2018 -- H 8050

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2018

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF DR.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

     Introduced By: Representatives Hull, Mattiello, Almeida, Abney, and Ranglin-Vassell

     Date Introduced: April 04, 2018

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, On the tragic day of April 4, 1968, our nation suffered a grievous loss when

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis,

Tennessee; and

     WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia,

to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King. Dr. King graduated from

Booker T. Washington High School where he became known for his public speaking skills and

his proficiency in debating. A child of the South, he lived and experienced firsthand the effects of

segregation, racism and the injustices of the prevalent Jim Crow laws; and

     WHEREAS, At the age of 15, Dr. King passed the entrance exam and entered Morehouse

College where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in sociology and subsequently enrolled in

Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a Divinity

degree in 1951. Dr. King married Coretta Scott in 1953 and later earned a Ph.D. in Systemic

Theology from Boston University in 1955. Upon graduation he embarked on a public service

career that literally changed the world; and

     WHEREAS, Dr. King's life from 1955 until his death was one of complete selfless

service to the cause of justice. The combination of his powerful oratory skills, incredible

charisma, inexhaustible energy, and personal integrity allowed him to hold a mirror up to our

nation and remind us that we never fully lived up to the promises of freedom and equality

guaranteed in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence; and

     WHEREAS, Beginning with Rosa Parks and the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott in

1955, to the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, which organized

the African-American churches and their immense moral authority to support and conduct non-

violent protests in support of civil rights, to the Birmingham Campaign in protest of racial

segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, to the March on Washington and his poetically historic and

magnificent "I have a Dream Speech", and on to Selma, Alabama, Dr. King became the face and

voice of the American Civil Rights movement; and

     WHEREAS, Whether Dr. King was talking to Presidents, foreign leaders and dignitaries,

or a humble janitor, he always had the same demeanor and his message never veered from the

righteous truth of Justice and equality and that God calls all of us to love our neighbors as much

as we love ourselves. His message of love, hope, non-violence and racial equality opened the

hearts of millions, motivated countless people to devote their lives to the causes of equality and

justice and moved a nation to begin the process of taking steps towards becoming a society in

which one is truly judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. His

assassination 50 years ago is as painful today as it was that tragic day on April 4, 1968; now,

therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and calls on all Rhode Islanders to never waver and to rededicate

ourselves to the goals of justice and equality for all; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to the Providence Branch NAACP.

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