United States Civil Rights Trail Special Resource Study Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 685, the United States Civil Rights Trail System Act of 2009. This legislation would direct the Archivist of the United States to conduct a study of the feasibility of establishing the United States Civil Rights Trail System. The State of Georgia is home to numerous historic civil rights landmarks including Albany, Georgia, home to the Albany Movement, which was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Savannah, Georgia, which desegregated public and private facilities eight months ahead of federal civil rights legislation. Savannah was once described as the most desegregated city south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I strongly support H.R. 685 and I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution.

H.R. 685 simply seeks to unify our nation's civil rights landmarks through maps and other resources. This will facilitate remembrance of the struggles for civil rights based on racial equality as well as provide information about the ordinary individuals, some of whom gave up their lives, for the right to equal rights. The civil rights landmarks highlighted in this trail signify to a period that many here today are too young to remember, and would be held as a tribute to a historic era. By chronicling such historic civil rights landmarks including the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, the Greensboro sit-in, and the historic marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, we can bring true recognition to the numerous historical sites that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is my hope that in the future, we can truly create equality for all. This is an important issue and I applaud the efforts of this Congress to emphasize the importance of civil rights landmarks around the country.

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