2021 Regular Session ENROLLED SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 9 BY SENATOR BOUDREAUX A RESOLUTION To commend and congratulate Fredrick "Fred" Prejean Sr. on being named by the Community Foundation of Acadiana as the 2020 recipient of the Lafayette Civic Cup. WHEREAS, the Lafayette Civic Cup sponsored by the Community Foundation of Acadiana, awarded since 1933, is presented to individuals annually based upon leadership, innovation, and the desire to make Lafayette better; and WHEREAS, the recipient for 2020 is Fredrick "Fred" Prejean Sr. who has engaged in a lifetime of humanitarian pursuits, and who is president of Move the Mindset, an organization committed to promoting racial and social justice in Lafayette, which was founded in 2016 and has successfully advocated for the removal of the Alfred Mouton statue in downtown Lafayette; and WHEREAS, born and raised in Lafayette and growing up in the section known as Fightingville, he attended St. Paul's and Holy Rosary Institute and at age seventeen, traveled to the 1963 March on Washington and witnessed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, an experience which transformed him; and WHEREAS, following six years in the Marine Corps Reserve, Fred Prejean enrolled at Southern University, where he became one of the leaders of a peaceful demonstration when the state legislature was considering its closure to desegregate higher education institutions, graduating in 1974 with a degree in accounting and business management; and WHEREAS, he also attended the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, and the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; and WHEREAS, his community activism spans more than fifty years, having trained as a community organizer with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Congress of Racial Equality, and his work through Southern Consumers Cooperative helped black entrepreneurs launch startup businesses; and Page 1 of 2 SR NO. 9 ENROLLED WHEREAS, Fred has also served the community as the committee chairperson for the Heymann Scholarship Academic Awards, chairperson of the Lafayette Planning and Zoning Commission, the Holy Rosary Institute Restoration Committee, a member of the Lafayette chapter of the NAACP, the Greater Southwest Louisiana Black Chamber of Commerce, the Lafayette Housing Advisory Committee, the Lafayette General Advisory Panel, the Lafayette North Plan Coordinating Team, the Lafayette Growth Opportunity Technical Team, the Veazey-McComb Neighborhood Organization, the Freetown-Port Rico Neighborhood Organization, the Heymann Foundation Scholarship Division, the Lafayette Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation, the Sterling Grove Housing Development, and the Holy Family School Board; and WHEREAS, the McComb-Veazey and Freetown-Port Rico neighborhood organizations were formed during his tenure with the planning and zoning commission; and WHEREAS, Mr. Prejean also served as undersecretary at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and retired in 2012 as president of the consulting firm Empire Management Inc., thereafter working through Move the Mindset to educate residents, form partnerships, and collaborate with the Equal Justice Initiative; and WHEREAS, Fred has been married to his wife Ola for forty-three years, and they have one daughter and two grandsons; and WHEREAS, the success of the state of Louisiana, the strength of our communities, and the overall vitality of American society depend, in great measure, upon good, strong, driven, and humanitarian men like Fredrick "Fred" Prejean Sr. THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby commend and congratulate Fredrick "Fred" Prejean Sr. on being named by the Community Foundation of Acadiana as the 2020 recipient of the Lafayette Civic Cup. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to Frederick "Fred" Prejean Sr. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE Page 2 of 2