IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 17 
Honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People on the occasion of its 108th anniversary. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 1, 2017 
Mr. AL GREEN of Texas (for himself, Ms. ADAMS, Ms. BASS, Mrs. BEATTY, 
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. BROWN of Mary-
land, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Ms. CLARKE of New 
York, Mr. CLAY, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. CUM-
MINGS, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mrs. DEMINGS, Mr. ELLISON, 
Mr. EVANS, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. 
JEFFRIES, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. JOHNSON of 
Georgia, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. LAWSON of Flor-
ida, Ms. LEE, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. 
MOORE, Ms. NORTON, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. PLASKETT, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. 
RUSH, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Ms. SE-
WELL of Alabama, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. VEASEY, Ms. MAX-
INE WATERS of California, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, and Ms. WILSON of 
Florida) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Honoring and praising the National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 108th 
anniversary. 
Whereas the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People (NAACP), originally known as the Na-
tional Negro Committee, was founded in New York City 
on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lin-
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•HCON 17 IH 
coln’s birth, by a multiracial group of activists who met 
in a national conference to discuss the civil and political 
rights of African-Americans; 
Whereas the multiracial founders of the NAACP were a dis-
tinguished group of leaders in the struggle for human 
rights, including Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, 
Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garri-
son Villard, and William English Walling; 
Whereas the NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights or-
ganization in the United States; 
Whereas the NAACP National Headquarters is located in 
Baltimore, Maryland; 
Whereas the mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, 
educational, social, and economic rights of all persons 
and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination; 
Whereas the NAACP is committed to achieving its goals 
through nonviolence; 
Whereas the NAACP advances its mission through reliance 
upon peaceful protest, the petition, the ballot, and the 
courts, and has been persistent in the use of legal and 
moral persuasion, even in the face of overt and violent ra-
cial hostility; 
Whereas the NAACP has used political pressure, marches, 
demonstrations, and effective lobbying to serve as the 
voice, as well as the shield, for minorities in the United 
States; 
Whereas after years of fighting segregation in public schools, 
the NAACP, under the leadership of Special Counsel 
Thurgood Marshall, won one of its greatest legal victories 
in the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of 
Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954); 
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•HCON 17 IH 
Whereas in 1955, NAACP member Rosa Parks was arrested 
and fined for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated 
bus in Montgomery, Alabama, an act of courage that 
would serve as the catalyst for the largest grassroots civil 
rights movement in the history of the United States; 
Whereas the NAACP was prominent in lobbying for the pas-
sage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, 
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fannie Lou Hamer, 
Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Ce´sar E. Cha´vez, Bar-
bara C. Jordan, William C. Vela´squez, and Dr. Hector P. 
Garcia Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amend-
ments Act of 2006, and the Fair Housing Act, laws that 
ensured Government protection for legal victories 
achieved; 
Whereas in 2005, the NAACP launched the Disaster Relief 
Fund to help hurricane survivors in Louisiana, Mis-
sissippi, Texas, Florida, and Alabama to rebuild their 
lives; 
Whereas in the 110th Congress, the NAACP was prominent 
in lobbying for the passage of H. Res. 826, whose re-
solved clause expresses that the hanging of nooses is a 
horrible act when used for the purpose of intimidation 
and which under certain circumstances can be criminal, 
this conduct should be investigated thoroughly by Federal 
authorities, and any criminal violations should be vigor-
ously prosecuted; 
Whereas in 2008, the NAACP vigorously supported the pas-
sage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act 
of 2007, a law that puts additional Federal resources 
into solving the heinous crimes that occurred in the early 
days of the civil rights struggle that remain unsolved and 
bringing those who perpetrated such crimes to justice; 
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•HCON 17 IH 
Whereas the NAACP has helped usher in the new millennium 
by charting a bold course, beginning with the appoint-
ment of the organization’s youngest President and Chief 
Executive Officer, Benjamin Todd Jealous, and its 
youngest female Board Chair, Roslyn M. Brock; 
Whereas under their leadership, the NAACP has outlined a 
strategic plan to confront 21st century challenges in the 
critical areas of health, education, housing, criminal jus-
tice, and environment; 
Whereas, on July 16, 2009, the NAACP celebrated its cen-
tennial anniversary in New York City, highlighting an ex-
traordinary century of Bold Dreams, Big Victories with 
a historic address from the first African-American Presi-
dent of the United States, Barack Obama; 
Whereas, as an advocate for sentencing reform, the NAACP 
applauded the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 
2010 (Public Law 111–220; 124 Stat. 2372), a landmark 
piece of legislation that reduces the quantity of crack co-
caine that triggers a mandatory minimum sentence for a 
Federal conviction of crack cocaine distribution from 100 
times that of people convicted of distributing the drug in 
powdered form to 18 times that sentence; 
Whereas in 2011, the NAACP led the charge to defend the 
constitutional right to vote and to protect that right for 
all citizens of the United States, whether they be seniors, 
young voters, the poor, or from minority communities; 
Whereas in 2013, the NAACP signed a historic Memorandum 
of Agreement with the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency (FEMA) to put mechanisms in place to ensure 
that the needs of underrepresented communities are more 
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fully integrated into future plans for disaster prepared-
ness; 
Whereas in 2014, the NAACP was a leader in the effort to 
strengthen the Voting Rights Act and protect the prin-
ciple of ‘‘one person, one vote’’; 
Whereas in 2014, the NAACP released its groundbreaking 
report ‘‘Born Suspect’’ on racial profiling by law enforce-
ment in the United States, which highlighted the problem 
of racial profiling experienced by individuals of color and 
communities of color; and 
Whereas in 2016, the NAACP led the charge in raising 
awareness about and challenging voter suppression laws 
in Federal court across the Nation: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That— 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Original NAACP 
Resolution of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. HONORING AND PRAISING THE NATIONAL ASSOCIA-
TION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED 
PEOPLE. 
Congress— 
(1) recognizes the 108th anniversary of the his-
toric founding of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People; and 
(2) honors and praises the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People on the occa-
sion of its anniversary for its work to ensure the po-
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