Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 123.djvu/3521

 123STA T . 3 50 1 CON C UR R E NT RESO L UT I ONS —F E B .13, 200 9an a tio na lc on fer ence to d i s c u sst h eci v il and p olitical ri g hts of A frican - A m ericans hereas the N AA CPw as founded by a distinguished group of leaders in the struggle for civil and political liberty , including I da Wells- B arnett, W .E .B. D uBois, H enry M oscowit z , Mary White O vington, Oswald G arrison V illard, and William English Walling; Whereas the NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights organiza- tion in the U nited S tates; Whereas the mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic e q uality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination; Whereas the NAACP is committed to achieving its goals through nonviolence; Whereas the NAACP advances its mission through reliance upon the press, the petition, the ballot, and the courts, and has been persistent in the use of legal and moral persuasion, even in the face of overt and violent racial hostility; Whereas the NAACP has used political pressure, marches, dem- onstrations, and effective lobbying to serve as the voice, as well as the shield, for minority Americans; Whereas after years of fighting segregation in public schools, the NAACP, under the leadership of Special Counsel T hurgood Mar- shall, won one of its greatest legal victories in the Supreme Court ’ s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 374 U.S. 4 8 3 (195 4 ) Whereas in 1955, NAACP member R osa Par k s was arrested and fined for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama — an act of courage that would serve as the catalyst for the largest grassroots civil rights movement in the history of the United States; Whereas the NAACP was prominent in lobbying for the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 19 60, and 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the F annie L ou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott K ing, Ce ´ sar E. Cha´ vez, Barbara C. J ordan, William C. Vela´ squez, and Dr. Hector P. Garcia Voting Rights Act Reauthor- ization and Amendments Act of 2 006, and the Fair Housing Act, laws that ensured Government protection for legal victories achieved; Whereas in 2005, the NAACP launched the Disaster Relief Fund to help survivors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Te x as, Florida, and Alabama to rebuild their lives; Whereas in the 110th Congress, the NAACP was prominent in lobbying for the passage of H. Res. 826, whose resolved clause expresses that (1) the hanging of nooses is a horrible act when used for the purpose of intimidation and which under certain circumstances can be criminal; (2) this conduct should be inves- tigated thoroughly by Federal authorities; and (3) any criminal violations should be vigorously prosecuted; and Whereas in 2008 the NAACP vigorously supported the passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 (28 U.S.C. 509 note), a law that puts additional Federal resources into solving the heinous crimes that occurred in the early days of the civil rights struggle that remain unsolved and bringing
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