Original Black History Month Resolution of 2022
This resolution recognizes the importance of commemorating Black History Month to acknowledge the achievements of Black Americans throughout history.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 942 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 942
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 25, 2022
Mr. Green of Texas (for himself, Ms. Adams, Mr. Allred, Mr.
Auchincloss, Ms. Barragan, Ms. Bass, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Bishop of
Georgia, Mr. Blumenauer, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Bourdeaux, Mr. Bowman, Mr.
Brown of Maryland, Ms. Brown of Ohio, Ms. Brownley, Ms. Bush, Mr.
Butterfield, Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Carson, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Mr.
Case, Mr. Casten, Mr. Castro of Texas, Mr. Cicilline, Ms. Clark of
Massachusetts, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Connolly, Mr.
Cooper, Mr. Correa, Mr. Costa, Mr. Crist, Mr. Crow, Mr. Cuellar, Mr.
Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Dean, Ms. DeGette, Ms. DelBene, Mr.
DeSaulnier, Mr. Deutch, Mrs. Dingell, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Michael F. Doyle
of Pennsylvania, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Evans, Ms. Lois Frankel
of Florida, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Gomez, Mrs. Hayes,
Mr. Higgins of New York, Mr. Horsford, Ms. Jacobs of California, Ms.
Johnson of Texas, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Jones, Mr. Kahele, Ms.
Kaptur, Mr. Keating, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Kildee, Mr. Kilmer,
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Ms. Kuster, Mr. Langevin, Mr.
Larsen of Washington, Mrs. Lawrence, Mr. Lawson of Florida, Ms. Lee of
California, Ms. Leger Fernandez, Mr. Levin of Michigan, Mr. Levin of
California, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Lynch, Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney
of New York, Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, Ms. Manning, Mrs.
McBath, Ms. McCollum, Mr. McEachin, Mr. McGovern, Mr. McNerney, Mr.
Meeks, Ms. Meng, Mr. Mfume, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. Morelle, Mr.
Moulton, Mrs. Murphy of Florida, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Neguse, Ms.
Newman, Mr. Norcross, Ms. Norton, Mr. O'Halleran, Ms. Omar, Mr.
Panetta, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Payne, Mr. Perlmutter, Mr. Peters, Ms.
Pingree, Ms. Plaskett, Ms. Porter, Ms. Pressley, Mr. Quigley, Mr.
Raskin, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Mr. Ruppersberger, Mr. Rush, Mr. San
Nicolas, Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr.
Schiff, Mr. Schrader, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mr. Scott of
Virginia, Ms. Sewell, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Sires, Mr. Smith of Washington,
Ms. Stevens, Ms. Strickland, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. Swalwell, Mr. Takano, Ms.
Tlaib, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Thompson of California, Ms.
Titus, Mr. Tonko, Mrs. Torres of California, Mr. Torres of New York,
Mrs. Trahan, Mr. Trone, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Veasey, Mrs. Watson Coleman,
Mr. Welch, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. Wilson of Florida, and Mr.
Yarmuth) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Oversight and Reform
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month.
