Full Text of HR0188 97th General Assembly
HR0188 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent American | 3 | | leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel | 4 | | Peace Prize laureate, was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in | 5 | | Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, In March of 1968, Dr. King went to Memphis in | 7 | | support of striking African-American sanitation workers; the | 8 | | workers had staged a walkout on February 11, 1968, to protest | 9 | | unequal wages and working conditions; at the time, the city of | 10 | | Memphis paid black workers significantly lower wages than | 11 | | whites; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, At 6:01 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, 1968, while he | 13 | | was standing on the motel's second floor balcony, Dr. King was | 14 | | struck by a single .30 bullet fired from a Remington 760 | 15 | | Gamemaster; Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who was staying with Dr. | 16 | | King at the motel, heard the shot from inside the motel room | 17 | | and ran to the balcony to find Dr. King on the floor; Dr. King | 18 | | was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where doctors pronounced | 19 | | him dead at 7:05 p.m.; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, Despite the urging of many national leaders, news | 21 | | of the assassination led to a nationwide wave of riots in more | 22 | | than 100 cities, including Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, |
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| 1 | | Maryland; after the assassination, the city of Memphis quickly | 2 | | settled the strike, on favorable terms to the sanitation | 3 | | workers; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson later declared a | 5 | | national day of mourning for the slain civil rights leader; his | 6 | | funeral was held on April 9, 1968 and over 300,000 people | 7 | | attended, paying their final respects to the late Dr. King; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, On June 10, 1968, James Earl Ray, a fugitive from | 9 | | the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London, | 10 | | extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime; on | 11 | | March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced | 12 | | to 99 years in the Tennessee state penitentiary; therefore, be | 13 | | it
| 14 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 15 | | NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 16 | | we remember this important day in history and reflect on the | 17 | | life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who | 18 | | worked towards changing attitudes without violence, and who | 19 | | brought true change upon this nation.
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