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 Cali-
fornia, 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 com-
munities; 
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 impor-
tant role in making our country work; 
Whereas community organizers place their country first by 
strengthening the democratic principle of public partici-
pation; 
Whereas the accomplishments of community organizers con-
stitute an illustrious list, from helping slaves reach free-
dom, 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 dis-
mantling 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 or-
ganizer Susan B. Anthony cofounded the National Wom-
en’s Suffrage Association, traveled the United States giv-
ing 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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•HRES 1521 IH 
first American woman on a circulating United States 
coin; 
Whereas teacher, nurse, and community organizer Clara Bar-
ton established an agency to obtain and distribute sup-
plies 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 Con-
ference, 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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•HRES 1521 IH 
the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Con-
gressional 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-Dis-
crimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law 
in the United States; 
Whereas escaped slave, nurse, Union spy, and community or-
ganizer Harriet Tubman made more than 15 missions to 
rescue hundreds of slaves using the network of anti-
slavery activists and safe houses known as the Under-
ground 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, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That— 
(1) the House of Representatives— 
(A) honors the contributions that commu-
nity organizers, past and present, have made to 
our Nation and our communities; and 
(B) recognizes that community organizing 
is a vision of participatory democracy in which 
a change comes from the people, not the power-
ful, the privileged, or the government, and 
where the electorate is empowered and called 
upon to act on their behalf; and 
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•HRES 1521 IH 
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representa-
tives that— 
(A) participation in community organizing 
is an American tradition that should be encour-
aged; and 
(B) regardless of religion, gender, race, 
ethnicity, sexual preference, or point of view, 
the right of American citizens to organize and 
petition their government is crucial to achieving 
a profoundly democratic, just, moral, and hon-
orable society. 
Æ 
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