HR 9001A

1	House Resolution
2	A resolution in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
3
4	WHEREAS, Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on January 15,
5	1929, and lived only to the age of 39 but in that short period
6	of time left a legacy that we honor annually each January with
7	state and national holidays, and
8	WHEREAS, Martin Luther King, Jr., was remarkable early on
9	and as a student entered Morehouse College at the age of 15 to
10	earn his first bachelor's degree in 1948; he would later receive
11	a second bachelor's degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in
12	1951 and a doctorate degree from Boston University in 1955, and
13	WHEREAS, rather than becoming a professor, Dr. King
14	continued the tradition of his father and grandfather and became
15	a pastor, becoming assistant pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church
16	in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1948 and pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist
17	Church in Montgomery, Alabama, from 1954 to 1959 after which he
18	returned to Atlanta to direct the activities of the Southern
19	Christian Leadership Conference and to serve until his death in
20	1968 as co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church,
21	and
22	WHEREAS, in 1953 Martin Luther King, Jr., married Coretta
23	Scott, a marriage that produced two sons and two daughters, and
24	in 1954 they to moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Dr. King's
25	position as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church led to
26	his being elected President of the Montgomery Improvement
27	Association, the organization responsible for the successful
28	Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955 to 1956 that was sparked by
29	Rosa Parks' famous refusal to give up her seat and move to the
30	back of a Montgomery city bus, and
31	WHEREAS, in 1957 Dr. King helped found and was elected
32	president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an
33	organization formed to provide new leadership for the burgeoning
34	civil rights movement, and
35	WHEREAS, his success with the bus boycott and the Southern
36	Christian Leadership Conference made Dr. King a pivotal, if not
37	the preeminent, leader of the nation's civil rights movement and
38	a prominent proponent of social change through nonviolent civil
39	disobedience, which approach was successfully used in
40	Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring of 1963 in protests against
41	the segregationist laws then in effect throughout the South, and
42	WHEREAS, on August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington
43	that drew more than 250,000 people demanding equal rights for
44	minorities, Dr. King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in
45	front of the Lincoln Memorial, and
46	WHEREAS, Dr. King, as a result of his increasing prestige
47	and efforts, was instrumental in pressuring the Federal
48	Government to pass both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
49	Voting Rights Act of 1965, and
50	WHEREAS, Dr. King was named Time magazine's Man of the Year
51	in 1963 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and
52	WHEREAS, on April 4, 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis,
53	Tennessee, to help lead sanitation workers in a protest against
54	low wages and poor working conditions when he was assassinated
55	while standing on the balcony of his motel room, and
56	WHEREAS, when asked on an earlier occasion regarding his
57	possible legacy, Dr. King had said that he just wanted to leave
58	a committed life behind, NOW, THEREFORE,
59
60	Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
61	Florida:
62
63	That the Florida House of Representatives hereby honors the
64	life, achievements, and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
65	especially for his courage and dedication to ensuring our
66	nation's commitment to equal treatment for all under the law.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.