A concurrent resolution urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation.

III 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. CON. RES. 50 Urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES DECEMBER 3, 2020 Mr. BOOKER (for himself, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. COONS, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. WARREN, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. BROWN, and Mr. DURBIN) sub- mitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 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 that event 400 years ago was significant not only because 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 Nation’s history over those past 400 years, and that has left a legacy of that oppression that haunts our Nation to this day; VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS 2 •SCON 50 IS Whereas the institution of chattel slavery in the United States subjugated African Americans for nearly 250 years, fractured our Nation, and made a mockery of its founding principle that ‘‘all men are created equal’’; Whereas the signing of the Constitution of the United States failed to end slavery and oppressions against African Americans and other people of color, thus embedding in society the belief in the myth of a hierarchy of human value based on superficial physical characteristics such as skin color and facial features, and resulting in purposeful and persistent racial inequities in education, health care, employment, Social Security and veteran benefits, land ownership, financial assistance, food security, wages, vot- ing rights, and the justice system; Whereas that oppression denied opportunity and mobility to African Americans and other people of color within the United States, resulting in stolen labor worth billions of 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 their own land for them; Whereas the brutal overthrow of Reconstruction failed all in- dividuals in the United States by failing to ensure the safety and security of African Americans and by emboldening States and municipalities in both the North and South to enact numerous laws and policies to stymie VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS 3 •SCON 50 IS 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 those efforts transitory and unsustainable, and further embedding the racial hierarchy in society; Whereas examples of government actions directed against populations of color (referred to in this resolution as ‘‘discriminatory government actions’’) 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 2 dec- ades; (3) the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (commonly known as the ‘‘G.I. Bill of Rights’’; 58 Stat. 284, chapter 268), which left administration of its pro- grams to the States, thus enabling blatant discrimination against African American veterans; (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 Native Ameri- cans had occupied for millennia; (7) Federal Indian Boarding School policy during the 19th and 20th centuries, the purpose of which was VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS 4 •SCON 50 IS 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 90,000,000 acres of Tribal lands, even though two-thirds of that acreage was guaranteed to Indian Tribes by trea- ties and other Federal laws, and similar unjustified land grabs from Indian Tribes that occurred regionally throughout the late 1800s and into the termination 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 Latino Americans to fight continuously for equal access to employment, housing, health care, fi- nancial services, and education; (12) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese’’, approved May 6, 1892 (commonly known as the ‘‘Chinese Exclusion Act’’; 22 Stat. 58, chapter 126), which effectively halted immi- gration 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS 5 •SCON 50 IS 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 the United States has treaty obligations; Whereas those discriminatory government actions, among other government policies that have had racially disparate impacts, have disproportionately barred African Ameri- cans and other people of color from building wealth, thus limiting potential capital and exacerbating the racial wealth gap; Whereas research has shown that the persistent racial wealth gap has had a significant negative impact on other racial disparities, such as the achievement gap, disparities in school dropout rates, income gaps, disparities in home ownership rates, health outcome disparities, and dispari- ties in incarceration rates; Whereas United States civic leaders and foundations have spearheaded critical efforts to advance racial healing, un- derstanding, and transformation within the United States, recognizing that it is in our collective national in- terest to urgently address the unhealed, entrenched divi- sions 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS 6 •SCON 50 IS 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 United States institution of slavery, as well as other examples enumerated in this resolution, represent intentional and blatant violations of the most basic right of every individual in the United States to a free and de- cent life; Whereas the consequences of oppression against people of color have cascaded for centuries, across generations, be- yond the era of active enslavement, imperiling for de- scendants of slaves and other targets of oppression what should have otherwise been the right of every individual in the United States to life, liberty, and the pursuit 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 their citizens; Whereas for 3 decades there has been a growing movement inside and outside Congress to have the Federal Govern- ment develop material remedies for the institution of slavery, including through a Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans de- scribed in H.R. 40, 116th Congress, as introduced on January 3, 2019; VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS 7 •SCON 50 IS Whereas the formation of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation does not sup- plant the formation of a Commission to Study and De- velop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans, but rather complements that effort; and Whereas contemporary social science, medical science, and the rapidly expanding use of artificial intelligence and so- 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 Senate (the House of Representatives 1 concurring), That Congress— 2 (1) affirms, on the 400th anniversary of the ar- 3 rival of the first slave ship to the United States, that 4 the Nation owes a long-overdue debt of remem- 5 brance to not only those who lived through the egre- 6 gious injustices enumerated in this resolution, but 7 also to their descendants; and 8 (2) urges the establishment of a United States 9 Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Trans- 10 formation to properly acknowledge, memorialize, and 11 be a catalyst for progress toward— 12 (A) jettisoning the belief in a hierarchy of 13 human value; 14 (B) embracing our common humanity; and 15 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS 8 •SCON 50 IS (C) permanently eliminating persistent ra- 1 cial inequities. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 04, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SC50.IS SC50 dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with BILLS