Full Text of HR0611 102nd General Assembly
HR0611 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked into | 3 | | the heart of Jim Crow demanding change from those | 4 | | intransigents in their hatred; his courage was unquestioned, | 5 | | his method of nonviolence was risky, and his style was | 6 | | unapologetic; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, At 34 years of age, Dr. King received | 8 | | international recognition with the awarding of the Nobel Peace | 9 | | Prize; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | 11 | | immorally recorded the life and conversations of Dr. King; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, The FBI began monitoring Dr. King in December | 13 | | 1955 during his involvement with the Montgomery Bus Boycott | 14 | | and engaged in covert operations against him throughout the | 15 | | 1960s; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, For the last four and one-half years of his life, | 17 | | from November 1963 until his death in April 1968, Dr. King | 18 | | lived without any semblance of privacy; his hotel rooms were | 19 | | bugged, his phones tapped, and his office and inner circle | 20 | | infiltrated by informants; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, On November 21, 1964, the FBI anonymously sent | 2 | | Dr. King a letter encouraging him to commit suicide to avoid | 3 | | public embarrassment; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, According to a U.S. Senate Committee convened in | 5 | | the 1970s to investigate the FBI's domestic intelligence | 6 | | operations, when Dr. King condemned the Vietnam War in a | 7 | | speech at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, the FBI | 8 | | interpreted this position as proof he "has been influenced by | 9 | | Communist advisors" and increased their covert operations | 10 | | against him; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, In August 1967, the FBI created a | 12 | | counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO, which targeted Dr. | 13 | | King, the Black Panther Party, and other civil rights leaders; | 14 | | and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, The FBI's surveillance tapes and the transcripts | 16 | | of them remain under seal until 2027; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, Dr. King is critical to memorializing the Black | 18 | | experience in America; his mission and the challenges he | 19 | | unfortunately confronted remain timeless, and no one has the | 20 | | right to feed on his legacy; therefore, be it
| 21 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE |
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| 1 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 2 | | we urge Governor Pritzker to express written support for the | 3 | | destruction of the National Archives and Record | 4 | | Administration's immorally obtained surveillance tapes on Dr. | 5 | | Martin Luther King; and be it further | 6 | | RESOLVED, That we urge Governor Pritzker to work with the | 7 | | Illinois General Assembly to pass legislation that will | 8 | | prevent similar abuses of power from being perpetrated for | 9 | | immoral and defamatory reasons; and be it further
| 10 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 11 | | delivered to Governor Pritzker, Lt. Governor Stratton, | 12 | | Governor Pritzker's Office of Equity, and the Illinois | 13 | | Attorney General.
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