HR 9129 2003
1	House Resolution
2	A resolution honoring the memory of Robert William
3	Saunders, Sr.
4
5	WHEREAS, referred to as "a trailblazer who never complained
6	about his task," Tampa native Robert William Saunders, Sr., was
7	born June 9, 1921, seemingly destined for a life of activism and
8	dedication to the struggle for human and civil rights, and
9	WHEREAS, a graduate of George S. Middleton High School, Bob
10	Saunders earned an associate of arts degree from Bethune-Cookman
11	College before being drafted into the United States Army, where
12	he served as a sergeant in the Air Corps during World War II
13	before being awarded a bachelor of arts degree at the Detroit
14	Institute of Technology and entering the University of Detroit
15	Law School, and
16	WHEREAS, Bob Saunders had received his introduction to the
17	NAACP as a newsboy during his school years in Tampa, but not
18	until he left the Florida Sentinel as editor of his own column
19	to join the Cleveland Call and Post at its Cincinnati office did
20	he begin his work with the NAACP, and
21	WHEREAS, considering himself honored at the opportunity,
22	Bob Saunders served as the Field Secretary of the Florida
23	Chapter of the NAACP during the era of the nation's greatest
24	civil rights gains, having accepted the assignment following the
25	bombing death of his predecessor, Harry T. Moore, a position in
26	which he worked closely with Thurgood Marshall, later the first
27	black United States Supreme Court Justice, and with Medgar
28	Evers, his Mississippi counterpart, who too was assassinated,
29	and
30	WHEREAS, in 1966, Bob Saunders was appointed by President
31	Lyndon Johnson as Director of Equal Opportunity for the
32	Southeast Region of the Office of Economic Opportunity, and 10
33	years later, he returned to Tampa to create the Hillsborough
34	County Office of Equal Opportunity, a program for which he was
35	responsible until his retirement in 1988 launched him into an
36	energetic period of compiling and cataloging his experiences, an
37	effort crowned by the authoring of his memoirs, "Bridging the
38	Gap," and
39	WHEREAS, on March 18, 2003, after a fruitful life of
40	service, 81-year-old Robert William Saunders, Sr., succumbed to
41	injuries sustained in an automobile accident, NOW, THEREFORE,
42
43	Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
44	Florida:
45
46	That the House of Representatives pauses to honor the
47	memory and accomplishments of a "tenacious, uncompromising, and
48	fearless" man.
49	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be
50	presented to Mrs. Helen Saunders and to Robert W. Saunders, Jr.,
51	as a tangible token of the sentiments expressed herein.