The 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress is a joint resolution by the legislature of the state of Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, and approved by the Governor on March 8, 1957, urging the Congress of the United States

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 to declare the 14th

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...

 and 15th Amendments

Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...

 null and void because of purported violations of the Constitution during the post-Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 ratification process. The Memorial, part of Georgia's "continuing battle for segregation

Racial segregation in the United States

Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...

," followed the Supreme Court's ruling, in Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...

, that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from discriminating against racial minorities in public schools.

The Georgia resolution is a petition in the form of a memorial The Resolution makes certain contentions, including the following:

• That the State of Georgia and ten other Southern States meet the conditions laid down by the President for the resumption of practical relations, and elected Senators and Representatives to the 19th Congress [possible typographical error that should have read "39th Congress"];

• That when the southern Senators and Representatives appeared in the Capitol to take their seats, "hostile majorities" in both houses of Congress refused to admit them;

• That the affected Congresses were, constitutionally, nothing more than "private assemblages unlawfully attempting to exercise legislative power";

• That the 19th [i.e., 39th] Congress was without lawful power to propose any constitutional amendments;

• That two-thirds of the members of each house failed to vote for the submission of the 14th and 15th amendments;

• That all subsequent proceedings were null and void;

• That the proposals were rejected by the State of Georgia and twelve other southern states, as well as some northern states, but that subsequent Congresses illegally dissolved the governments in Georgia and nine other southern states by military force, and that puppet governments "compliantly ratified the invalid proposals";

• That the pretended ratification of the 14th and 15th amendments was necessary "to give color to the claim [ .