BILL ANALYSIS �
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SCR 3|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SCR 3
Author: Price (D), et al
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
WITHOUT REFERENCE TO COMMITTEE OR FILE
SUBJECT : Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This resolution designates that January 17,
2011, be observed as the official memorial of the late Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s birth, commemorate Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day, 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.
ANALYSIS : This resolution makes the following
legislative findings:
1. Monday, January 17, 2011, marks the 25th National
Celebration of the National Holiday for Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. and his fight for civil and human
rights.
2. On Saturday, January 15, 2011, Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. would have been 82 years of age.
3. On April 10, 1970, California became the first state to
CONTINUED
SCR 3
Page
2
pass legislation making Dr. King's birthday a school
holiday and, subsequently, a statewide holiday.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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
CONTINUED
SCR 3
Page
3
for "changes in the structure of our society".
10.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".
11.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.
12.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights
Movement serve as a model for principled leadership and
forward-thinking, bipartisan public policy.
This resolution designates that January 17, 2011, be
observed as the official memorial of the late Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, commemorate Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day, 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
CTW:mw 1/10/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
**** END ****
CONTINUED