IL HR0730

Memorial resolution mourning the death of civil rights leader Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr., who passed away on March 5, 2026

Co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at age 19 in 1960, was a Freedom Rider imprisoned at Parchman Prison in 1961, and became director of the Alabama Voter Registration Campaign at age 22 in 1963

Worked extensively in Illinois, joining the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago in 1964, organizing buses from Chicago to Selma after Bloody Sunday in 1965, and joining the Chicago Freedom Movement's Action Committee in 1966

Appointed director of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign in 1968 and spent time with Dr. King on the morning of his assassination; later earned his Master and Doctor of Education from Harvard University

Illinois House of Representatives extends condolences to his family and directs that a copy of the resolution be presented to his family