1881 and one of the highest-ranking Latinos in
California municipal government; and

WHEREAS, As a city council member, Mr. Roybal worked to
defuse tensions between the Mexican American community and
the Los Angeles police and fought the city after it ceded a huge
swath of residential land to its professional baseball team,
displacing many Mexican American families; and

WHEREAS, In 1962, Mr. Roybal was elected to the United
States Congress where he served for 30 years fighting ethnic, racial,
and age discrimination and working to reform the public education
system to increase access to bilingual education; and

WHEREAS, In 1976, Mr. Roybal helped found the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), a legislative service
organization that monitored policy directly affecting the nation’s
Latino communities. Mr. Roybal became the first chairman of the
CHC and encouraged United States President Jimmy Carter to hire
more Latino Americans in his administration; and

WHEREAS, During his chairmanship of the CHC, Mr. Roybal
founded the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed
Officials (NALEO), a nonpartisan organization that facilitates full
Latino participation in the American political process, from
citizenship to public service, and that provides national leadership
on key issues that affect Latino participation in our political
process, including immigration and naturalization, voting rights,
election reform, the federal census, and the appointment of
qualified Latinos to top executive and judicial positions; and

WHEREAS, In 1993, Mr. Roybal retired from the United States
House of Representatives and moved back to Los Angeles, where
he lived for 12 more years until his death in 2005, still deeply
involved in the community he had long served; now, therefore, be
it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That on the 100th anniversary of his birth, the
Legislature recognizes the contributions of Honorable Edward
Ross Roybal, a cofounder and the first chairman of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a celebrated Latino leader in
Los Angeles, California, and the United States; and be it further

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