[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1309 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1309
Continuing the promise of Juneteenth: honoring, preserving, and
investing in freedmen's settlements.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 18, 2024
Ms. Kamlager-Dove (for herself, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Crockett, Mr. Espaillat,
Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms.
Williams of Georgia, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Goldman of New York, Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Pressley, Ms. Blunt Rochester, and Ms. Moore of
Wisconsin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Continuing the promise of Juneteenth: honoring, preserving, and
investing in freedmen's settlements.
Whereas, on June 18, 2021, the Biden-Harris administration proclaimed the
Juneteenth Day of Observance a Federal holiday and defined it as a day
to--
(1) commemorate the past;
(2) celebrate the emancipation of the formerly enslaved; and
(3) remind us of the Nation's capacity to ``heal, hope and emerge in
new ways'';
Whereas the Biden-Harris administration also signaled Juneteenth as a call to
action to ``uplift our founding ideals and collective prosperity'';
Whereas over 1,200 freedmen's settlements and Black towns were established
throughout the South and across the Nation before and after emancipation
by free and formerly enslaved African Americans to create safer, self-
sustaining, and thriving communities away from racial violence and
economic discrimination;
Whereas the freedmen's settlements and towns are the embodiment of ``ground-up
emancipation'' and the untold story of community resilience, collective
economics, and community building of churches, schools, and enterprises
rooted in the African ethic of Ubuntu (I am because you/we are);
Whereas many of these freedmen's settlements and towns were destroyed by
Southern domestic terrorists, or otherwise became impoverished by
centuries of public and private divestment, which includes uncompensated
enslaved labor, failed Reconstruction, and the unmet Freedmen's Bureau's
postemancipation promises to transition people who were formerly
enslaved into the United States economy, Jim Crow laws, economic and
housing discrimination through redlining, public housing, and
transportation policies, and environmental racism;
Whereas, in acknowledgment of extreme economic and racial disparities, the
Environmental Protection Agency launched the Environmental and Climate
Justice Program in 2022 to provide financial and technical assistance to
implement environmental and climate justice activities to benefit
``underserved and overburdened'' communities across the Nation, which
have continued ``disproportionate environmental health burdens,
population vulnerability, and limits to effective participation in
decisions with environmental consequences'';
Whereas the White House further recognized the need for greater investment in
disadvantaged communities through the Justice40 Initiative in 2022,
where the Federal Government set a goal to direct 40 percent of overall
benefits of Federal investments to communities that lack clean water,
sewer infrastructure, clean energy, clean transit, affordable and
sustainable housing, training and workforce development, and remediation
and mitigation of legacy pollution;
Whereas, approximately 45 percent of the residents of the unincorporated
community of Sand Branch, Texas, established as a freedmen's settlement
in 1878, live below the poverty line, and the community is surrounded by
environmentally polluting facilities such as cement plants and is also a
dumping ground for tires and other trash, has no local school, no
proximity to medical facilities, and has not had access to clean running
water for over 30 years due to contamination of the local well system,
and there is no access to municipal water or sewer system, and although
hydropanels have recently been installed to provide drinking water,
residents continue to rely on limited donations of bottled water to meet
the majority of their water needs;
Whereas the unincorporated community of Africatown, Alabama, established in the
1860s as a freedmen's settlement by West Africans brought to the United
States illegally aboard the ship Clotilda, consists of 1,215 people, of
which 34 percent live below the poverty line, and are surrounded by
industry-zoned land and potential expansions of chemical plants,
resulting in continued improper waste management, causing pollution,
toxic exposure, contamination, and cancer in residents;
Whereas the unincorporated community of Mossville, Louisiana, established in
1790, has been encircled by over a dozen petrochemical plants,
refineries, and other industrial facilities that pollute the air and
water, causing elevated rates of cancer and other diseases among
residents as multinational corporations continue to expand in the area,
displacing many Mossville families and threatening the community's long-
term survival;
Whereas the community of Edmondson, Arkansas, incorporated in 1911, emerged as a
thriving hub of Black-owned businesses, churches, and cotton farming,
with African Americans constituting its civic leadership from the
outset, and despite the injustice faced in the 1930s by systematic White
racism to steal hundreds of town lots from the original Black owners and
the county sheriff making false declarations of the delinquent property
tax status of Black families, the Edmondson community persisted and
persevered, rebuilding churches, homes, and a sense of cohesion after
floods, fires, and storms;
Whereas the community of Allensworth, California, established in 1908 and the
first town in California to be founded, funded, and governed by African
Americans, was once a promising burgeoning town off a main railroad
line, but faced racist disinvestment through the relocation of their
train stop, seizure of water resources and subsequent drought and
pollution of the aquifer, leaving the town underresourced and sparsely
populated, and since then, the residents have organized to revitalize
the town through agriculture and historic preservation, and are laying
the groundwork for a full community revitalization using $40,000,000 of
State funding allocated to the town in 2022;
Whereas Oberlin Village, North Carolina, established in 1866, was once a
prosperous free Black community with successful small businesses,
schools, and university churches, and faced discrimination and
