Full Text of HR1333 095th General Assembly
HR1333 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 |
| Representatives are pleased to honor one of the most notable | 4 |
| figures of our time, the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.; and
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| WHEREAS, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. was born in Greenville, | 6 |
| South Carolina on October 8, 1941; the son of an Alabama | 7 |
| sharecropper, he adopted his stepfather's last name; and
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| WHEREAS, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. was a good enough | 9 |
| athlete in high school to be offered a contract by the Chicago | 10 |
| White Sox, but he turned it down due to discrepancies in pay | 11 |
| between white and black players; he also turned down an | 12 |
| athletic scholarship at the University of Illinois when he was | 13 |
| told that, as a black, he could not expect to play as | 14 |
| quarterback; instead, he attended the mostly black | 15 |
| Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina in | 16 |
| Greensboro, North Carolina; in addition to being an outstanding | 17 |
| athlete, student, and campus leader, he took a lead in protests | 18 |
| that forced Greensboro to integrate its restaurants and | 19 |
| theaters; and
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| WHEREAS, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. then trained for the | 21 |
| ministry at the Chicago Theological Seminary; having joined the | 22 |
| protest movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern |
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| Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he was named head of | 2 |
| the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket, the SCLC's program | 3 |
| to persuade American businesses to hire blacks and to get | 4 |
| companies to sell products made by blacks, in 1965; he became | 5 |
| Operation Breadbasket's national head in 1967, proving highly | 6 |
| successful in this position for several years; he also helped | 7 |
| create the Chicago Freedom Movement (1966) to press for | 8 |
| integrated schools and open housing; Jackson was beside Dr. | 9 |
| Martin Luther King Jr. when he was assassinated in 1968; after | 10 |
| Dr. King's assassination, Jackson was viewed by some as the | 11 |
| potential successor to King as the leader in the struggle for | 12 |
| civil rights; and
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| WHEREAS, After he was ordained as a Baptist minister in | 14 |
| 1968, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. concentrated his fight for | 15 |
| rights in the City of Chicago; after leaving Operation | 16 |
| Breadbasket in 1971, he founded his own organization, PUSH | 17 |
| (People United to Save Humanity), which would continue the | 18 |
| fight to improve the lives of African-Americans in a variety of | 19 |
| fronts; and | 20 |
| WHEREAS, Becoming increasingly more active on the | 21 |
| political scene, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. led a group that | 22 |
| successfully challenged Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's slate | 23 |
| of delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1972; | 24 |
| backed by another of his organizations, the Rainbow Coalition, |
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| he ran in the 1984 and 1988 Democratic presidential primaries, | 2 |
| gaining enough votes to ensure an important presence at the | 3 |
| conventions; as a primary candidate, he constantly won favor | 4 |
| with surprising constituencies as he inserted himself into a | 5 |
| variety of events, including rushing off to Syria to gain the | 6 |
| freedom of an American pilot and joining picket lines at | 7 |
| numerous labor actions; his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., has also | 8 |
| emerged as a political figure, becoming a member of the House | 9 |
| of Representatives from the State of Illinois; and
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| WHEREAS, After a brief hiatus from political advocacy, | 11 |
| Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. reemerged on the political scene in | 12 |
| 2004 following voting problems plaguing the presidential | 13 |
| election; in a bid for justice, he called for a congressional | 14 |
| debate on the matter, asking for a fair count of the country's | 15 |
| votes and nationwide voting standards; and | 16 |
| WHEREAS, Even today, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. continues | 17 |
| to be named whenever there is a need for a new African-American | 18 |
| leader, whether it be a mayor of Chicago or the first senator | 19 |
| of Washington, D.C. if it became a state; he is undoubtedly | 20 |
| well known as one of the more striking figures in American | 21 |
| public life in the late 20th century and has remained a | 22 |
| commanding presence in the 21st century; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE |
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| NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 2 |
| designate October 8, 2008 and every October 8 thereafter as | 3 |
| Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. Day in the State of Illinois in | 4 |
| honor of this visionary civil rights leader; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 6 |
| presented to Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. as a symbol of our | 7 |
| esteem and respect.
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