Senate Bill sb2044

    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2044

    By Senator Wilson





    33-925-06                                               See HB

  1                        Senate Resolution

  2         A resolution of apology to the victims of

  3         lynching in this state and the descendants of

  4         those victims for the Senate's part in the past

  5         failure of the Florida Legislature to enact

  6         legislation that might have prevented those

  7         lynchings.

  8  

  9         WHEREAS, the crime of lynching succeeded slavery as the

10  ultimate expression of racism in the United States following

11  Reconstruction, and

12         WHEREAS, lynching was a widely acknowledged practice in

13  the United States until the middle of the 20th century,

14  occurring in documented incidents in all but four states, and

15         WHEREAS, at least 4,742 people, predominately African

16  Americans, were reported as being lynched in the United States

17  between 1882 and 1968, and

18         WHEREAS, at least 280 people, predominately African

19  Americans, were reported as being lynched in Florida between

20  1882 and 1968, and

21         WHEREAS, 99 percent of all perpetrators of lynching

22  escaped punishment by state or local officials, and

23         WHEREAS, lynching prompted African Americans to form

24  the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

25  (NAACP) and prompted members of B'nai B'rith to found the

26  Anti-Defamation League, and

27         WHEREAS, the recent publication of "Without Sanctuary:

28  Lynching Photography in America" has helped to bring greater

29  awareness and proper recognition to the victims of lynching,

30  and

31  

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2044
    33-925-06                                               See HB




 1         WHEREAS, it is only by coming to terms with history

 2  that the United States can effectively champion human rights

 3  abroad, and

 4         WHEREAS, in 2005, the United States Senate passed

 5  Senate Resolution 39, which apologizes to the victims of

 6  lynching for the failure of the United States Senate to enact

 7  anti-lynching legislation, expresses its sympathies and

 8  regrets to the descendants of lynching victims, and remembers

 9  the history of lynching to ensure that the tragedies

10  surrounding those crimes will be neither forgotten nor

11  repeated, and

12         WHEREAS, an apology offered in the spirit of true

13  repentance will move the United States toward reconciliation

14  and will become central to a new understanding on which

15  improved racial relations can be forged, NOW, THEREFORE,

16  

17  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

18  

19         That the Florida Senate apologizes and expresses its

20  deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets to the victims of

21  lynching in this state and the descendants of those victims

22  for its part in the past failure of the Florida Legislature to

23  enact legislation that might have prevented those tragedies in

24  which the victims were deprived of life, human dignity, and

25  the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the

26  United States.

27  

28  

29  

30  

31  

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.