HR0779 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0779 LRB098 19466 MST 54634 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Income inequality has risen significantly since the early 1970s, after several decades of stability; while it has risen among most developed countries, it is highest in the United States; income inequality continues to hurt the growth of both the State and country; and

WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States; it was organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and carried out in the wake of Dr. King's assassination; and

WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign demanded economic and human rights for poor Americans of a diverse background; organizers presented a set of demands to the United States Congress and executive agencies; participants set up a 3000-person tent city on the Washington Mall, "Resurrection City", where they stayed for 6 weeks; and

WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign was motivated by a desire for economic justice - the idea that all people should have what they need to live; the campaign would help the poor by dramatizing their needs and united all races under the commonality of hardship and presenting a plan to start a solution; and

WHEREAS, In addition to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Poor People's Campaign included such leaders as Rev. James Bevel, Stanley Levison, Ralph Abernathy, Bernard Lafayette, Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, Reies Tijerina, Stoney Cooks, Hosea Williams, Rev. Fred C. Benette, Andrew Young, Walter Fauntroy, and Rev. Jesse Jackson, "Mayor" of Resurrection City; and

WHEREAS, The Poor People's Campaign was designed to put the plight of America's poor into stark images that those in power in the United States could witness; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the Poor People's Campaign of 1968 and continue to work towards the original goal of the campaign - to gain economic justice for poor.