118 HRES 1513 IH: Affirming the term “woke” and its historical connection to Black history, Black liberation movements, and social justice. U.S. House of Representatives 2024-09-25 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV118th CONGRESS2d SessionH. RES. 1513IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESSeptember 25, 2024Ms. Lee of California submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and AccountabilityRESOLUTIONAffirming the term woke and its historical connection to Black history, Black liberation movements, and social justice.

Whereas Black history is a critical aspect of United States history and has shaped United States culture, including the evolution of language;Whereas the words wake up and woke have served as a call to action as conveyed by social activist Marcus Garvey who stated, Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa, and the Negro Mine Workers who in 1940 issued the statement, We were asleep. But we will stay woke from now on, in advocating against discriminatory pay;Whereas the term woke was first highlighted in the 1962 essay, If You’re Woke, You Dig It, featured in the New York Times by Harlem-based writer William Melvin Kelley, who documented the cultural appropriation and distortion of language, resulting in certain idioms being abandoned by their original Black creators;Whereas the term woke has been similarly misused, as traditional media have reframed woke as trendy new slang, eroding its cultural connection and separating the term from its historical grounding in social justice;Whereas, six decades later, right-wing extremists have engaged in a similar exercise of cultural appropriation to weaponize and misdefine the term woke, as evidenced by the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, specifically targeting the teaching of United States history and Black educators; andWhereas Black educators are more likely to teach subjects that incorporate an inclusive view of history, and legislation like the End Woke Higher Education Act threaten to undermine both diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and nondiscrimination protections: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives—(1)affirms the term woke and its historical connection to Black history, Black liberation movements, and social justice;(2)encourages a historically accurate and correct use of the term woke when its misuse is identified; and(3)condemns cultural appropriation, misuse of Black idioms, and specific efforts to revise history and to distort and redefine the specific term woke.