IN THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE OF JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
Title
A RESOLUTION recognizing the 55th anniversary of the integration of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.
Intro
RESOLUTION #17428, December 6, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Scott Burnett and James D. Tindall, County Legislators
Body
WHEREAS, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association will commemorate the 55th anniversary of its integration; and,
WHEREAS, the association was an all-white organization in 1955 when Irving Achtenberg and Harold Holliday, Sr., decided to recruit African-Americans Lewis Clymer and Kansas City Municipal Court Judge Carl R. Johnson to submit membership applications and dues to the association's executive committee; and,
WHEREAS, when the executive committee refused to act on the applications, Achtenberg formed a committee to amend the association's constitution, calling for membership applications to be submitted directly to the membership; and,
WHEREAS, December 1, 1955, Lyman Field led the charge to change the way the bar association conducted business, moving to also delete the word "male" from the definition of a "member," thereby making the organization open to all attorneys regardless of gender or race; and,
WHEREAS, upon successfully passing the amendment to the bylaws, Achtenberg successfully moved for the applications of Holliday, Clymer, and Johnson to be accepted; and,
WHEREAS, the move to integrate the bar was aided by the efforts of many others, including William D. Cosgrove, Theodore C. DeFeo, N. R. Fischer, Henry H. Fox, Jr., Arthur Kase, Sam Mandell, John J. Manning, Keith Martin, John J. McFadden, Phil Munoz, Anthony P. Nugent, Jr., John Oliver, Frank J. O'Leary, William Partin, James Patrick Quinn, Howard Sachs, Austin F. Shute, Hampton Stevens, and Roscoe C. Van Valkenburgh; and,
WHEREAS, on December 8, 2010, Judge Howard Sachs, who was present at the vote, UMKC Law School Professor David Achtenberg, whose father was one of the leaders of this desegregation effort, and community leader and human rights advocate Mamie Hughes, will join Kansas City Public Library Director Crosby Kemper III for a roundtable discussion of this major moment in local civil rights history; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the County Legislature of Jackson County, Missouri, that the Legislature recognizes the important and courageous act of integrating the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.
Enacted and Approved
Effective Date: This Resolution shall be effective immediately upon its passage by a majority of the Legislature.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
______________________________ ________________________________
Chief Deputy County Counselor Acting County Counselor
Certificate of Passage
I hereby certify that the attached resolution, Resolution #17428 of December 6, 2010, was duly passed on December 6, 2010 by the Jackson County Legislature. The votes thereon were as follows:
Yeas __________9_________ Nays _________0__________
Abstaining _______0________ Absent ________0__________
______________________ _________________________________
Date Mary Jo Spino, Clerk of Legislature