HJ 57 IH
and professor of social studies; and in February 1952, he
was called as the senior pastor of the historic First Bap-
tist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he served
for a decade; and shortly after accepting this call, he
married Juanita Odessa Jones of Uniontown, Alabama
and to their union four children were born: Juandalynn
Ralpheda, Donzaleigh Avis, Ralph David III, and Kwame
Luthuli;
Whereas, as two young activist preachers in Montgomery,
Alabama in 1956, Dr. Abernathy and Dr. King organized
the Montgomery bus boycott which led to a successful
year long boycott of that city’s transit system, eventually
ending Alabama’s bus segregation and heralding the be-
ginning of America’s postwar civil rights movement; and
Dr. Abernathy cofounded the Montgomery Improvement
Association which was the forerunner of the Atlanta-
based 
Southern 
Christian 
Leadership 
Conference
(SCLC), which he also cofounded in 1957;
Whereas the SCLC, which Dr. Abernathy served as financial
secretary, treasurer, and vice-president at large, spear-
headed the United States civil rights movement and
helped to bring about passage of the landmark 1964 Civil
Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the aboli-
tion of Jim Crow segregation laws in Southern States;
and for 13 turbulent years, from 1955 until Dr. King’s
death in 1968, Dr. Abernathy and Dr. King together
were swept along by the movement of a fateful odyssey—
to Atlanta, Albany, Birmingham, Washington, DC, St.
Augustine, Selma, Chicago, and Memphis, and across the
country—in a nonviolent quest to achieve justice for all
mankind and to tear down the walls of segregation and
discrimination;
HJ 57 IH
Whereas, in addition to the resulting legislation, Dr. Aber-
nathy was able to instill in millions of African Americans
a new sense of pride and self-worth and the movement
has served as an inspiration throughout the world as a
model of principled, nonviolent struggle for freedom and
equality; and remembered by those who were there as the
tower of strength even in the darkest days of the move-
ment, Dr. Abernathy endured with equanimity the bomb-
ing of his church and his home, the beatings, the arrests,
the threats, even the selling of his family inheritance at
public auction and still, for the sake of the downtrodden,
walked undaunted along the dusty roads of southern
towns crying ‘‘let my people go’’;
Whereas it was Dr. Abernathy who cradled Dr. King in his
arms as he took his last breath April 4, 1968, mortally
wounded by an assassin’s bullet; and, upon assuming the
presidency of the SCLC and the mantle of the American
civil rights movement, Dr. Abernathy immediately began
to implement plans for the Poor People’s Campaign in
Washington, DC;
Whereas unprecedented in scope and objectives, the poor peo-
ple’s campaign reflected Dr. Abernathy’s deeply held con-
viction that the key to the salvation and redemption of
this Nation lay in its moral and humane response to the
needs of its most oppressed and poverty-stricken citizens;
Whereas aiming to rub raw the Nation’s conscience on hun-
ger and poverty, in the spring of 1968, Dr. Abernathy led
thousands of the country’s hungry—black, brown, and
white—from the hollows of Georgia, the swamps of Mis-
sissippi, the hills of Tennessee, the plains of the West,
HJ 57 IH
the Eastside barrios of New York City, and the tene-
ments of Chicago, in building Resurrection City in the
Nation’s Capital;
Whereas the poor people’s campaign led to systemic changes
in Government policies which now benefit millions of the
financially underprivileged and to federally assisted pro-
grams which provide for the poor and the elderly;
Whereas Dr. Abernathy, through his close ties with labor as
expressed in the Charleston, South Carolina Hospital
Worker’s Movement, brought a living wage and improved
working conditions for thousands of hospital workers
throughout the Nation; and he founded a nonprofit orga-
nization known as the Foundation for Economic Enter-
prises Development (FEED) through which he worked
diligently to create jobs, job training, and business and
trade opportunities for minorities in the United States;
Whereas, as documented by the honorable William Clay,
United States Congressman from Missouri, in his book
entitled ‘‘Just Permanent Interests,’’ Dr. Abernathy was
instrumental in building the groundswell of support for
the enactment of the Federal Martin Luther King, Jr.
