HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1947

TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to transportation.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the State of Hawaii has no roadways honoring legendary civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., despite the fact that streets in thirty-nine other states and the District of Columbia are named after Dr. King and there is an annual national holiday in celebration of his birth.  The legislature also finds that properly honoring Dr. King in Hawaii is particularly significant given the mutual admiration that has long existed between Dr. King and Hawaii's people.  In a 1959 address to the legislature Dr. King stated:

I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union. As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.

In addition, in leading the famous voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the Alabama State Capitol in 1965, Dr. King and many of his fellow protestors wore leis provided by friends and admirers from Hawaii who had encouraged him to continue the effort to reach the capitol despite being rebuffed by violence in earlier attempts.  The legislature further finds that the County of Maui hosts a Stone of Hope Monument on the Kalana O Maui campus at 200 South High Street in Wailuku bearing the following statement from Dr. King:  "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

     Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to rename High Street in Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

     SECTION 2.  High Street in Wailuku, Maui, shall be renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

     SECTION 3.  The renaming of High Street in Wailuku, Maui, shall not be deemed to affect any federal or state funding for High Street or any other roadway.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

 

 


 


 

Report Title:

High Street; Maui; Martin Luther King Jr. Street

 

Description:

Renames High Street in Wailuku, Maui, to Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

 

 

 

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.