4575022 ACR 20-94, "Former President Jimmy Carter Recognition Resolution of 2013"

a Ceremonial Resolution

20-94 

In the Council of the District of Columbia

September 17, 2013

 

To honor and acknowledge former President Jimmy Carter for his comments on the lack of full citizenship rights for the people of the District of Columbia spoken at the 50^th Anniversary of the Civil Rights March on Washington, in August 2013.

 

            WHEREAS, former President Jimmy Carter, the first President since the Civil War from the Deep South, from the heart of the Old Confederacy, owes his ascent to the success of the Civil Rights Movement and declared in his inaugural address as Governor of Georgia that “the time for racial discrimination is over”;

 

            WHEREAS, former President Jimmy Carter joined members of the King family, President Barack Obama, and many others at the 50^th Anniversary of the Civil Rights March on Washington ceremony on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Reverend Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech;

 

WHEREAS, during his remarks at the 50^th Anniversary of the Civil Rights March on Washington, former President Jimmy Carter spoke against a recent Supreme Court decision that erased a key anti-discrimination provision of the Voting Rights Act and mourned a nation flooded with guns and the more than 835,000 African-American men in prison;

 

WHEREAS, in his remarks, former President Jimmy Carter also expressed that he believed he knew how Dr. King would have reacted to several injustices, including full citizenship rights denied to the people of the District of Columbia; and

 

WHEREAS, former President Jimmy Carter spoke on “the tremendous agenda ahead of us” and expressed gratitude to Martin Luther King, Jr., that his dream is still alive.

 

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the “Former President Jimmy Carter Recognition Resolution of 2013”.

 

Sec. 2.  The Council of the District of Columbia honors and expresses its gratitude to former President Jimmy Carter for mentioning the need for full citizenship rights for the people of the District of Columbia.

 

Sec. 3.  This resolution shall take effect immediately upon the first date of publication in the District of Columbia Register