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92_HR0630
LRB9215473BHcs
1 HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, Native Chicagoan Robert Townsend, actor and
3 director, stepped forward to take part in the making of an
4 historically important, factually-based film by the ShowTime
5 Network that acknowledges on a national level the African
6 American contributions to the success of the historically
7 significant Pullman story and most importantly to America's
8 Labor History; and
9 WHEREAS, Robert Townsend directed the film 10,000 Black
10 Men Named George, the factually-based historically important
11 film based on the life of labor organizer and civil rights
12 leader Asa Philip Randolph, who faced racism and political
13 corruption in a 12-year battle to unionize railway porters in
14 the 1920s and '30s; the porters worked in demeaning
15 conditions for shameful wages while the powerful Pullman
16 Company waged a campaign of fear fuelled by the spreading of
17 lies and destructive innuendo to the public against Mr.
18 Randolph and the porters; and
19 WHEREAS, Through that struggle, the first African
20 American labor union was chartered in the United States under
21 the American Federation of Labor as the Brotherhood of
22 Sleeping Car Porters; and
23 WHEREAS, Many of those men and women were Illinoisans;
24 and
25 WHEREAS, The telling of this story will help to introduce
26 this important overlooked piece of history as well as the
27 existence of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, an
28 Illinois institution named in their honor for new generations
29 for years to come; therefore, be it
30 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
31 NINETY-SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS that
-2- LRB9215473BHcs
1 we congratulate Robert Townsend for his excellence in acting
2 and the direction of the film 10,000 Black Men Named George;
3 and be it further
4 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be sent
5 to Robert Townsend with our most sincere gratitude.