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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1271 Engrossed in House (EH)]

H. Res. 1271

                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                        April 20, 2010.
Whereas Benjamin Lawson Hooks, a native Memphian, was the fifth out of seven 
        children born to Robert B. and Bessie Hooks;
Whereas his grandmother, Julia Britton Hooks, was the second African-American 
        female college graduate in the Nation, graduating from Berea College in 
        Kentucky in 1874;
Whereas Dr. Hooks studied prelaw at LeMoyne College in Memphis and continued his 
        studies at Howard University in Washington, DC, and at Depaul University 
        Law School in Chicago, Illinois;
Whereas Dr. Hooks was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity;
Whereas after college, he then served in the United States Army during World War 
        II and had the job of guarding Italian prisoners who were able to eat in 
        restaurants that were off limits to him, an experience that he found 
        humiliating and that deepened his determination to do something about 
        bigotry in the South;
Whereas in 1949, Dr. Hooks met teacher Frances Dancy and the couple married in 
        1952;
Whereas the couple had a daughter, Patricia Gray;
Whereas from 1949 to 1965 he was one of the few African-Americans practicing law 
        in Memphis, Tennessee;
Whereas in 1954, Dr. Hooks served on a roundtable with Thurgood Marshall and 
        other Southern African-American attorneys to formulate a possible 
        litigation strategy days before the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. 
        Board of Education of Topeka was handed down;
Whereas Dr. Hooks served as assistant public defender of Shelby County, Memphis, 
        from 1961 to 1965;
Whereas in 1965, he was appointed by Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement to 
        serve as a criminal judge in Shelby County becoming the first African-
        American criminal court judge in the State of Tennessee;
Whereas Dr. Hooks was also a Baptist minister who pastored at the Greater Middle 
        Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Greater New Mount Moriah 
        Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan;
Whereas he joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Reverend 
        Martin Luther King in 1956;
Whereas from 1972 to 1977, President Richard Nixon appointed Rev. Hooks to the 
        Federal Communications Commission, making him the first African-American 
        appointed commissioner;
Whereas from 1977 to 1992, Rev. Hooks was the Executive Director and CEO of the 
        National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP);
Whereas under his leadership, the NAACP fought for affirmative action, led 
        efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, and addressed racism in sports 
        and in the Rodney King trial;
Whereas Rev. Hooks was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1986 from the NAACP;
Whereas Dr. Hooks served as chairman of the board of directors of the National 
        Civil Rights Museum in Memphis;
Whereas he taught at the University of Memphis, and the Benjamin L. Hooks 
        Institute for Social Change was established at the University in 1996;
Whereas on March 24, 2001, Rev. Hooks and his beautiful wife Frances renewed 
        their wedding vows for the third time, after nearly 50 years of 
        marriage;
Whereas in 2002, Dr. Hooks founded the Children's Health Forum to protect the 
        most vulnerable children from preventable disease;
Whereas Dr. Hooks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President 
        George W. Bush at a White House ceremony in November 2007;
Whereas Rev. Hooks gave one of his last lectures on civil rights and social 
        justice as part of the premier lecture series of the Benjamin Hooks 
        Institute for Social Change in the Judiciary Committee Room of the 
        Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, on October 6, 2009;
Whereas he was one of the greatest civil rights icons of United States history 
        and a community leader in Memphis; and
Whereas Rev. Benjamin L. Hooks was one of the golden-throated warriors of the 
        spoken word, and one of the few silver-tongued giants of oratory: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors the life and achievements 
of Dr. Benjamin Lawson Hooks, for his commitment to justice on the bench in 
Memphis, Tennessee, for his strong work with the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People to formulate strategies for eliminating barriers 
to civil rights, and for his leadership in promoting equal opportunity for all.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.
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