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[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 518 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]

109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 518

        Honoring the life and accomplishments of James Cameron.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 20, 2006

  Mr. Feingold (for himself, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Allen, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. 
Levin, Mr. Obama, and Ms. Landrieu) submitted the following resolution; 
                   which was considered and agreed to

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
        Honoring the life and accomplishments of James Cameron.

Whereas James Cameron founded America's Black Holocaust Museum (the Museum) in 
        Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a compelling memorial in the United States to 
        victims of lynching and racial violence;
Whereas Mr. Cameron was the last living survivor of a lynching until his death 
        on June 11, 2006, at age 92;
Whereas a Senate resolution recognized Mr. Cameron as the Nation's oldest living 
        lynching victim in June 2005 and formally apologized for its failure to 
        outlaw lynching, which killed more than 4,700 people from 1882 to 1968, 
        three-fourths of whom were black;
Whereas seven United States Presidents called for lynching to be outlawed, and 
        the House of Representatives passed bans three times in the early 
        twentieth century, only to have the Senate filibuster each of them, one 
        filibuster lasting six weeks;
Whereas in Marion, Indiana in 1930, when he was 16 years old, Mr. Cameron and 
        two friends, Abe Smith (age 19) and Tommy Shipp (age 18), were falsely 
        accused of killing a Caucasian man and raping his girlfriend;
Whereas after the arrest of the three men, a mob broke into the jail where they 
        were being held and tried to lynch them;
Whereas the mob lynched Mr. Smith and Mr. Shipp but spared Mr. Cameron's life;
Whereas Mr. Cameron was beaten into signing a false confession, convicted in 
        1931, and paroled in 1935;
Whereas the governor of Indiana pardoned Mr. Cameron in 1993 and apologized to 
        him;
Whereas Mr. Cameron promoted civil and social justice issues and founded three 
        NAACP chapters in Indiana during the 1940s;
Whereas James Cameron served as the Indiana State Director of Civil Liberties 
        from 1942 to 1950, and he investigated over 25 cases involving civil 
        rights violations;
Whereas Mr. Cameron relocated to Wisconsin after receiving many death threats, 
        but he continued civil rights work and played a role in protests to end 
        segregated housing in Milwaukee;
Whereas in 1983, Mr. Cameron published A Time of Terror, his autobiographical 
        account of the events surrounding his arrest in 1930;
Whereas Mr. Cameron founded America's Black Holocaust Museum in 1988 in order to 
        preserve the history of lynching in the United States and to recognize 
        the struggle of African-American people for equality;
Whereas the Museum contains the Nation's foremost collection of lynching images, 
        both photographs and postcards, documenting the heinous practice of 
        lynching in the United States;
Whereas the Museum performs a critical role by exposing this painful, dark, and 
        ugly practice in the Nation's history, so that knowledge can be used to 
        promote understanding and to counter racism, fear, and violence;
Whereas the Museum also documents the history of the African-American experience 
        from slavery to the civil rights movement to the present day; and
Whereas the Museum exists to educate the public about injustices suffered by 
        people of African-American heritage, and to provide visitors with an 
        opportunity to rethink assumptions about race and racism: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate honors and celebrates the life and 
accomplishments of James Cameron and expresses condolences at his 
passing.
                                 <all>
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