[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 295 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 295

   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 celebrating passage of the District of Columbia statehood 
                 bill in the House of Representatives.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 13, 2023

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               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 celebrating passage of the District of Columbia statehood 
                 bill in the House of Representatives.

Whereas the District of Columbia has been a focal point of the Nation's complex 
        racial history, which has included slavery, the Civil War, killings, 
        segregation, and disenfranchisement, among other violations of civil and 
        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 freed the approximately 3,100 enslaved individuals in the District 
        of Columbia and authorized compensation to former enslavers;
Whereas, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation 
        Proclamation, which established a ``new birth of freedom'' by legally 
        emancipating millions of enslaved individuals in the 10 States of the 
        Confederacy not under Union control, freeing the majority of the 
        Nation's enslaved individuals;
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 of the signing of the District of Columbia Compensated 
        Emancipation Act, 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 Congress and 
        independence from congressional interference in local matters in 
        violation of the basic principles of no taxation without representation 
        and consent of the governed;
Whereas, on April 22, 2021, the House of Representatives passed the Washington, 
        D.C. Admission Act, only the second time in history the DC statehood 
        bill has been passed by either chamber of Congress;
Whereas H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, has 187 cosponsors; and
Whereas S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, has 45 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 residents of 
        the District of Columbia for the same rights and freedoms 
        afforded to residents of States; and
            (2) calls on Congress to pass the Washington, D.C. 
        Admission Act.
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