Urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 100 Urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 4, 2020 Ms. LEE of California (for herself, Ms. NORTON, Ms. MOORE, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. BROWN of Maryland, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. BASS, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. OMAR, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Ms. MENG, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. TRONE, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mrs. CARO- LYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. HAALAND, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. LEWIS, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. DESAULNIER, Ms. SEWELL of Alabama, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. RUSH, Mr. COX of California, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. COHEN, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. CARSON of Indi- ana, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. CASTEN of Illinois, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. COOPER, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. KEN- NEDY, Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas, Mr. RUIZ, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. RICHMOND, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. EVANS, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. VELA, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. GALLEGO, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mr. SIRES, Mrs. LURIA, Mr. NEGUSE, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Mr. MCEACHIN, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Ms. KELLY of Illi- nois, Mr. LAMB, Mr. RYAN, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. WELCH, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. CRIST, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. KEATING, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. SABLAN, Mr. CLAY, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Ms. DEGETTE, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. NEAL, Mr. AGUILAR, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. POCAN, Mr. CICILLINE, and Mr. SUOZZI) submitted the following concurrent reso- lution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:04 Jun 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\HC100.IH HC100 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HCON 100 IH CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation. Whereas the first ship carrying enslaved Africans to what is now known as the United States of America arrived in 1619; Whereas this event 400 years ago was significant not only be- cause it ushered in the institution of chattel slavery of African Americans, but also because it facilitated the sys- tematic oppression of all people of color that has been a devastating and insufficiently understood and acknowl- edged aspect of our history over these past 400 years, and that has left a legacy of this oppression that haunts us to this day; Whereas the institution of American chattel slavery sub- jugated African Americans for nearly 250 years, frac- tured our Nation, and made a mockery of its founding principle that ‘‘all men are created equal’’; Whereas our Constitution failed to end slavery and oppres- sions against African Americans and other people of color, thus embedding in our society the belief in the myth of a hierarchy of human value based on superficial physical characteristics such as skin color and facial fea- tures, and resulting in purposeful and persistent racial and gender inequities in education, health care, employ- ment, Social Security and veteran benefits, land owner- ship, financial assistance, food security, wages, voting rights, and the justice system; Whereas these oppressions denied opportunity and mobility to African Americans and other people of color within the United States, resulting in stolen labor worth billions of VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:04 Jun 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC100.IH HC100 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HCON 100 IH dollars while ultimately forestalling landmark contribu- tions that African Americans and other people of color would make in science, arts, commerce, and public serv- ice; Whereas Reconstruction represented a significant but con- strained moment of advances for Black rights as epito- mized by the Freedman’s Bureau, which negotiated labor contracts for ex-enslaved people but failed to secure them their own land; Whereas the brutal overthrow of Reconstruction failed all Americans by failing to ensure the safety and security of African Americans and by emboldening States and mu- nicipalities in both the North and South to enact numer- ous laws and policies to stymie the socioeconomic mobility and political voice of freed Blacks, thus maintaining their subservience to Whites; Whereas Reconstruction, the civil rights movement, and other efforts to redress the grievances of marginalized people were sabotaged, both intentionally and unintentionally, by those in power, thus rendering the accomplishments of these efforts transitory and unsustainable, and further embedding the racial hierarchy in our society; Whereas examples of government actions directed against populations of color include— (1) the creation of the Federal Housing Administra- tion, which adopted specific policies designed to incentivize residential segregation; (2) the enactment of legislation creating the Social Security program, for which most African Americans were purposely rendered ineligible during its first two decades; VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:04 Jun 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC100.IH HC100 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HCON 100 IH (3) the GI bill, which left administration of its pro- grams to the States, thus enabling blatant discrimination against African American GIs; (4) the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which al- lowed labor unions to discriminate based on race; (5) subprime lending aimed purposefully at