| R 160 |
| 2018 -- S 2769 Enacted 04/04/2018 |
| S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N |
| COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. |
| Introduced By: Senators Metts, Ruggerio, Lombardi, Felag, and P Fogarty |
| Date Introduced: April 04, 2018 |
| WHEREAS, On the tragic day of April 4, 1968, our nation suffered a grievous loss when |
| Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, |
| Tennessee; and |
| WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, |
| to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King. Dr. King graduated from |
| Booker T. Washington High School where he became known for his public speaking skills and |
| his proficiency in debating. A child of the South, he lived and experienced firsthand the effects of |
| segregation, racism and the injustices of the prevalent Jim Crow laws; and |
| WHEREAS, At the age of 15, Dr. King passed the entrance exam and entered Morehouse |
| College where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in sociology and subsequently enrolled in |
| Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a Divinity |
| degree in 1951. Dr. King married Coretta Scott in 1953 and later earned a Ph.D. in Systemic |
| Theology from Boston University in 1955. Upon graduation he embarked on a public service |
| career that literally changed the world; and |
| WHEREAS, Dr. King's life from 1955 until his death was one of complete selfless |
| service to the cause of justice. The combination of his powerful oratory skills, incredible |
| charisma, inexhaustible energy, and personal integrity allowed him to hold a mirror up to our |
| nation and remind us that we never fully lived up to the promises of freedom and equality |
| guaranteed in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence; and |
| WHEREAS, Beginning with Rosa Parks and the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott in |
| 1955, to the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, which organized |
| the African-American churches and their immense moral authority to support and conduct non- |
| violent protests in support of civil rights, to the Birmingham Campaign in protest of racial |
| segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, to the March on Washington and his poetically historic and |
| magnificent "I have a Dream Speech", and on to Selma, Alabama, Dr. King became the face and |
| voice of the American Civil Rights movement; and |
| WHEREAS, Whether Dr. King was talking to Presidents, foreign leaders and dignitaries, |
| or a humble janitor, he always had the same demeanor and his message never veered from the |
| righteous truth of Justice and equality and that God calls all of us to love our neighbors as much |
| as we love ourselves. His message of love, hope, non-violence and racial equality opened the |
| hearts of millions, motivated countless people to devote their lives to the causes of equality and |
| justice and moved a nation to begin the process of taking steps towards becoming a society in |
| which one is truly judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. His |
| assassination 50 years ago is as painful today as it was that tragic day on April 4, 1968; now, |
| therefore be it |
| RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations |
| hereby commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., |
| and calls on all Rhode Islanders to never waver and to rededicate ourselves to the goals of justice |
| and equality for all; and be it further |
| RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to |
| transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to the Providence Branch NAACP. |
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| LC005412 |
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