Whereas the theme for Black History Month 2022 is ``Black Health and Wellness'',
which considers activities, rituals, and initiatives that Black
communities have done to be well;
Whereas Black communities continue to face health challenges unique in their
severity in the United States;
Whereas COVID-19 data show that Black-American populations in the United States
experience higher rates of COVID-19-related hospitalization and death
compared with non-Hispanic White populations;
Whereas, in Michigan, Black Americans are 133 percent more likely to contract
the novel coronavirus and are overrepresented for deaths related to
COVID-19, accounting for 40 percent of all deaths statewide;
Whereas structural racism and residential segregation have forced a
disproportionate number of Black Americans into low-income neighborhoods
that make social isolation practices more challenging to implement due
to physical crowding and lack of resources;
Whereas a national analysis of county-level data confirmed that these adverse
socioeconomic conditions have caused counties with higher proportions of
Black Americans to have higher numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths;
Whereas inequities in education, employment, income, policing and incarceration,
health care access, chronic stress, and multiple other factors that
affect health increase, to varying degrees, Black Americans' risk for
morbidity and mortality in general;
Whereas on average, although Black women are younger (36.1 years) than United
States women overall (39.6 years), they have a higher prevalence of many
health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, cancers, diabetes,
maternal morbidities, obesity, and stress;
Whereas infant mortality rates for children born to non-Hispanic Black women are
twice as high as those for children born to non-Hispanic White women;
Whereas it is estimated that non-Hispanic Black women are three to almost four
times more likely to die while pregnant or within one year postpartum
than their non-Hispanic White and Latina counterparts;
Whereas research suggests that chronic exposure to environmental stressors, such
as racism, across the life span contributes to the weathering of the
health of Black women, increasing their allostatic load and,
consequently, compromising their reproductive health;
Whereas obesity is a major source of morbidity and mortality for all United
States populations, but non-Hispanic Black Americans have a higher age-
adjusted prevalence of obesity than any other racial/ethnic group, with
estimates ranging from 34 percent to 50 percent;
Whereas there are numerous institutions and individuals fighting to improve
these health outcomes for Black individuals;
Whereas four historically Black (HBCU) medical schools are currently in
operation: Meharry Medical College (Meharry), Howard University College
of Medicine (Howard), Morehouse School of Medicine (Morehouse), and
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU);
Whereas 13 other HBCU medical schools were operating in the late 1800s to early
1900s and were closed owing to low enrollment and limited resources;
Whereas HBCU medical schools have a two-fold mission: to diversify the health
care workforce and deliver high-quality and compassionate care to
underserved and underprivileged populations;
Whereas Morehouse School of Medicine's M.D. program is noted for its low
student-faculty ratio and for successfully matching nearly 70 percent of
its graduates in primary care specialties;
Whereas notable alumni of Meharry Medical College include the first Black-
American woman epidemiologist, Theresa Green Reed, and the first Black-
American president of the American Heart Association, Edward S. Cooper;
Whereas Bernard Tyson (1959-2019) was the first Black chairman and CEO of Kaiser
Permanente and was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential
People in 2017 for his dedicated mission to provide quality and
affordable health care for all;
Whereas Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
launched the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium (BDCC), an independent
testing effort that has tested over 10,000 people;
Whereas Dr. Betty Smith Williams is not only the first Black person to graduate
from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in Cleveland, Ohio, but
she also went on to become the first Black person to teach at the
college or university level in the entire State of California;
Whereas Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the first Black woman to be the Administrator of
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is well-known for
playing a major part in implementing the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (ACA) during the Obama administration;
Whereas Tracey D. Brown is the first Black woman and person living with type 2
diabetes to be CEO of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the
largest voluntary health organization in the United States;
Whereas because of the efforts of these and other heroic individuals, health
outcomes for Black Americans have seen massive improvement;
Whereas according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the infant
mortality rate among Black Americans has dropped by more than 20 percent
since the late 1990s;
Whereas, since 1990, the overall cancer death rate has dropped faster in Black
Americans than White Americans among both men and women, largely driven
by more rapid declines in cancers of the lung, colorectum, and prostate
for Black Americans;
Whereas, from 2006 to 2014, the teen birth rate among Black Americans declined
by 44 percent;
Whereas of the more than 20,000,000 people who have gained health care coverage
under the ACA, 2,800,000 of them are Black Americans;
Whereas due to improvements in hygiene, medicine, and other public health
measures, life expectancy for Black Americans has nearly doubled since
the turn of the 20th century, a win for Black health which cannot be
overstated;
Whereas the month of February is officially celebrated as Black History Month,
which dates to 1926 when Dr. Carter G. Woodson set aside a special
period in February to recognize the heritage and achievement of Black
Americans; and
Whereas the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass inspired the
creation of Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ``Original Black History Month
Resolution of 2022''.
SEC. 2. RECOGNIZING AND CELEBRATING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BLACK HISTORY
MONTH.
The House of Representatives recognizes the importance of
commemorating Black History Month as it acknowledges the achievements
of Black Americans throughout our Nation's history and encourages the
continuation of its celebration to raise the awareness of this
community's accomplishments for all Americans.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
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