NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1977 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 1074

HOUSE BILL 1454

 

 

AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO BEGIN THE PREPARATION OF A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA FROM 1665 TO THE PRESENT, AND TO COLLECT AND MOUNT PICTURES OF OFFICERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND OF RECENT MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN THE LEGISLATIVE BUILDING.

 

Whereas, the General Assembly, from its first convening in 1665 to the present day, has constituted a unique assemblage of the social and political leadership of the Colony and State of North Carolina; and

Whereas, the North Carolina General Assembly, more than any other state legislature, has perpetually maintained the colonial and revolutionary traditions of primary governance by the chosen representatives of the people; and

Whereas, from 1665 to the present many of the most distinguished citizens of North Carolina have served in the General Assembly leaving an indelible mark in the history of the Colony and the State; and

Whereas, almost nothing is presently known about nine tenths of those persons who have served in the General Assembly because appropriate records about their lives and careers have not been maintained or collected; and

Whereas, only during the present session have efforts been undertaken to compile for deposit in the State Archives a comprehensive and permanent record of basic data about each member of this General Assembly; and

Whereas, other state legislatures, notably those of Tennessee and South Carolina, have provided for the compilation, writing, and publication of essential biographical data on all persons who have served and are serving in their state assemblies; and

Whereas, it is proper and timely that a program should be established in North Carolina to compile, write, and publish a comprehensive Biographical Directory of the General Assembly of North Carolina from 1665 to the present; and

Whereas, it is also proper that pictures of the officers and members of the General Assembly should be collected and mounted at appropriate places in the Legislative Building; Now, therefore,

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, for the 1977-78 fiscal year the sum of twenty-four thousand three hundred seventy-five dollars ($24,375) and for the 1978-79 fiscal year the sum of twenty-three thousand six hundred twenty-five dollars ($23,625) for the purpose of establishing an ongoing program of compiling biographical data and collecting pictures of all persons who have served or will serve in the General Assembly of the Colony and State of North Carolina; for the purpose during the coming biennium specifically of preparing biographical sketches and collecting and mounting pictures of all members of the General Assembly who have served in the Legislative Building since 1963 and of all officers of the General Assembly from the beginning to the present; and for the purpose of preparing during the coming biennium for the publication of the first volume of a comprehensive Biographical Directory of the General Assembly of North Carolina from 1665 to the present, beginning with the most recent sessions of the General Assembly.

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective July 1, 1977.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 1st day of July, 1977.