SR1782 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1782 LRB099 21488 MST 47730 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, It is the duty of the United States Congress to enact measures that establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for every resident of this nation; and

WHEREAS, Throughout the course of our nation's history, there has been one consistent voice supporting racial and social inequality and promoting the intimidation, subjugation, and violent repression of individuals solely on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and immigration status; and

WHEREAS, Since the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Ku Klux Klan and its many affiliates have terrorized African-Americans; and

WHEREAS, Since its founding in 1866, the main objective of this terrorist group has been to end or interfere with any policy giving equal rights to African-Americans; and

WHEREAS, In 1964, the Ku Klux Klan was held responsible for the deaths of three civil rights workers (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner), who were shot near Meridian, Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, In 1963, the Ku Klux Klan organized the bombing, which claimed the lives of four young girls, of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; and

WHEREAS, The Ku Klux Klan has used tactics such as lynching, bombing, tar-and-feathering, shooting, rape, assaults on both property and persons, assassinations, and a host of Jim Crow-era laws in an effort to terrorize African-Americans; they and their affiliates were pioneers in the use of the Internet to recruit and mobilize members and remain an active online presence, seeking to indoctrinate and inspire youth to continue their campaign of hate; and

WHEREAS, The Ku Klux Klan's tactics mirror those of modern-day terrorist groups such as ISIS, BOKO Haram, and others whose sole purpose is to intimidate, disenfranchise, silence, and kill particular groups of people; and

WHEREAS, The Ku Klux Klan's message of racial and social injustice has led to senseless acts of violence that continue to terrorize African-American individuals and communities in our time; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge Congress to recognize the Ku Klux Klan as a terrorist organization and pursue dismantling this domestic terrorist hate group with the same fervor used to protect the United States from other manifestations of terrorism; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and all members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation.