IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1521 

Honoring organizers for promoting equality. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008 

Mr. GUTIERREZ (for himself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, 

Mr. CLAY, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Ms. LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ of California, Mr. HINOJOSA, Ms. NORTON, Mr. WATT, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. 

FRANK of Massachusetts, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. 

DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, and 

Mr. KUCINICH) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 

the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Honoring organizers for promoting equality. 

Whereas the United States was founded on the notion that 

political power in a democracy derives from the expressed 

will of the people; 

Whereas our great country believes that its citizens must be 

able to organize themselves, petition their government, 

and work together to improve their lives and their communities; 

Whereas community organizing is a proud American tradition 

that helps Americans engage in the political process and 

make a difference in their communities and in the lives 

of their neighbors; 


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•HRES 1521 IH 

Whereas the values that community organizers represent are 

among the truest of American values, the values of our 

people; 

Whereas whether working in small towns, rural areas, or big 

cities, community organizers recognize that citizens are 

all interconnected and that each citizen plays an important role in making our country work; 

Whereas community organizers place their country first by 

strengthening the democratic principle of public participation; 

Whereas the accomplishments of community organizers constitute an illustrious list, from helping slaves reach freedom, to gaining rights for farming families, to raising 

money to fight disease, to the civil rights movement’s 

success changing the way we understand race and dismantling legal discrimination, to the women’s movements 

that earned women the right to vote and the opportunity 

to break glass ceilings in all parts of society; 

Whereas community organizer Jane Addams helped organize 

the Women’s Peace Party and the International Congress 

of Women in an effort to avert World War I, and was 

the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace 

Prize; 

Whereas abolitionist, women’s suffragist and community organizer Susan B. Anthony cofounded the National Women’s Suffrage Association, traveled the United States giving speeches in support of equal rights for women, was 

instrumental in laying the groundwork for the passage of 

the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution 

giving women the right to vote, and was honored as the 


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first American woman on a circulating United States 

coin; 

Whereas teacher, nurse, and community organizer Clara Barton established an agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers during the American Civil War, 

convinced the Union Army to allow her to bring her own 

medical supplies to the battlefields, and organized the 

American Red Cross; 

Whereas labor leader and community organizer Cesar Chavez 

cofounded the National Farm Workers Association, 

worked tirelessly to register new immigrants to vote, led 

boycotts and protests that resulted in higher wages and 

better working conditions for American farm laborers, 

and received the Pacem in Terris award from the Roman 

Catholic Church, and in 1994 was posthumously awarded 

the Presidential Medal of Freedom; 

Whereas founding father and inventor Benjamin Franklin 

helped organize common citizens to create one of the first 

volunteer firefighting companies in America, obtained a 

charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish 

Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in what was to 

become the United States, organized the Pennsylvania 

Militia, led the ‘‘anti-proprietary party’’ in the struggle 

against the Penn family, the proprietors of the colony, 

and was an active abolitionist, serving as president of the 

Pennsylvania Abolition Society; 

Whereas Baptist minister and community organizer Martin 

Luther King, Jr. led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 

helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March 

on Washington, became the youngest person to receive 

the Nobel Peace Prize, and was posthumously awarded 


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the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; 

Whereas native Tlingit Alaskan and community organizer 

Elizabeth W. Peratrovich worked tirelessly for the equal 

rights of indigenous Alaskan peoples and was the single 

driving force behind the passage of the State’s Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law 

in the United States; 

Whereas escaped slave, nurse, Union spy, and community organizer Harriet Tubman made more than 15 missions to 

rescue hundreds of slaves using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad; and 

Whereas as Thomas Jefferson wrote, ‘‘Enlighten the people, 

generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind 

will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That— 

2 (1) the House of Representatives— 

3 (A) honors the contributions that commu4 nity organizers, past and present, have made to 

5 our Nation and our communities; and 

6 (B) recognizes that community organizing 

7 is a vision of participatory democracy in which 

8 a change comes from the people, not the power9 ful, the privileged, or the government, and 

10 where the electorate is empowered and called 

11 upon to act on their behalf; and 


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1 (2) it is the sense of the House of Representa2 tives that— 

3 (A) participation in community organizing 

4 is an American tradition that should be encour5 aged; and 

6 (B) regardless of religion, gender, race, 

7 ethnicity, sexual preference, or point of view, 

8 the right of American citizens to organize and 

9 petition their government is crucial to achieving 

10 a profoundly democratic, just, moral, and hon11 orable society. 

Æ 


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