GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2009

H                                                                                                                                                    2

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 34

Committee Substitute Favorable 2/11/09

 

Sponsors:

 

Referred to:

 

February 4, 2009

A JOINT RESOLUTION honoring the naacp's centennial anniversary.

Whereas, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, by a multiracial group of distinguished leaders, including Ida Wells‑Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard, and William English Walling; and

Whereas, the NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States; and

Whereas, the NAACP's mission is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination; and

Whereas, according to the NAACP's constitution, the principal objectives of the Association are:

(1)        To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens.

(2)        To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States.

(3)        To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.

(4)        To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights.

(5)        To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination.

(6)        To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP's Articles of Incorporation and its Constitution; and

Whereas, the NAACP advances its mission through the press, the petition, the ballot, and the courts; and

Whereas, the NAACP has been persistent in achieving its goals through nonviolence, using effective means such as lobbying, demonstrations, and marches; and

Whereas, after years of fighting segregation in public schools, the NAACP's lawyers, led by Thurgood Marshall, won a great legal victory in the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education; and

Whereas, a year later in 1955, the Secretary of the Montgomery Branch of the NAACP, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in her hometown in Alabama, an act of courage that served as the catalyst for the largest grassroots civil rights movement in the history of the United States; and

Whereas, the NAACP provided critical leadership and grassroots support for a multiracial movement that won passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the Fair Housing Act of 1968; and the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006, laws that ensured legislative protection for victories in the courts; and

Whereas, in 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the NAACP launched the Disaster Relief Fund to help survivors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, and Alabama rebuild their lives; and

Whereas, the dedicated workers, organizers, and leaders who comprise the NAACP have worked tirelessly on the frontlines of social, political, and economic justice; and

Whereas, in North Carolina the Conference of NAACP Branches has been led by Kelly Alexander, Sr., Kelly Alexander, Jr., Melvin "Skip" Alston, and now Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II; and

Whereas, the North Carolina Conference of NAACP Branches has succeeded and continues to accomplish its civil rights and social justice work with the support from Executive Secretaries/Directors: Charles A. McLean, Carolyn Q. Coleman, Mary Peeler, Rev. Dr. George I. Allison, James Wiggins, and now Amina Josey Turner; and

Whereas, the North Carolina NAACP is the largest state NAACP in the South, with over 100 adult branches, youth councils, and high school and college chapters across the width and breadth of North Carolina; Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

SECTION 1.  The General Assembly honors the memory of those who founded the NAACP for their vision and the service they rendered our nation and State.

SECTION 2.  The General Assembly congratulates the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the nation, on its 100th anniversary and expresses appreciation for its significant contributions to social change.

SECTION 3.  The Secretary of State shall transmit a certified copy of this resolution to the President of the North Carolina Conference of NAACP Branches.

SECTION 4.  This resolution is effective upon ratification.