Holiday that started with a petition drive that resulted
in 800,000 signatures in 1968, and upon reintroduction
of the bill calling for such holiday in 1971, he launched
a second petition drive that secured more than 3,000,000
signatures which he personally brought by train to the
White House; his unflagging commitment contributed di-
rectly to the passage of the bill in 1983;
Whereas, during his lifetime, he addressed the United Na-
tions and served as president of the World Peace Council,
was awarded more than 300 citations and awards, 7 hon-
orary doctoral degrees, and was a member of more than
HJ 57 IH
40 organizations, including life membership in the
NAACP, the World Commission on Hunger, the Presi-
dential Council on Aging, the Atlanta Baptist Ministers
Union, the Progressive National Baptist Convention,
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and the American Sociologi-
cal Society; and while actively involved in the movement,
he completed his master’s degree in sociology at Atlanta
University;
Whereas he remained president of the SCLC for 9 years,
from 1968 to 1977, and continued as president emeritus
until his death in 1990; and he assumed the pastorate of
the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, Geor-
gia in 1961 and served as its senior pastor until the time
of his death; and
Whereas Ralph David Abernathy, civil rights leader, minister,
sociologist, pastor, husband, father, builder of dreams,
humanitarian, distinguished American, died on April 17,
1990; and in honor and recognition of the extraordinary
life and spirit of Ralph David Abernathy and his endur-
ing contributions to the elevation of the human con-
science and the improvement of the human condition in
the United States and around the world and in gratitude
for his sacrifices on behalf of the most cherished of our
national ideals, freedom, and equality, we hereby support
and approve the creation and erection of the Ralph David
Abernathy Poor People’s Memorial as a lasting tribute
and a permanent reminder of our moral and humani-
tarian duties as individuals and as a Nation: Now, there-
fore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
HJ 57 IH
SECTION 1. AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH MEMORIAL.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Ralph David Abernathy Me-
morial Foundation is authorized to establish a memorial
on Federal land in the District of Columbia to honor Dr.
Ralph David Abernathy and the poor people’s campaign.
The memorial shall be known as the Ralph David Aber-
nathy Poor People’s Memorial and shall be located in area
I between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington
Monument.
(b) COMPLIANCE WITH STANDARDS FOR COMMEMO-
RATIVE WORKS.—Except as provided in subsection (c)
and section 2(c), the establishment of the memorial shall
be in accordance with the Commemorative Works Act (40
U.S.C. 1001 et seq.).
(c) TWENTY-FIVE YEAR PERIOD INAPPLICABLE.—
Section 3(c) of the Commemorative Works Act shall not
apply to the memorial established under this Act.
SEC. 2. PAYMENT OF EXPENSES.
(a) CONSTRUCTION
OF
MEMORIAL.—The Ralph
David Abernathy Memorial Foundation shall be solely re-
sponsible for acceptance of contributions for, and payment
of the expenses of, the construction of the memorial.
(b) MAINTENANCE OF MEMORIAL.—Federal funds
may be used to pay expenses for the maintenance and
preservation of the memorial and its infrastructure.
HJ 57 IH
(c) OFFSET OF COSTS OF MAINTENANCE OF MEMO-
RIAL INAPPLICABLE.—The offset of the costs of mainte-
nance and preservation of a memorial required in the first
sentence of section 8(b) of the Commemorative Works Act
shall not apply to the memorial established under this Act.
SEC. 3. DEPOSIT OF EXCESS FUNDS.
If, upon payment of all expenses of the construction
of the memorial, or upon expiration of the authority for
the memorial under section 10(b) of the Commemorative
Works Act, there remains a balance of funds received for
the construction of the memorial, the Ralph David Aber-
nathy Memorial Foundation shall transmit the amount of
the balance to the Secretary of the Treasury for deposit
in an account under section 8(b)(1) of such Act for main-
tenance and preservation of the memorial pursuant to sec-
tion 8(b)(2) of such Act.
Æ