12 2 STA T .5 2 07CON C UR R E NT RESO L UT I ONS — OCT. 2 , 200 8andimpres si v e .Th ere w as to om uc h g ood sense in our communit yf or any j eers or sneers to b e seen on such an occasion ’ ’
- W
hereas this vote was inspirationa l to the women’s suffrage move - ment and to the cause of civil rights; Whereas , Wyoming’s statehood, in 1890 , brought the codification of this suffrage right through the ratification of the new Wyoming S tate constitution under A rticle 6 , section 1; Whereas, when the C ongress threatened to withhold statehood from Wyoming, territory legislators replied with a telegram stating that Wyoming would remain out of the U nion 100 years rather than join without women’s suffrage; Whereas P resident B enjamin H arrison, on J uly 10, 1890, signed into law a bill admitting Wyoming into the Union, and recogni z ing it as the N ation’s ‘ ‘ Eq uality State’’; Whereas these actions instigated a path to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution 5 0 years after L ouisa Swain’s historical first vote; and Whereas September 6, 2 008, would be an appropriate date to des- ignate as Louisa Swain D ay
Now, therefore, be it Resolv e dbyth e H o u seo f Re pr ese n t a t i ves ( the S enate c oncur - rin g), That Congress supports the designation of a Louisa Swain Day. Agreed to O ctober 2, 2008. MINOR I TYA I DS INITIATI VE—10 T H ANNIVERSARY Whereas the M inority A I DS Initiative was established on October 28, 1998, under the leadership of the Congressional Blac k Caucus, to target funds for the awareness, prevention, testing, and treat- ment of HI V/ AIDS toward racial and ethnic minority communities and toward community-based organizations and health care pro- viders serving these communities; Whereas HIV/AIDS is a devastating epidemic that continues to spread in communities throughout the United States; Whereas there are more than 1,000,000 people living with HIV/ AIDS in the United States today; Whereas there are more than 1 4 ,000 AIDS-related deaths every year in the United States; Whereas appro x imately 1 in 4 of the people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States do not know they are infected; Whereas racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS; Whereas African-Americans account for about half of new AIDS cases, although approximately 1 3 percent of the population as a whole is Black, and the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion ( CDC ) estimates that African-Americans accounted for 45 percent of new HIV infections in 2006; Whereas Hispanic-Americans account for 19 percent of new AIDS cases, although only 15 percent of the population as a whole Oct.2, 2 0 0 8[H . Con . Res . 4 2 6]
�
