WHEREAS, Brother Nat LaCour has devoted his life to enhancing public education, improving the rights and benefits of public school employees, healthcare workers and all working people, and building the civil and human rights movement; and

WHEREAS, Brother LaCour, a former biology teacher in New Orleans, was especially committed to ensuring adequate funding for Title I, the federal program for disadvantaged students. LaCour has been actively involved in AFT's efforts to raise student achievement in inner-city schools. He has worked with civic associations, parent and other community groups and unions to encourage increased funding for public education at the local, state and federal levels; and

WHEREAS, Brother LaCour is the former president of AFT's New Orleans affiliate, the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO). Under LaCour's leadership, UTNO membership grew rapidly, enrolling into its membership more than 90 percent of the teachers, paraprofessional and clerical staff employed in the New Orleans Public Schools. In 1974, without the aid of a state public employee collective bargaining law, UTNO became the first teachers union in the Deep South to obtain a collective bargaining agreement with a school district; and

WHEREAS, In 1998, Brother LaCour was elected Executive Vice President of the AFT. Delegates to the 2004 AFT Convention elected him Secretary-Treasurer; and

WHEREAS, One of his many responsibilities at the AFT is serving as Chair of the union's Organizing Committee. With Brother LaCour's leadership, the AFT continues to develop plans to increase membership strategically in order to build the union's power; and

WHEREAS, Brother LaCour also serves on the executive council of the AFL-CIO, to which he was elected in August 2004; and

WHEREAS, Brother LaCour was a founding member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. He has served on a number of boards, including the Albert Shanker Institute, National Democratic Institute, Learning First Alliance, Education Quality Institute, The Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. During the Clinton Administration, LaCour was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the White House Commission of Presidential Scholars; and

WHEREAS, Brother LaCour also has been very involved in politics, serving as a member of the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee and as a delegate to five Democratic National Conventions; NOW THEREFORE BE IT FINALLY

RESOLVED: For all he has accomplished and will continue to accomplish for so many, MFT&SRP presents AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour with the 2005 Walter Bergman Human Rights Award.