displacement through the mid-20th century and is now undergoing vigorous
efforts by the community-led Friends of Oberlin Village to restore
historic buildings, preserve oral histories, and ensure that the
community can continue to thrive in the future;
Whereas Independence Heights, Texas, was first established in 1908 and became
the first Black city in Texas in 1915, and the community built a
municipal infrastructure and an ecosystem of 40 Black-owned small
businesses, and now faces threats from natural disasters and
gentrification that are displacing residents, including those who own
property passed down through generations, leading the community to
organize vehicles such as the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council
to ensure community leadership in development projects and preserve its
cultural and historic identity;
Whereas communities such as Edmonson, Allensworth, Oberlin Village, and
Independence Heights should not be exceptional cases of communities
overcoming their circumstances, but rather models for the possibility of
reparation, restoration, protection, and thriving of freedmen's
settlement communities;
Whereas it is difficult to fully quantify and understand the history and current
status of all the freedmen's settlements in the United States due to
lack of research and investment in analyzing, preserving, and supporting
these historic settlements, towns, and communities, with a large part of
this history held by the descendants of the founders and residents;
Whereas these freedmen's settlements can serve as pillars of inspiration and
modeling of land regeneration, ecobased economies organized around
communal and collective land, and economic policies for divested
communities;
Whereas a handful of former freedmen's settlements have received State or local
designation for their historic status, offering them an opportunity for
preservation and public acknowledgment, such as the Freedmen's Town
Historic District in Houston, Texas;
Whereas there is an ongoing call, gaining much traction today, to preserve and
document the history of freedmen's settlements, leading to projects such
as the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, the Mapping Blackness Project, as
well as the Freedmen's Bureau Search Portal created by the National
Museum of African American History and Culture, among others;
Whereas, with a greater focus and leveraging of the power of various Federal
agencies' support, protection, and investment, transformation becomes
possible for all these historic communities across the United States;
and
Whereas the current moment presents an opportunity for the Federal Government to
expand on the promises made when Juneteenth was designated a Federal
holiday by not only fulfilling the unmet promises and possibilities of
the Freedmen's Bureau and the larger Reconstruction movement, but also
to helping right the historic and present wrongs that have placed the
freedmen's settlements and Black frontline communities in such
chronically vulnerable positions: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) affirms, that on Juneteenth 2024, 158 years after the
250,000 enslaved in Galveston Bay, Texas, received the news
from Union troops that they were freed, that the efforts for
racial justice after 250 years of United States slavery did not
end on June 19, 1865;
(2) acknowledges that following Juneteenth, many African
Americans faced terror and repression which suppressed their
ability to create stable and resilient communities or
freedmen's settlements after the Civil War;
(3) honors the rich history of emancipated African
Americans who built communities by acquiring land and housing
security for freedmen's settlements;
(4) supports preserving freedmen's settlements through
comprehensive documentation that utilizes oral histories and
existing records as well as physical commemoration of
settlement remnants;
(5) encourages investing in the lasting legacies of
freedmen's settlements with designated funding for historic
preservation and funding economic justice initiatives to
support the descendants and remaining residents of these
communities;
(6) recognizes the need for coordination amongst the
Federal Government, State governments, agencies, and nonprofit
organizations is warranted to better understand the power
dynamics of the historical injustices that have taken place in
the freedmen's settlements;
(7) expresses a commitment to identify United States
freedmen's settlements to enshrine their historic community
preservation, including protecting communities from
development, gentrification, and environmental hazards through
strategic investment, external development regulation,
community-led and driven economic development, small business
creation, workforce development, and education;
(8) urges the Federal Government, States, localities,
nonprofit organizations, schools, and community organizations
to provide ongoing support to the residents and descendants of
the founders of freedmen's settlements who hold long-standing
knowledge of the history of their communities to preserve the
historical foundation of this Nation;
(9) recognizes that coordination among the Federal
Government, State governments, agencies, and nonprofit
organizations is warranted to support freedmen's settlement
communities and municipalities, including, but not limited to,
the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing
and Urban Development, food assistance programs, historic land
preservation, and clean water foundations;
(10) affirms that freedmen's settlements in the United
States have fair standards of living, including sewage, roads,
emergency services, climate-resilient infrastructure, and an
overall focus on the health, well-being, sustainability, and
resilience of these communities;
(11) recognizes that recognizing and providing resources
for freedmen's settlements will lead to greater equity and
investment in historically disadvantaged communities that have
faced centuries of racism, discrimination, environmental and
climate injustices, and violence, as conceived since the
colonization of the Americas and is continually built upon
today; and
(12) honors the legacies of freedom, ingenuity, resilience,
and community care created by the communities in the freedmen's
settlements and brings recognition and honor to the efforts of
these formerly enslaved people on Juneteenth 2024.
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