Bill Text: CA ACR109 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 47-22-1)

Status: (Passed) 2016-06-08 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 60, Statutes of 2016. [ACR109 Detail]

Download: California-2015-ACR109-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: ACR 109	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Cooper

                        JANUARY 4, 2016

   Relative to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 109, as introduced, Cooper. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
   This measure would proclaim that Monday, January 18, 2016, be
observed as the official memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
birth and his work in the Civil Rights Movement.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   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, DC 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 18, 2016, marks the 30th national
celebration of the national holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
and his fight for civil and human rights; and
   WHEREAS, On Friday, January 15, 2016, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
would have been 87 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 Dr. 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 Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That Monday, January 18, 2016, 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 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 Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day; and be it further
   Resolved, That the 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 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 Legislature encourages its members and
colleagues to urge their constituents to participate in community
service projects; and be it further
   Resolved, That the 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 Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.