BILL NUMBER: ACR 41ENROLLED BILL TEXT ADOPTED IN SENATE JULY 1, 2013 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 16, 2013 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 22, 2013 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Chvez and Harkey (Principal coauthor: Senator Wyland) MARCH 21, 2013 Relative to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST ACR 41, Chvez. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge. This measure would designate the Mission Avenue bridge over Interstate 5 in the City of Oceanside as the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge to honor the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs. WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, doctor of theology, activist, and leader in the African American Civil Rights Movement, who is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience; and WHEREAS, Dr. King, who has become a national icon, became a Baptist minister and a civil rights activist early in his career; and WHEREAS, Dr. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, Dr. King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response; and WHEREAS, Dr. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history and said to the crowd: "With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood"; and WHEREAS, On October 14, 1964, Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago. In the final years of his life, Dr. King expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War; and WHEREAS, Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a United States federal holiday in 1986 and a memorial statue on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was opened to the public in 2011; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature designates the Mission Avenue bridge (Bridge No. 57-0266) over Interstate 5 in the City of Oceanside as the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge to honor the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and be it further Resolved, That when our children cross this bridge they can be reminded of an American hero who preached love, understanding, and peace for all; and be it further Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to determine the cost of erecting appropriate signs consistent with the signing requirements for the state highway system, showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the Department of Transportation and to the author for appropriate distribution.