[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 323 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 323

   Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance of 
 emancipation in the Nation's capital on the anniversary of President 
   Abraham Lincoln's signing of the District of Columbia Compensated 
 Emancipation Act, which established the ``first freed'' on April 16, 
1862, and calling upon the House of Representatives and Senate to pass 
                  the Washington, D.C. Admission Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 16, 2021

 Ms. Norton submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                 the Committee on Oversight and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance of 
 emancipation in the Nation's capital on the anniversary of President 
   Abraham Lincoln's signing of the District of Columbia Compensated 
 Emancipation Act, which established the ``first freed'' on April 16, 
1862, and calling upon the House of Representatives and Senate to pass 
                  the Washington, D.C. Admission Act.

Whereas the District of Columbia has been a focal point of the Nation's complex 
        racial history, which has included slavery, the Civil War, brutal and 
        unjustified killings of innocent citizens, racial segregation, and legal 
        disenfranchisement, among other violations of human rights;
Whereas, on April 16, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham 
        Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, 
        which authorized the United States Treasury to expend nearly $1,000,000, 
        up to $300 per slave, to effect the freeing of about 3,100 persons of 
        African descent, and offered $100 to former slaves who agreed to 
        emigrate to countries outside of the United States;
Whereas, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation 
        Proclamation, which established a ``new birth of freedom'' by legally 
        emancipating millions of slaves in the 10 States of the Confederacy not 
        under Union control, freeing the majority of the Nation's slaves;
Whereas the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which 
        reads ``Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a 
        punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
        shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their 
        jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
        appropriate legislation'', was adopted on December 6, 1865, and 
        effectively outlawed slavery in the United States;
Whereas the enslavement of persons of African descent endured for more than two 
        centuries in what is now the United States, including the District of 
        Columbia;
Whereas in 2005, District of Columbia Emancipation Day, commemorating April 16, 
        the date slaves were freed, was made a legal public holiday in the 
        District of Columbia to be celebrated annually on April 16;
Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia pay more per capita in Federal 
        taxes than the residents of any State;
Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia, who pay the full freight of 
        Federal taxes, serve in the United States Armed Forces, are subject to 
        all of the requirements of citizenship, and otherwise have long made 
        contributions to the life, culture, and leadership of the United States, 
        still are denied the voting representation in the United States Congress 
        and independence from congressional interference in local matters 
        afforded to other United States jurisdictions in violation of the basic 
        principles of no taxation without representation and consent of the 
        governed;
Whereas H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, was successfully passed by 
        the House of Representatives in the 116th Congress for the first time in 
        American history;
Whereas H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, has 215 cosponsors; and
Whereas S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, has 42 cosponsors: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes District of Columbia Emancipation Day, 
        marking the anniversary of the end of slavery in the District 
        of Columbia and symbolizing the aspirations of the citizens of 
        the District of Columbia for the same rights and freedoms 
        afforded to all United States citizens; and
            (2) calls upon the House of Representatives and Senate to 
        pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act.
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