[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1521 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1521
Honoring organizers for promoting equality.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 29, 2008
Mr. Gutierrez (for himself, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr.
Clay, Mr. Meeks of New York, Ms. Linda T. Sanchez of California, Mr.
Hinojosa, Ms. Norton, Mr. Watt, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts,
Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Johnson
of Georgia, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, and Mr. Kucinich) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Honoring organizers for promoting equality.
Whereas the United States was founded on the notion that political power in a
democracy derives from the expressed will of the people;
Whereas our great country believes that its citizens must be able to organize
themselves, petition their government, and work together to improve
their lives and their communities;
Whereas community organizing is a proud American tradition that helps Americans
engage in the political process and make a difference in their
communities and in the lives of their neighbors;
Whereas the values that community organizers represent are among the truest of
American values, the values of our people;
Whereas whether working in small towns, rural areas, or big cities, community
organizers recognize that citizens are all interconnected and that each
citizen plays an important role in making our country work;
Whereas community organizers place their country first by strengthening the
democratic principle of public participation;
Whereas the accomplishments of community organizers constitute an illustrious
list, from helping slaves reach freedom, to gaining rights for farming
families, to raising money to fight disease, to the civil rights
movement's success changing the way we understand race and dismantling
legal discrimination, to the women's movements that earned women the
right to vote and the opportunity to break glass ceilings in all parts
of society;
Whereas community organizer Jane Addams helped organize the Women's Peace Party
and the International Congress of Women in an effort to avert World War
I, and was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
Whereas abolitionist, women's suffragist and community organizer Susan B.
Anthony cofounded the National Women's Suffrage Association, traveled
the United States giving speeches in support of equal rights for women,
was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the passage of the 19th
Amendment to the United States Constitution giving women the right to
vote, and was honored as the first American woman on a circulating
United States coin;
Whereas teacher, nurse, and community organizer Clara Barton established an
agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers during the
American Civil War, convinced the Union Army to allow her to bring her
own medical supplies to the battlefields, and organized the American Red
Cross;
Whereas labor leader and community organizer Cesar Chavez cofounded the National
Farm Workers Association, worked tirelessly to register new immigrants
to vote, led boycotts and protests that resulted in higher wages and
better working conditions for American farm laborers, and received the
Pacem in Terris award from the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1994 was
posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom;
Whereas founding father and inventor Benjamin Franklin helped organize common
citizens to create one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in
America, obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to
establish Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in what was to
become the United States, organized the Pennsylvania Militia, led the
``anti-proprietary party'' in the struggle against the Penn family, the
proprietors of the colony, and was an active abolitionist, serving as
president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society;
Whereas Baptist minister and community organizer Martin Luther King, Jr. led the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, helped found the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington,
became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and was
posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the
Congressional Gold Medal in 2004;
Whereas native Tlingit Alaskan and community organizer Elizabeth W. Peratrovich
worked tirelessly for the equal rights of indigenous Alaskan peoples and
was the single driving force behind the passage of the State's Anti-
Discrimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the
United States;
Whereas escaped slave, nurse, Union spy, and community organizer Harriet Tubman
made more than 15 missions to rescue hundreds of slaves using the
network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the
Underground Railroad; and
Whereas as Thomas Jefferson wrote, ``Enlighten the people, generally, and
tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the
dawn of day'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) the House of Representatives--
(A) honors the contributions that community
organizers, past and present, have made to our Nation
and our communities; and
(B) recognizes that community organizing is a
vision of participatory democracy in which a change
comes from the people, not the powerful, the
privileged, or the government, and where the electorate
is empowered and called upon to act on their behalf;
and
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
(A) participation in community organizing is an
American tradition that should be encouraged; and
(B) regardless of religion, gender, race,
ethnicity, sexual preference, or point of view, the
right of American citizens to organize and petition
their government is crucial to achieving a profoundly
democratic, just, moral, and honorable society.
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