House Resolution 20 - Introduced

PAG LIN

                                    H.R. ________ S.R. ________


  1  1                HOUSE RESOLUTION NO.    
  1  2         BY  REICHERT, BERRY, THEDE, H. MILLER,
  1  3          FORD, BURT, ABDUL=SAMAD, and KAUFMANN
  1  4 A Resolution to honor the life and work of Alexander G.
  1  5    Clark.
  1  6    WHEREAS, as a young man, Alexander G. Clark settled
  1  7 in Bloomington, Iowa, now Muscatine, and made it his
  1  8 home for a half century; and
  1  9    WHEREAS, in his lifetime, Mr. Clark was a barber,
  1 10 an investor, an entrepreneur, an educator, a soldier,
  1 11 a politician, an attorney, a newspaper publisher, a
  1 12 statesman, and the United States ambassador to
  1 13 Liberia; and
  1 14    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark was the second African=American
  1 15 to graduate from the University of Iowa Law School ==
  1 16 the first being his own son; and
  1 17    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark was a founder of the African
  1 18 Methodist Episcopal Church of Muscatine and a founder
  1 19 of Prince Hall Masonry throughout the Midwest; and
  1 20    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark was a pioneer in humanitarian
  1 21 and social justice issues in Muscatine, Iowa; and
  1 22    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark led the legal fight to
  1 23 desegregate Iowa's schools in 1867=1868; and
  1 24    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark and his associates, white and
  1 25 black, advanced the interests of all people in
  1 26 establishing legal recognition for equal rights in the
  1 27 State of Iowa; and
  1 28    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark traveled the country speaking
  1 29 for a diverse and egalitarian future for the United
  1 30 States of America; and
  2  1    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark accepted an appointment and
  2  2 served his country as Minister and Consul=General to
  2  3 the Black Free State of Liberia; and
  2  4    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark became known as the "Colored
  2  5 Orator of the West," and the oration at his funeral
  2  6 declared him "one of the underground railroad
  2  7 engineers and conductors, whose field was the South,
  2  8 whose depot was the North, and whose freight was human
  2  9 souls"; and
  2 10    WHEREAS, Mr. Clark was buried in 1891 at Greenwood
  2 11 Cemetery in Muscatine; and
  2 12    WHEREAS, February 25, 2009, is the 183rd
  2 13 anniversary of the birth of this equal rights pioneer;
  2 14 NOW THEREFORE,
  2 15    BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
  2 16 That the House of Representatives recognizes the week
  2 17 of February 22 to February 28, 2009, as Alexander G.
  2 18 Clark Week to honor his work for justice and fairness
  2 19 and his memory as a truly great Iowan.
  2 20 LSB 2127HH 83
  2 21 jr/rj/14.1