[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 904 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 904

   To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to 
 determine the feasibility of designating the study area as the Black 
  Metropolis National Heritage Area in the State of Illinois, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 11, 2015

   Mr. Rush introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to 
 determine the feasibility of designating the study area as the Black 
  Metropolis National Heritage Area in the State of Illinois, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Black Metropolis National Heritage 
Area Study Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Black Metropolis area on Chicago, Illinois' South 
        Side has a cohesive and distinctive history as well as an 
        important streetscape that distinguishes the area as worthy of 
        designation as a National Heritage Area.
            (2) The historic features of Chicago's Black Metropolis 
        predate the Great Migration of 1916-1919 and illustrate its 
        influence on African-American life in Chicago and the Nation as 
        a result of this demographic phenomenon in which 500,000 
        African-Americans migrated to the North in search of work and 
        other opportunities, with 50,000 of that aggregate relocating 
        in Chicago.
            (3) The Black Metropolis, as a setting, witnessed some of 
        the finest accomplishments in African-American contributions to 
        Chicago, the State of Illinois, and the Nation, while its 
        legally and socially proscribed citizens challenged their 
        environment and their Nation to fulfill its promise as a place 
        of opportunity for all.
            (4) These contributions and accomplishments fall into the 
        following main categories:
                    (A) Business and entrepreneurial pursuits.--With 
                State Street developing as the Black Metropolis' ``Wall 
                Street'', the area produced two of the largest Black 
                banking operations in the Nation in the Binga State and 
                Douglass National Banks and scores of smaller 
                businesses ranging from print shops to restaurants to 
                clothing stores to hair salons and barbershops.
                    (B) Culture and aesthetics.--The area emerged as a 
                musical mecca ranging from jazz to gospel to delta and 
                urban blues to rhythm and blues and was home for 
                institutions such as the George Cleveland Hall Branch 
                Library, which nurtured literary giants such as 
                Langston Hughes, the South Side Community Arts Center, 
                and the DuSable Museum of African American History and 
                Culture.
                    (C) Education.--The area includes the first public 
                secondary school in the State of Illinois built 
                specifically to accommodate the educational needs of 
                African-American students, which opened in 1934 at 4934 
                South Wabash Avenue and was named in honor of Chicago's 
                first non-native inhabitant and trader, Jean Baptiste 
                Pointe du Sable, a Black man from Haiti, and whose 
                illustrious graduates include Nat ``King'' Cole and 
                Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.
                    (D) Governance and politics.--From its political 
                bases in the area's Second Ward and the First 
                Congressional District, Chicago's Black Metropolis 
                proved itself a political center for all African-
                Americans, producing the first African-American to sit 
                in Congress in the 20th century, the Honorable Oscar 
                DePriest, as well as the first African-American 
                Democratic congressman, the Honorable Arthur W. 
                Mitchell, succeeded by Honorable William L. Dawson, the 
                Honorable Ralph H. Metcalfe, the Honorable Bennett M. 
                Stewart, and the Honorable Harold Washington, later the 
                city's first elected African-American mayor, and the 
                Honorable Charles A. Hayes.
                    (E) Health care.--The area includes Provident 
                Hospital, founded in 1891 by the brilliant African-
                American surgeon, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, and site of 
                the first successful suturing of the human heart by Dr. 
                Williams in 1893.
                    (F) Labor.--The area was home to millions of 
                unskilled and semi-skilled African-American workers, 
                including the packinghouse workers who arrived during 
                the Great Migration and constituted 25 percent of the 
                stockyards work force during World War I, and the 
                Pullman porters who represented a full 20 percent of 
                the Nation's African-American workforce during the 
                early 1900s.
                    (G) Military life and patriotism.--African-American 
                men enlisted in the Union Army on the grounds of Camp 
                Douglass within the Black Metropolis area as part of 
                the 29th Infantry Regiment of the United States Colored 
                Troops, and a generation later trained at the Eighth 
                Regiment Armory nearby before embarking for France as 
                part of what President Wilson referred to as the great 
                crusade to ``make the world safe for democracy'' during 
                World War I.
                    (H) Recreation and competitive sports.--Early on, 
                the Nation's most popular sports (baseball, boxing, 
                football, track and basketball) enjoyed support from 
                the Black Metropolis' population and drew participants 
                who earned widespread recognition such as Rube Foster, 
                a native Chicagoan, who founded the Negro Baseball 
                League and its local team, the American Giants.
                    (I) Religion and church activism.--The area 
                includes Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal 
                (A.M.E) Church, an antebellum center of abolitionist 
                activity, and a major station on the Underground 
                Railroad, and with emancipation, there was another 
                religious movement to provide and protect the civil 
                rights of all citizens led by Black Metropolis churches 
                such as Quinn Chapel and Bethel A.M.E.
                    (J) Social justice and civil rights.--It was from 
                within the Black Metropolis area in the early 20th 
                century that Ida B. Wells-Barnett waged her crusade for 
                justice for African-Americans and women and worked to 
                establish the first National Association for the 
                Advancement of Colored People branch in that group's 
                national network in 1912.
                    (K) Streetscapes.--The area includes many historic 
                locations, including those along State Street and 35th 
                Street, ranging from the Overton Hygienic Manufacturing 
                Building at 3617 South State Street and the Chicago Bee 
                Building at 3647 South State Street (both designated as 
                Chicago City Landmarks) to Liberty Life Insurance 
                Company at 3501 South Parkway and a monument and park 
                dedicated to United States Senator Stephen Douglas 
                (designated as a State Landmark) at Lake Park Avenue 
                and 35th Street, green and public spaces, stretching 
                from Chicago's lakefront to historic park and boulevard 
                systems to the West, and is now the proposed site for 
                the 2016 Olympics in the City of Chicago's bid to host 
                this event.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Heritage area.--The term ``Heritage Area'' means the 
        Black Metropolis National Heritage Area.
            (2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior.
            (3) Study area.--The term ``study area'' means the region 
        bounded as follows:
                    (A) 18th Street on the North and 22nd Street on the 
                South, from Lake Michigan on the East to Wentworth 
                Avenue to the West.
                    (B) 22nd Street on the North to 35th Street on the 
                South, from Lake Michigan on the East to the Dan Ryan 
                Expressway on the West.
                    (C) 35th Street on the North and 47th Street on the 
                South, from Lake Michigan on the East to the B&O 
                Railroad (Stewart Avenue) on the West.
                    (D) 47th Street on the North to 55th Street on the 
                South, from Cottage Grove Avenue on the East to the Dan 
                Ryan Expressway on the West.
                    (E) 55th Street on the North to 67th Street on the 
                South, from State Street on the West to Cottage Grove 
                Avenue/South Chicago Avenue on the East.
                    (F) 67th Street on the North to 71st Street on the 
                South, from Cottage Grove Avenue/South Chicago Avenue 
                on the West to the Metra Railroad tracks on the East.

