81R8296 BPG-D
By: Thompson H.R. No. 420
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, The country's largest and oldest civil rights
organization, the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, is marking the 100th anniversary of its founding on
February 12, 2009; and
WHEREAS, In the summer of 1908, the nation was shocked by
accounts of mob violence that raged for two days against African
Americans in Springfield, Illinois, the birthplace of President
Abraham Lincoln; a multiracial group of activists came together in
response to this outrage and formed the NAACP in New York on
February 12, 1909, which would have been Lincoln's 100th birthday;
the next year, founding officer W. E. B. Du Bois, a prominent
intellectual, launched the association's widely influential
magazine, The Crisis; and
WHEREAS, The NAACP established itself as a crucial legal
advocate with a series of early court battles, and in 1915 it
vigorously protested the inflammatory film Birth of a Nation, which
glorified the Ku Klux Klan and perpetuated demeaning stereotypes;
membership in the NAACP grew rapidly, from around 9,000 in 1917 to
90,000 three years later, with more than 300 branches across the
country; and
WHEREAS, After persistent pressure by the NAACP, President
Woodrow Wilson made a public statement against lynching in 1918;
the organization continued to battle this heinous practice
throughout the 1920s, leading a national debate that brought about
a sharp decline in such violence; in the 1930s, NAACP members
blocked the nomination of a segregationist judge to the U.S.
Supreme Court, and association lawyers Charles Houston and Thurgood
Marshall won the legal battle to admit an African American student
to the University of Maryland; and
WHEREAS, Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Marshall later
brought the NAACP one of its greatest legal victories with Brown v.
the Board of Education, the landmark case that outlawed segregation
in public schools; the organization joined with other groups in the
heroic movement ignited by NAACP member Rosa Parks, and its
lobbying bureau in Washington helped advance integration of the
armed forces and passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and
1968, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and
WHEREAS, Through the years, this groundbreaking organization
has continued to work tirelessly to end bigotry and discrimination;
today, more than half a million members advocate for civil rights in
their communities and monitor barriers to opportunity in the public
and private sectors; as the NAACP marks its milestone 100th
anniversary, president and chief executive officer Benjamin Todd
Jealous has affirmed its commitment to human rights and announced
heightened efforts in behalf of all Americans to end disparities in
educational attainment, income, and health; and
WHEREAS, The NAACP has played a transformational role in
American history, and through their courage and tenacity, its
members and distinguished leaders have demonstrated profound
allegiance to our nation's founding principles of liberty,
equality, and justice; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 81st Texas
Legislature hereby congratulate the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People on its centennial and commend the
organization for its remarkable record of achievement.