[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 168 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 168

  Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 26, 2021

 Mr. Green of Texas (for himself, Mr. Larsen of Washington, Mr. Bishop 
of Georgia, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Mr. Danny 
 K. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Blumenauer, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Cardenas, Ms. 
   DelBene, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms. Pressley, Mr. 
Welch, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Auchincloss, Ms. Omar, Mr. DeSaulnier, and Mr. 
 Meeks) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on Oversight and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month.

Whereas the theme for Black History Month 2021 is ``The Black Family: 
        Representation, Identity, and Diversity'', which emphasizes how the 
        representation, identity, and diversity of the Black family have been 
        reverenced, stereotyped, and vilified since slavery;
Whereas enslaved Africans in America were not legally allowed to marry in any 
        Southern States until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was 
        ratified in 1865;
Whereas even in Southern States where marriage was illegal, many enslaved people 
        entered into relationships that they treated like marriage, considering 
        themselves husbands and wives although their unions were not protected 
        by the law;
Whereas some Black slaves lived in nuclear families with a mother, father, and 
        children when they all belonged to the same owner;
Whereas, in other cases, the father might have a different owner than the mother 
        and children and might travel several miles away on a distant plantation 
        and walk, which was usually permissible on Wednesday nights and Sunday 
        evenings, to see his family as his obligation to provide labor for an 
        owner took precedence over his personal needs;
Whereas mothers cooked meals in the fireplace and sewed or quilted late into the 
        night while fathers fished and hunted, sometimes with their sons, to 
        provide food to supplement the rations handed out by owners;
Whereas enslaved people held parties and prayer meetings in cabins or far out in 
        the woods beyond the hearing range of their masters;
Whereas enslaved Black families lived with the perpetual possibility of 
        separation caused by the sale of one or more family members;
Whereas it is estimated that approximately one-third of enslaved children in the 
        upper Southern States of Maryland and Virginia experienced family 
        separation in one of three possible scenarios: sale away from parents; 
        sale with mother away from father; or sale of mother or father away from 
        child;
Whereas, following the Civil War, when slavery finally ended in the United 
        States after nearly 250 years, formerly enslaved persons took measures 
        to formalize their family relations, locate family members, and reunite 
        their families;
Whereas following the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, 
        many States, particularly in the South, enacted poll taxes, literacy 
        tests, and other means of disenfranchising African Americans;
Whereas the 15th Amendment states that the ``right of citizens of the United 
        States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or 
        by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of 
        servitude'';
Whereas the start of the lynching era is commonly referenced as 1877, the year 
        of the Tilden-Hayes compromise, which is viewed by most historians as 
        the official end of Reconstruction in the United States South;
Whereas historians broadly agree that lynchings were a method of social and 
        racial control meant to terrorize Black Americans into submission and 
        into an inferior racial caste position in the postbellum South;
Whereas Equal Justice Initiative researchers documented 4,075 racial terror 
        lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, 
        Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
        Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950--at least 800 more 
        lynchings of Black people in these States than previously reported in 
        the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date;
Whereas Black males were vilified and targeted by lynching mobs with claims of 
        sexual contact between Black men and White women;
Whereas according to the Equal Justice Initiative, nearly 25 percent of lynching 
        victims were accused of sexual assault;
Whereas the 1921 decimation of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, neighborhood of Greenwood--
        sometimes referred to as ``Black Wall Street'' for its economic 
        vitality--after a Black man was falsely charged with raping a White 
        woman in an elevator resulted in 100 to 300 Blacks being killed by White 
        mobs in a matter of a few hours;
Whereas, in contrast, White American families embraced lynching, not as an 
        uncomfortable necessity or a way of maintaining order, but as a joyous 
        moment of the wholesome celebration of White supremacy;
Whereas the disproportionate nature of lynchings among Black men threatened the 
        safety and security of the Black family as a whole;
Whereas Black males were also disproportionately drafted into the military;
Whereas, in 1967, during the Vietnam war, Black Americans represented 
        approximately 11 percent of the civilian population, yet they 
        represented 16.3 percent of all draftees and 23 percent of all combat 
        troops in Vietnam;
Whereas, since the mid-1980s, the United States has undertaken aggressive law 
        enforcement strategies and criminal justice policies aimed at curtailing 
        drug abuse through its War on Drugs, which has disproportionately 
        affected Black Americans, specifically Black men;
Whereas Black Americans make up 13 percent of the United States population and 
        are consistently documented by the United States Government to use drugs 
        at rates similar to those among people of other races, yet Black 
        Americans account for nearly one-third of drug arrests and roughly 45 
        percent of those incarcerated in State and Federal prisons for drug law 
        violations;
Whereas Black Americans constituted 28 percent of those killed by police in 2020 
        despite being only 13 percent of the population;
Whereas Black Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police 
        brutality than White Americans;
Whereas police brutality and racial bias in policing has led to the deaths of 
        Gabriella Nevarez, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Michelle Cusseaux, 
        Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Janisha Fonville, Aura 
        Rosser, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castille, 
        Stephon Clark, Botham Jean, Elijah McClain, Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna 
        Taylor, Daniel Prude, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Dijon Durand 
        Kizzee, Jonathan Dwayne Price, Marcellis Stinnette, Sincere Pierce, 
        Angelo ``AJ'' Crooms, Casey Christopher Goodson, Jr., Andre Maurice 
        Hill, Patrick Lynn Warren, Sr., and Vincent ``Vinny'' M. Belmonte;
Whereas racism in this country has led to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon 
        Martin, James Anderson, James Byrd, Jr., Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia 
        Wesley, Carole Robertson, Carol Denise McNair, George W. Dorsey, Mae 
        Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, Emmett Till, and so many 
        more;
Whereas long-standing racial health disparities affecting Black Americans have 
        been exacerbated during the COVID-19 global pandemic;
Whereas some of the many inequities in social determinants of health that put 
        racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of contracting and 
        dying from COVID-19 include access to health care, employment, 
        education, wealth inequality, housing, and criminal justice;
Whereas according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black 
        Americans make up about 13 percent of the population of the United 
        States yet disproportionately account for 15.5 percent of deaths from 
        COVID-19;
Whereas the Black nuclear family has been consistently threatened because of 
        mechanisms of racial bias in the United States, including slavery, mass 
        lynchings, disproportioned drafting, mass incarceration, and police 
        misconduct;
Whereas biological parents may not have always been available due to various 
        reasons, including racial injustices, and aunts and uncles, grandmothers 
        and grandfathers, and a host of family friends and fictive kin have 
        stepped in to do the work of raising children;
Whereas Black Americans have been crucial to the development of this Nation and 
        been at the forefront of civil rights that laid the foundations for 
        other minority groups in the United States;
Whereas, in 1870, Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Congressman Joseph 
        Rainey of South Carolina became the first African Americans to serve in 
        the United States Congress;
Whereas Senator Edward Brooke III became the first African American popularly 
        elected to the Senate and the first Black politician from Massachusetts 
        to serve in Congress, and prior to being elected to the Senate, he was 
        the first African-American attorney general of any State in 1962;
Whereas Senator Brooke's election ended an 85-year absence of African-American 
        Senators and he represented Massachusetts in the Senate from 1967 to 
        1979, and during his senatorial career, he co-wrote the Civil Rights Act 
        of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in housing;
Whereas Judge Frank Minis Johnson, Jr., served on the United States Court of 
        Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, United States Court of Appeals for the 
        Eleventh Circuit, and the United States District Court for the Middle 
        District of Alabama, and in each capacity, Judge Johnson courageously 
        worked to advance the constitutional principles of freedom and equality;
Whereas the insight and constitutional judgment of Judge Johnson were invaluable 
        and aided the Supreme Court as it recognized the violations and 
        injustices in our Nation during the Civil Rights Movement, and without 
        Judge Johnson's judicious temperament, constitutional mindset, and 
        dedication to rule of law, the Civil Rights Movement would have been at 
        a great disadvantage;
Whereas President Barack Obama, the first Black American elected to the 
        Presidency of the United States, served two terms and led the campaign 
        for the Affordable Care Act and LGBTQ+ marriage equality, making it 
        easier for all families to access health care and extending the right to 
        marry to all Americans;
Whereas, in 2020, Kamala Harris became the first Black and South Asian person 
        and first woman to be elected as Vice President of the United States;
Whereas, in 2020, Lloyd Austin became the first Black Secretary of Defense of 
        the United States;
Whereas Black Americans in all walks of life have made significant contributions 
        throughout the history of the United States, including through--

