Full Text of HR0740 99th General Assembly
HR0740 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Rev. Dr. Cordy Tindell Vivian was born in | 3 | | Booneville, Missouri on July 28, 1924; he and his family later | 4 | | moved to Macomb, where he graduated from high school in 1942; | 5 | | he enrolled in Western Illinois University before moving to | 6 | | Peoria; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian participated in his first civil rights | 8 | | protest in 1947, successfully desegregating Peoria's lunch | 9 | | counters; he began preaching in Peoria before moving to | 10 | | Nashville, Tennessee in 1954 to study at the American Baptist | 11 | | Theological Seminary; during that time, he worked with many of | 12 | | the leaders of the civil rights movement and took part in | 13 | | leading 4,000 demonstrators in a march on Nashville's City | 14 | | Hall; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian joined the Student Nonviolent | 16 | | Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, emerging as one the | 17 | | leaders of the Nashville sit-ins; he and other SNCC members | 18 | | traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to support the original | 19 | | Freedom Riders when they were met with violence; in 1961, he | 20 | | was appointed by Martin Luther King, Jr. as Director of | 21 | | Affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Council; in | 22 | | 1963, he helped lead the fight to desegregate Birmingham and, | 23 | | in 1965, he was an organizer of the voter registration drive in |
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| 1 | | Selma, Alabama that became the catalyst for the 1965 Voting | 2 | | Rights Act; and
| 3 | | WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian returned to Illinois by 1966 and began | 4 | | helping to establish organizations to assist black children in | 5 | | their efforts to stay in school and attend college; he also | 6 | | worked with Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket to push the | 7 | | city and labor unions to promote affirmative action in building | 8 | | trades; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Alter leaving Dr. King's executive staff, C.T. | 10 | | Vivian trained ministers and developed the urban
curriculum for | 11 | | seminaries throughout the nation at the Urban Training Center | 12 | | in Chicago; he
returned to the area of seminary education as | 13 | | the Dean of Divinity at Shaw University
Divinity School, where | 14 | | he originated and acquired funding for an unprecedented | 15 | | national level program and the basis of his doctoral work, | 16 | | Seminary Without Walls; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian has served on the boards of the Center | 18 | | for Democratic Renewal and the National Voting
Rights Museum; | 19 | | he currently serves as Board Chair of BASIC Diversity, Inc., | 20 | | the nation's oldest diversity consulting
firm; he has provided | 21 | | civil rights counsel to Presidents Johnson, Carter, Reagan, | 22 | | Clinton, and Obama and he
continues to lecture on racial | 23 | | justice and democracy throughout the world; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In November of 2013, C.T. Vivian was awarded the | 2 | | Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest civilian honor from | 3 | | the United States government; the New School for Social | 4 | | Research named Dr. C.T. Vivian a " ... spiritual leader, | 5 | | apostle of social justice,
strategist of the civil rights | 6 | | movement ... For decades he has been in the vanguard of the | 7 | | struggle for racial
equality in America", as they presented him | 8 | | with one of his many honorary doctorates; he was featured | 9 | | throughout PBS's acclaimed documentary "Eyes On The Prize"; PBS | 10 | | later produced a full-length presentation, "The
Healing | 11 | | Ministry of the Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian"; he is also featured as | 12 | | both an activist and analyst in the series "People's Century"
| 13 | | and in the Tom Brokaw documentary "King"; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian and his wife have lived in Atlanta, | 15 | | Georgia for over 3 decades; he continues to work on behalf of | 16 | | the needy, most recently with the victims of Hurricane Katrina; | 17 | | he has 7 children; therefore, be it
| 18 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 19 | | NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 20 | | recognize the life of Rev. Dr. Cordy Tindell Vivian and declare | 21 | | July 28, 2016 as "C.T. Vivian Day" in the State of Illinois; | 22 | | and be it further
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 2 | | presented to C.T. Vivian as an expression of our esteem and | 3 | | respect.
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