03/12/2020 08:00 AM House TRIBAL AFFAIRS

             HJR 29-ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ACT OF 1945                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
9:02:06 AM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
CHAIR ZULKOSKY  announced that the  only order of  business would                                                               
be  HOUSE  JOINT  RESOLUTION  NO.  29,  Commemorating  the  Anti-                                                               
Discrimination Act of 1945.                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
9:02:47 AM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
JOSIAH  NASH,  Intern, Representative  Jonathan  Kreiss-Tompkins,                                                               
Alaska  State   Legislature,  presented  HJR  29   on  behalf  of                                                               
Representative   Kreiss-Tompkins.     He   said   HJR  29   would                                                               
commemorate   the   seventy-fifth   anniversary  of   the   Anti-                                                               
Discrimination  Act of  1945 [on  February 16,  2020].   In 1945,                                                               
Alaska Natives faced systemic discrimination.   If they went into                                                               
public  establishments,   they  would   see  signs   reading  "No                                                               
Natives,"  Mr. Nash  informed the  committee.     He stated  that                                                               
Elizabeth Peratrovich,  the Alaska  Native Sisterhood  (ANS), and                                                               
the  Alaska Native  Brotherhood  (ANB) worked  to  get the  Anti-                                                               
Discrimination Act, the  first of its kind based  on race, passed                                                               
in 1945.   The Act  laid groundwork for similar  race-based anti-                                                               
discrimination legislation in the U.S.                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
9:04:10 AM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
JONATHAN  KREISS-TOMPKINS,  Alaska  State Legislature,  as  prime                                                               
sponsor  of  HJR  29,  informed   the  committee  that  Elizabeth                                                               
Peratrovich's descendants are still  living in communities in his                                                               
district, and she  is as much an icon in  Southeast Alaska as she                                                               
is   statewide.     The  ANS   and  ANB   suggested  HJR   29  to                                                               
Representative Kreiss-Tompkins, he said.                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
9:05:08 AM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP asked how long it took to get the Anti-                                                                     
Discrimination Act of 1945 passed.                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
9:05:31 AM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE  KREISS-TOMPKINS replied  from very  early in  the                                                               
twentieth century William  L. Paul, Sr., and others  in the Civil                                                               
Rights   movement   were    agitating   for   anti-discrimination                                                               
legislation.                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
9:06:27 AM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP asked whether a copy of the Act was                                                                         
available.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
9:06:34 AM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMPKINS indicated it would be provided.                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
[HJR 29 was held over.]