    (1) the music of Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Prince, Michael Jackson, Louis 
Armstrong, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Miles 
Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, 
Francis Johnson, and Bessie Smith;

    (2) the writings of Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph 
Ellison, Alex Haley, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, 
Alice Walker, Booker T. Washington, and Richard Wright;

    (3) the publications of the North Star, the Crisis Magazine, Ebony 
Magazine, Jet Magazine, Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, the 
National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Sister 2 Sister Magazine, 
and Uptown Magazine;

    (4) the athletic prowess of Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson, 
Tiger Woods, Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, 
Colin Kaepernick, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Frederick ``Fritz'' Pollard, 
Jackie Robinson, Wilma Rudolph, Bill Russell, Venus Williams, and Serena 
Williams;

    (5) the scientific advancements of Benjamin Banneker, George Washington 
Carver, George Crum, Charles Drew, Sarah Goode, Euphemia Lofton Haynes, Mae 
Jemison, Thomas Jennings, Katherine Johnson, Norbert Rillieux, Neil 
deGrasse Tyson, and Granville T. Woods; and

    (6) the vision of leaders such as John Lewis, Mary McLeod Bethune, 
Shirley Chisholm, Frederick Douglass, Fred Hampton, Marsha P. Johnson, 
Martin Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin, Thurgood Marshall, Huey Newton, 
Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hammer, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X;

Whereas Negro History Week represented the culmination of Dr. Carter G. 
        Woodson's efforts to enhance knowledge of Black history started through 
        the Journal of Negro History, published by Woodson's Association for the 
        Study of African American Life and History;
Whereas the month of February is officially celebrated as Black History Month, 
        which dates to 1926 when Dr. Carter G. Woodson set aside a special 
        period in February to recognize the heritage and achievement of Black 
        Americans; and
Whereas the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass inspired the 
        creation of Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This resolution may be cited as the ``Original Black History Month 
Resolution of 2021''.

SEC. 2. RECOGNIZING AND CELEBRATING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BLACK HISTORY 
              MONTH.

    The House of Representatives recognizes the importance of 
commemorating Black History Month as it acknowledges the achievements 
of African Americans throughout our Nation's history and encourages the 
continuation of its celebration to raise the awareness of this 
community's accomplishments for all Americans.
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