SEC. 4. BLACK METROPOLIS NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA STUDY.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary, in consultation with the managers 
of any Federal land within the Heritage Area, appropriate State and 
local governmental agencies, and any interested organizations, shall 
conduct a study to determine the feasibility of designating the study 
area as the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area.
    (b) Requirements.--The study shall include analysis, documentation, 
and determinations on whether--
            (1) the study area--
                    (A) has an assemblage of natural, historic, 
                cultural, educational, scenic, or recreational 
                resources that together are nationally important to the 
                heritage of the United States;
                    (B) represents distinctive aspects of the heritage 
                of the United States worthy of recognition, 
                conservation, interpretation, and continuing use;
                    (C) is best managed through agreements between 
                public and private entities at the local or regional 
                level;
                    (D) reflects traditions, customs, beliefs, and 
                folklife that are a valuable part of the heritage of 
                the United States;
                    (E) provides outstanding opportunities to conserve 
                natural, historical, cultural, or scenic features;
                    (F) provides outstanding recreational and 
                educational opportunities; and
                    (G) has resources and traditional uses that have 
                national importance;
            (2) residents, business interests, nonprofit organizations, 
        the Federal Government (including relevant Federal land 
        management agencies), and State, local, and tribal governments 
        within the study area--
                    (A) are involved in the planning; and
                    (B) have demonstrated significant support through 
                letters and other means for designation and management 
                of the Heritage Area; and
            (3) the study area has been identified and supported by the 
        public, private business, and local and State agencies.

SEC. 5. REPORT.

    Not later than 3 fiscal years after the date on which funds are 
made available to carry out this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the 
Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a report that 
describes the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the 
Secretary with respect to the study.
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