BILL NUMBER: SCR 126 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Lara MARCH 31, 2016 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.