LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION mourning the death of civil rights icon Dr.
Benjamin L. Hooks, Executive Director and CEO Emeritus of the NAACP

WHEREAS, It is with great sorrow and deep regret that this Legislative
Body records the passing of Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks, noting the signif-
icance of his purposeful life and accomplishments; and
WHEREAS, On Thursday, April 15, 2010, Benjamin L. Hooks, a champion of
minorities and the poor, and the former Executive Director of the NAACP,
died at the age of 85, following a long illness; and
WHEREAS, For over 50 years, the Reverend Benjamin Hooks served as
pastor of the Greater New Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in
Detroit, Michigan, and the Middle Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee;
and
WHEREAS, In addition to graduating with a law degree from DePaul
University in Chicago, when no law school in the South would admit him,
Benjamin Hooks was appointed in 1965 to the Tennessee Criminal Court,
making him the first black judge since Reconstruction in a state trial
court anywhere in the South; in 1972, he was appointed by President
Richard M. Nixon as the first black Commissioner of the Federal Communi-
cations Commission, where he served for five years prior to becoming
Executive Director of the NAACP; and
WHEREAS, In 2007, Dr. Benjamin Hooks was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor; when presenting
the Medal of Freedom, President George W. Bush said "The nation best
remembers Benjamin Hooks as the leader of the NAACP"; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Benjamin Hooks became Executive Director of the NAACP in
1977, when the organization had diminished to 200,000 members from near-
ly a half-million in the 1950s and 1960s; and
WHEREAS, Soon after his induction as Director, Dr. Hooks said, "Black
Americans are not defeated....The Civil Rights Movement is not dead. If
anyone thinks that we are going to stop agitating, they had better think
again. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop litigating, they had
better close the courts. If anyone thinks that we are not going to
demonstrate and protest, they had better roll up the sidewalks."; and
WHEREAS, During Dr. Benjamin Hooks's fifteen year tenure, the NAACP
membership grew by several hundred thousand; and
WHEREAS, Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP, praised Dr.
Hooks by saying "Benjamin Hooks has had a stellar career--civil rights
advocate and leader, businessman, public servant--there are few who are
his equal."; and
WHEREAS, Armed with a humanistic spirit, imbued with a sense of
compassion, and comforted by a loving family, Dr. Benjamin Hooks leaves
behind a legacy which will long endure the passage of time and will
remain as a comforting memory to all he served and befriended; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
remember Benjamin Hooks as Executive Director and CEO Emeritus of the
NAACP, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, pastor, public servant
and tireless champion of equality and civil rights; and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the family of Benjamin L. Hooks and to Benjamin Todd Jealous,
Executive Director of the NAACP.