families of color; (6) disenfranchisement of Native Americans, who, until 1924, were denied citizenship on land they had oc- cupied for millennia; (7) Federal Indian Boarding School policy during the 19th and 20th centuries, the purpose of which was to ‘‘civilize’’ Native children through methods intended to eradicate Native cultures, traditions, and languages; (8) land policies toward Indian Tribes, such as the allotment policy, which caused the loss of over 90 million acres of Tribal lands, two-thirds of which were guaran- teed to Tribes by treaties and other Federal laws, and similar unjustified land grabs from Tribes that occurred regionally throughout the late 1800s and into the Termi- nation Era in the 1950s and 1960s; (9) the involuntary removal of Mexicans and United States citizens of Mexican descent through large-scale discriminatory deportation programs in the 1930s and 1950s; (10) the United States annexation of Puerto Rico, which made Puerto Ricans citizens of the United States without affording them voting rights; (11) racial discrimination against Latino Americans, which has forced them to fight continuously for equal ac- cess to employment, housing, health, financial services, and education; VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:04 Jun 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC100.IH HC100 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HCON 100 IH (12) the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which effec- tively halted immigration from China and barred Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens of the United States, and which was the first instance of xenophobic legislation signed into law specifically targeting a specific group of people based on ethnicity; (13) the treatment of Japanese Americans, despite no evidence of disloyalty, as suspect and traitorous in the very country they helped to build, leading most notably to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans begin- ning in 1942; (14) the conspiracy to overthrow the Kingdom of Hawaii and annex the land of the Kingdom of Hawaii, without the consent of or compensation to the Native Ha- waiian people of Hawaii; and (15) the United States history of colonialism in the Pacific, which has resulted in economic, health, and edu- cational disparities among other inequities, for people in United States territories, as well as independent nations with which it has treaty obligations; Whereas these governmental actions, among other govern- ment policies that have had racially disparate impacts, have disproportionately barred African Americans and other people of color from building wealth, thus limiting potential capital and exacerbating the racial wealth gap; Whereas research has shown that this persistent wealth gap has had a significant negative impact on other racial dis- parities, such as the achievement gap, school dropout rates, income gaps, home ownership rates, health out- come disparities, and incarceration rates; Whereas American civic leaders and foundations have spear- headed critical efforts to advance racial healing, under- VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:04 Jun 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC100.IH HC100 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HCON 100 IH standing, and transformation within the United States, recognizing that it is in our collective national interest to urgently address the unhealed, entrenched divisions that will severely undermine our democracy if they are allowed to continue to exist; Whereas many of the most far-reaching victories for racial healing in the United States have been greatly enhanced by the involvement, support, and dedication of individuals from any and all racial groups; Whereas at the same time, much of the progress toward ra- cial healing and racial equity in the United States has been limited or reversed by our failure to address the root cause of racism, the belief in the myth of a hierarchy of human value based on superficial physical characteris- tics such as skin color and facial features; Whereas the American institution of slavery, as well as other examples enumerated in this resolution, represents inten- tional and blatant violations of every American’s most basic right to a free and decent life; Whereas the consequences of these oppressions have cascaded for centuries, across generations, beyond the era of active enslavement, imperiling for descendants of slaves and other targets of oppression what should have otherwise been every American’s right to life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness; Whereas more than 40 countries have reckoned with histor- ical injustice and its aftermath through forming Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to move toward restora- tive justice and to return dignity to its citizens; and Whereas contemporary social science, medical science, and the rapidly expanding use of artificial intelligence and so- VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:04 Jun 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC100.IH HC100 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HCON 100 IH cial media reveal the costs and potential threats to our democracy if we continue to allow unhealed, entrenched divisions to be ignored and exploited: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 1 concurring), That the Congress— 2 (1) affirms on the 400th anniversary of the ar- 3 rival of the first slave ship, the United States long- 4 overdue debt of remembrance to not only those who 5 lived through the egregious injustices enumerated 6 above, but also to their descendants; and 7 (2) proposes a United States Commission on 8 Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation to prop- 9 erly acknowledge, memorialize, and be a catalyst for 10 progress toward jettisoning the belief in a hierarchy 11 of human value, embracing our common humanity, 12 and permanently eliminating persistent racial inequi- 13 ties. 14 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:04 Jun 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HC100.IH HC100 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS