[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S.J. Res. 40 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. J. RES. 40

Designating a ``Slavery Remembrance Day'' on August 20th, to serve as a 
                   reminder of the evils of slavery.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 27, 2023

 Ms. Warren (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Markey, Mr. 
    Brown, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Booker, Mr. Padilla, Mr. 
Blumenthal, Mrs. Feinstein, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Whitehouse, 
  Mr. Fetterman, Mr. Durbin, and Ms. Smith) introduced the following 
joint resolution; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
Designating a ``Slavery Remembrance Day'' on August 20th, to serve as a 
                   reminder of the evils of slavery.

Whereas this resolution may be cited as the ``Original Slavery Remembrance Day 
        Resolution'';
Whereas the House of Representatives and the Senate recognize August 20th, as 
        ``Slavery Remembrance Day'' and commemorate the lives of all enslaved 
        people while also condemning the act and perpetuation of slavery in the 
        United States of America and across the world;
Whereas we posthumously recognize the following Members of Congress, who served 
        during and after the Reconstruction Era, as honorary cosponsors of this 
        resolution: the Honorable Joseph Hayne Rainey (SC-01), Member of 
        Congress from 1870 to 1879; Jefferson Franklin Long (GA-04), Member of 
        Congress from January 1871 to March 1871; Robert Carlos De Large (SC-
        02), Member of Congress from 1871 to 1873; Robert Brown Elliott (SC-3), 
        Member of Congress from 1871 to 1874; Benjamin Sterling Turner (AL-01), 
        Member of Congress from 1871 to 1873; Josiah Thomas Walls (FL-At Large), 
        Member of Congress from 1871 to 1876; Alonzo Jacob Ransier (SC-02), 
        Member of Congress from 1873 to 1875; Richard Harvey Cain (SC-At Large), 
        Member of Congress from 1873 to 1875 and 1877 to 1879; John Roy Lynch 
        (MS-06), Member of Congress from 1873 to 1877 and 1882 to 1883; James 
        Thomas Rapier (AL-02), Member of Congress from 1873 to 1875; Jeremiah 
        Haralson (AL-01), Member of Congress from 1875 to 1877; John Adams Hyman 
        (NC-02), Member of Congress from 1875 to 1877; Robert Smalls (SC-07), 
        Member of Congress from 1875 to 1879 and 1882 to 1883 and 1884 to 1887; 
        James Edward O'Hara (NC-02), Member of Congress from 1883 to 1887; Henry 
        Plummer Cheatham (NC-02), Member of Congress from 1889 to 1893; John 
        Mercer Langston (VA-04), Member of Congress from 1890 to 1891; Thomas 
        Ezekiel Miller, Member of Congress from 1890 to 1891; George Washington 
        Murray (SC-01), Member of Congress from 1893 to 1895 and 1896 to 1897; 
        and George Henry White (NC-02), Member of Congress from 1897 to 1901;
Whereas, on August 20, 1619, the first 20 enslaved Africans were brought to what 
        is now Fort Monroe, then Point Comfort, in Hampton, Virginia against 
        their will;
Whereas African tribal chiefs captured, enslaved, and sold captives to 
        transatlantic slave traders;
Whereas, over the period of the Atlantic slave trade, from approximately 1526 to 
        1867, millions of humans were abducted and shipped from Africa, and 
        10,700,000 arrived in the Americas as personal property;
Whereas the majority of enslaved Africans brought to British North America 
        arrived between 1720 and 1780;
Whereas about 6 percent of African captives were sent directly to British North 
        America;
Whereas, by 1825, the population of the United States included about one quarter 
        of the people of African descent in what has been called the New World;
Whereas the Middle Passage from West Africa to the West Indies was dangerous and 
        horrific for enslaved people;
Whereas the Middle Passage carried mothers, fathers, children, sisters, 
        brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and people from all walks of life to 
        slavery in the Americas;
Whereas, although the sexes were separated, men, women, and children were kept 
        naked, packed close together, and the men were chained for long periods;
Whereas, according to some historians, about 12 percent of the enslaved people 
        who embarked did not survive the voyage;
Whereas sharks followed the slave ships to feed on bodies of slaves thrown 
        overboard;
Whereas enslaved people suffered a variety of miserable and often fatal maladies 
        due to the Atlantic slave trade and to inhumane living and working 
        conditions;
Whereas infant and child mortality rates were twice as high among slave children 
        as among Southern White children;
Whereas enslaved people often worked from before sunup to after sundown, 6 to 7 
        days a week, often without food for long periods of time;
Whereas enslaved Black families lived with the perpetual possibility of 
        separation caused by the sale of 1 or more family members;
Whereas it is estimated that approximately \1/3\ of enslaved children in the 
        upper South States of Maryland and Virginia experienced family 
        separation in 1 of 3 possible scenarios: sale away from parents, sale 
        with mother away from father, or sale of mother or father away from 
        child;
Whereas Nat Turner was born into slavery in Southampton County, Virginia, in 
        1800;
Whereas Southampton County was home to many plantations, and enslaved people 
        outnumbered free Whites;
Whereas Turner learned to read and write at a young age, becoming deeply 
        religious;
Whereas Turner was sold to several different masters over the course of his 
        life, the last time in 1830;
Whereas Turner preached to fellow enslaved people, developing a loyal following;
Whereas Turner began planning a revolt with a few trusted fellow enslaved men 
        from neighboring plantations;
Whereas Turner led a rebellion beginning in August 1831, quickly growing from a 
        small handful of enslaved people to more than 70 enslaved and free 
        Blacks;
Whereas the rebels went from house to house in Southampton County, freeing 
        enslaved people;
Whereas the rebels were ultimately defeated by a State militia that had over 
        twice the manpower of the rebels, with 3 artillery companies reinforcing 
        it;
Whereas Turner was captured 6 weeks after the rebellion was put down, whereupon 
        he was promptly convicted and sentenced to death;
Whereas, in retaliation for the uprising, Virginia officially executed 56 Black 
        people, with at least 100 more killed by militias through extrajudicial 
        violence;
Whereas the rebellion caused widespread panic among slaveholders throughout the 
        South, resulting in widespread violence against enslaved people;
Whereas, in the wake of the rebellion, the Virginia General Assembly passed 
        legislation making it illegal to teach enslaved or free Blacks to read 
        and write;
Whereas the Underground Railroad was a network of people who helped around 
        100,000 slaves escape to the North;
Whereas the railroad began when a ``conductor'' often posing as a slave would 
        enter a plantation and attempt to guide runaways;
Whereas escapees would travel 10 to 20 miles each night between safe houses or 
        ``stations'' to avoid detection, waiting in safe houses for the next 
        along the line to be alerted to their presence;
Whereas people supporting escapees at each station, many of whom were White, 
        knew only of local efforts and not the entire operation;
Whereas Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross, lived as an enslaved person through 
        her young life where she endured regular whippings and suffered a 
        traumatic head injury at the hands of an overseer, which caused 
        narcoleptic episodes and migraines throughout her life;
Whereas Ms. Tubman escaped from slavery along the Underground Railroad, the 
        network of abolitionists who guided escaped slaves to the North 
        traveling primarily at night to avoid bounty hunters;
Whereas Ms. Tubman returned to the South no less than 13 times to free 70 
        enslaved people, including much of her family, for which she would be 
        given the name ``Moses'';
Whereas Ms. Tubman deftly led those she saved North during the fall and winter, 
        when would-be captors would stay inside to avoid the cold;
Whereas, in Ms. Tubman's own words, ``I never ran my train off the track and I 
        never lost a passenger'';
Whereas, during the Civil War, Ms. Tubman served as a nurse, scout, and spy in 
        the Union army, becoming the first woman to plan and lead a military 
        operation in the United States, liberating 700 enslaved people in South 
        Carolina;
Whereas, later in life, Ms. Tubman continued working to improve the lives of 
        oppressed people, raising funds for and building schools and a hospital 
        in the name of formerly enslaved people while participating in the 
        women's suffrage movement;
Whereas John Brown, an abolitionist who ran an important stop on the Underground 
        Railroad, dedicated his life to ending slavery;
Whereas Brown lead a militia in guerrilla attacks on proslavery towns in Kansas, 
        losing one of his sons in the struggle;
Whereas Brown, with the help of Harriet Tubman, planned and organized an 
        invasion of the South to free all slaves;
Whereas Brown began his invasion at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, but was 
        surrounded and captured by Federal troops led by Robert E. Lee, losing 2 
        more sons in the fighting;
Whereas the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed by Congress on January 
        31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, and provides that ``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.'';
Whereas, beginning in the 20th century, African Americans began to relocate from 
        Southern farms to Southern cities, from the South to the Northeast, 
        Midwest, and West, in a movement known as the ``Great Migration'';
Whereas the relocation of formerly enslaved people and their descendants also 
        included unfavorable, and at times unjust, interactions with law 
        enforcement that often resulted in imprisonment and convict leasing;
Whereas convict leasing, also known as slavery by another name, was a system 
        that allowed prisons to lease imprisoned people to private entities, 
        often corporations and plantations;
Whereas the remains of 95 persons, thought to be of African ancestry who were 
        subjected to the convict leasing system in the State of Texas, were 
        discovered in 2018 at the construction site of the James Reese Career 
        and Technical Center of the Fort Bend Independent School District in 
        Sugar Land, Texas;
Whereas, while slavery was abolished, descendants of the enslaved continue to 
        live with the effects of the progeny of slavery: Jim Crow, mass 
        lynching, segregation, police brutality, mass incarceration, and 
        institutionalized racism; and
Whereas, despite the horrors of slavery and against all odds, enslaved people 
        became thought leaders and revolutionaries and changed the course of 
        American history: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This resolution may be cited as the ``Original Slavery Remembrance 
Day Resolution''.

SEC. 2. SLAVERY REMEMBRANCE DAY.

    Congress--
            (1) designates a ``Slavery Remembrance Day'' annually on 
        August 20th to serve as a reminder of the evils of slavery;
            (2) condemns slavery and its evil progenies;
            (3) encourages all to acknowledge the importance of slavery 
        remembrance; and
            (4) authorizes and requests the President to issue a 
        proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to 
        observe such days with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
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