Full Text of HJR0008 102nd General Assembly
HJ0008 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Pent-up frustrations, including bad policing | 3 | | practices, a flawed justice system, unscrupulous consumer | 4 | | credit practices, poor or inadequate housing, high | 5 | | unemployment, voter suppression, and other culturally embedded | 6 | | forms of racial discrimination boiled over in many poor | 7 | | African American neighborhoods during the mid- to late-1960s, | 8 | | setting off riots that rampaged out of control from block to | 9 | | block; the burning, battering and ransacking of property and | 10 | | raging crowds created chaos in which some neighborhood | 11 | | residents and law enforcement operatives endured shockingly | 12 | | random injuries or deaths; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, Many Americans blamed the riots on outside | 14 | | agitators or young Black men, who represented the largest and | 15 | | most visible group of rioters; however, the Kerner Commission | 16 | | turned those assumptions upside-down in March of 1968, | 17 | | declaring it was white racism, not Black anger, that turned | 18 | | the key that unlocked urban American turmoil; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, As a result, The National Advisory Commission on | 20 | | Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its | 21 | | chair, then-Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was formed; | 22 | | it was an 11-member Presidential Commission established by | 23 | | President Lyndon B. Johnson in Executive Order 11365 to |
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| 1 | | investigate the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United | 2 | | States and to provide recommendations for the future; and
| 3 | | WHEREAS, The Kerner Commission found that poverty and | 4 | | institutional racism were driving inner city violence and | 5 | | proposed aggressive government spending to provide equal | 6 | | opportunities to African Americans; the report was rushed into | 7 | | print by Bantam Books, and the 708-page report became a | 8 | | best-seller, selling 740,000 copies in a few weeks; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, To mark the 30th anniversary of the Kerner | 10 | | Report, the Eisenhower Foundation in 1998 sponsored two | 11 | | complementary reports, The Millennium Breach and Locked in the | 12 | | Poorhouse; The Millennium Breach, coauthored by former senator | 13 | | and commission member Fred R. Harris, found the racial divide | 14 | | had grown in the subsequent years with inner city unemployment | 15 | | at crisis levels; The Millennium Breach found that for most of | 16 | | the decade that followed the Kerner Report, the U.S. made | 17 | | progress on the principal fronts detailed in the report, which | 18 | | were race, poverty, and inner cities; then progress stopped | 19 | | and in some ways reversed, due to a series of economic shocks | 20 | | and trends and the government's own action and inaction; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, African American poverty remains a critical issue | 22 | | today; in 1969, about one-third of Blacks lived below the | 23 | | poverty line; by 2016, that number had dropped to 22 percent as |
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| 1 | | a significant number of African Americans moved into the | 2 | | middle class with a boost from 1960s legislation; however, the | 3 | | percentage of Blacks living in poverty is still more than | 4 | | twice as high as the percentage of whites; a lack of | 5 | | opportunity has been shown to increase drug abuse, | 6 | | unemployment, poverty, violence, and other negative factors | 7 | | within a community; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, Blacks now have a louder voice in government, yet | 9 | | poverty and disenfranchisement remain; notwithstanding the | 10 | | Kerner Commission's optimism about potential change, there | 11 | | have been only scattered efforts over the last 50 years to end | 12 | | the United States' racial divide or to address the racial | 13 | | component of poverty in the U.S.; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, Now more than ever, it is obvious that we need to | 15 | | rebuild these economies in urban areas which have been | 16 | | fostered by racial discrimination; to accomplish this, we can | 17 | | replicate a successful rebuilding plan from our country's | 18 | | history; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, In the wake of World War II, Secretary of State | 20 | | George C. Marshall proposed a comprehensive plan to rebuild | 21 | | the economies and spirits of Western Europe in 1947; as part of | 22 | | this plan, the U.S. gave $13 billion in aid to 16 European | 23 | | nations; this aid included shipping food, staples, fuel, and |
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| 1 | | machinery, rebuilding war-devastated regions, removing trade | 2 | | barriers, and investing in an industrial capacity; and
| 3 | | WHEREAS, Due to what became known as the Marshall Plan, | 4 | | European economies experienced unprecedented growth from 1948 | 5 | | to 1952, postwar poverty and starvation disappeared, and | 6 | | standards of living increased remarkably; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Former National Urban League President John | 8 | | Jacobs often spoke of the need for a new domestic Marshall | 9 | | Plan, championing the idea that we could rebuild urban areas | 10 | | in the U.S. the same way we rebuilt entire nations abroad; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, African Americans in the City of Chicago are | 12 | | disproportionately affected by both the violence and the | 13 | | poverty in the city, particularly on the West and South sides; | 14 | | African Americans make up approximately a third of the city's | 15 | | population; despite this, they have consistently accounted for | 16 | | more than 70 percent of homicide victims for decades; due to | 17 | | pre-existing inequalities such as segregation, financial | 18 | | disparities, lack of access to a good education, lost wages, | 19 | | lost homes, lost inheritances, lack of access to testing and | 20 | | treatment, and other issues, the current COVID-19 pandemic has | 21 | | disproportionately hurt African Americans, especially in | 22 | | Chicago; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Across the nation and in our State, a | 2 | | comprehensive and targeted economic recovery plan is necessary | 3 | | to revitalize and to help elevate the African American | 4 | | population; this new plan must provide federal, state, local | 5 | | tax credits, and other enhancements to encourage businesses to | 6 | | relocate to these struggling communities in order to foster | 7 | | economic vitality; therefore, be it
| 8 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 9 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE | 10 | | SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the Illinois General | 11 | | Assembly and the United States Congress to explore a new, | 12 | | domestic investment plan to promote economic growth and | 13 | | recovery in targeted African American communities; and be it | 14 | | further
| 15 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be sent | 16 | | to the Mayor of Chicago, the President of the Cook County | 17 | | Board, all members of the Chicago City Council, the Governor | 18 | | of Illinois, all members of the Illinois General Assembly, the | 19 | | President of the United States, the U.S. Senate Majority | 20 | | Leader, the U.S. Senate Minority Leader,
the U.S. Speaker of | 21 | | the House, the U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader, | 22 | | and all members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation.
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