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A resolution condemning all political violence in America.
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WHEREAS, a rise in hateful rhetoric has created a climate of danger and fear; and
WHEREAS, political violence of any kind undermines the foundation of democracy and must never be tolerated; and
WHEREAS, all public officials, leaders, and citizens must work to promote a culture of respect, nonviolence, and tolerance in political and public discourse; and
WHEREAS, America is a nation that was built on the idea of freedom but unfortunately has too often resorted to political violence to achieve it; and
WHEREAS, this violent legacy includes, but is not limited to, the colonizers' violence against Native Americans through murder, disease, and land theft; the institution of human chattel slavery primarily affecting Africans and African Americans; the 1837 lynching of abolitionist clergyman Elijah P. Lovejoy; the 1859 beating of anti-slavery Republican Charles Sumner on the Senate floor; pro-slavery congressmen threatening Northern colleagues with violence; the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln; the founding of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, TN; the 1875 election violence in Mississippi where an angry mob set buildings on fire, killed four men and forced African Americans from their homes; the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, when white mobs burned down 35 city blocks of Black Wall Street, resulting in 300 deaths, 800 injuries, and the displacement of 9,000 residents; and the Red Scare of the 1950s; and
WHEREAS, furthermore, we have witnessed additional instances of political violence including the Nashville bombings of Hattie Cotton School to resist desegregation; the bombing of the home of civil rights leader, attorney, and former Councilmember Z. Alexander Looby; the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X; the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four young Black girls-Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole...
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