Original Black History Month Resolution of 2025
This resolution recognizes the importance of commemorating Black History Month as it acknowledges the achievements of Black Americans throughout the nation's history.
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 181 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 181
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 3, 2025
Mr. Green of Texas (for himself, Ms. Adams, Mr. Amo, Ms. Ansari, Ms.
Barragan, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Bishop, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Brown, Ms.
Brownley, Ms. Bynum, Mr. Carson, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Mr. Case, Ms.
Clarke of New York, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Costa, Ms. Crockett,
Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Mr. Deluzio, Mr.
DeSaulnier, Mrs. Dingell, Ms. Elfreth, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Evans of
Pennsylvania, Mr. Fields, Mr. Figures, Mrs. Fletcher, Mr. Garamendi,
Mr. Garcia of California, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Grijalva, Mr.
Hoyer, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Johnson of Georgia,
Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Kennedy of New York, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr.
Landsman, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Mr. Liccardo, Mr. Lynch, Ms.
McClellan, Ms. McCollum, Mr. McGovern, Mrs. McIver, Mr. Meeks, Ms.
Meng, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Nadler, Mr.
Neal, Ms. Norton, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Omar, Ms. Pressley, Mrs.
Ramirez, Ms. Salinas, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Sewell, Mr. Soto, Ms.
Strickland, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Titus, Ms.
Tlaib, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Torres of New York, Mrs. Trahan, Mr.
Vargas, Mr. Veasey, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. Waters, Mrs. Watson Coleman, and
Ms. Wilson of Florida) submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month.
Whereas this resolution may be cited as the ``Original Black History Month
Resolution of 2025'';
Whereas this resolution has been endorsed by the Association for the Study of
African American Life and History;
Whereas the theme for Black History Month 2025 is ``African Americans and
Labor'' which focuses on the various ways that Black labor has been
foundational to the United States becoming the richest country in the
world;
Whereas the labor of African-American/Black people has been transformational
throughout the United States;
Whereas this resolution highlights African-American/Black people's labor from
slavery through segregation into contemporary times;
Whereas enslaved Africans were first brought to the American colonies to serve
as a perpetual free labor workforce upon which the colonies and
eventually the United States would be built;
Whereas, during enslavement, African people were the agricultural labor force
that planted the seeds, harvested the crops, and fed the colonies while
enduring a crime against humanity;
Whereas this crime against humanity consisted of nearly 250 years of
uncompensated labor;
Whereas the labor of the enslaved has been valued at roughly $5,900,000,000,000
in 2016 dollars;
Whereas more than 10,000,000 African slave laborers' lives were sacrificed to
make America great;
Whereas, although the General Order No. 15 promise of 40 acres and a mule never
materialized after the Civil War and emancipation, some Black people
became landowners, farmers, and sharecroppers, and continued
contributing to the country's agricultural industry;
Whereas, as the United States economy transitioned into an industrial-based
economy, many Black people migrated to wage-earning jobs;
Whereas convict leasing, or slavery by another name, continued to exploit the
labor of the (often unjustly) incarcerated, the majority of whom were
Black people, by leasing convict labor to private companies;
Whereas, during the early Reconstruction period, 214 delegates attended the
Colored National Labor Union convention in December 1869 because White
trade unions excluded Black workers;
Whereas Mary McLeod Bethune started a school for Black girls in Florida in 1904,
eventually being elected the first woman president of the National
Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, which would eventually
become the American Teachers Association;
Whereas Bethune would go on to be appointed director of African American Affairs
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and founded the National Council of
Negro Women;
Whereas, during the Great Migration of 1916 to 1930, over 1,000,000 Black people
moved from the South to the North, taking advantage of the labor
shortage created in the wake of World War I;
Whereas, in 1921, Nannie Helen Burroughs established the National Trade School
for Women and Girls, which sought to improve working conditions and
expand career pathways for Black women;
Whereas A. Philip Randolph was a labor organizer and civil rights activist who
helped create the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids in 1925,
the first Black union to receive a charter in the American Federation of
Labor;
Whereas the growing need for workers and soldiers during World War II led to the
economic advancement of Black people, including the abolishment of
racial pay differentials and the integration of the Armed Forces;
Whereas, during the civil rights movement, Black activists labored to organize a
variety of movements, most notably the Montgomery bus boycotts in 1955
and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his ``I Have a Dream'' speech;
Whereas A. Philip Randolph was the lead organizer of the March on Washington in
1963, which brought more than 200,000 persons to Washington, DC, in
support of civil rights for Black people in America;
Whereas Anna Arnold Hedgeman, a Black activist, educator, writer, and the only
woman on the March's administrative committee, persuaded organizers to
include economic and women's issues in the day's program;
Whereas, in 1965, Randolph and fellow March organizer Bayard Rustin founded the
A. Philip Randolph Institute (the African-American constituency group of
the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO)), and they coled the institute until Randolph's
death in 1979;
Whereas Reverend Addie Wyatt, a Black woman who became the international vice
president of the United Food and Commercial Workers in 1976, advocated
for women and minority workers within her labor union;
Whereas labor also includes the work of local activists to build relationships
within their community, such as within churches, social clubs, and other
organizations;
Whereas Melnea Cass, also known as the ``First Lady of Roxbury'', was an
activist who helped workers in the Boston community by providing labor
rights education, professional training, and social services, including
a program to provide childcare for working mothers;
Whereas, in 1990, Hattie Canty became the first Black woman elected as the
president of the Culinary Workers Union (CWU), during which time she
founded the Culinary Training Academy to give people of color more
opportunities within the hospitality industry;
Whereas Chris Smalls is the founder and president of the Amazon Labor Union
(ALU), who successfully unionized an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island,
the first Amazon union in United States history;
Whereas, today, the legacy of Black labor is still beset with racial and gender
economic disparities, which can be seen in the wage gap as well as
unemployment rates;
Whereas, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center study, the median Black worker
makes $878 weekly compared to $1,059 for all other United States
workers;
Whereas, similarly, as of January 2025, Black men have a 6.3-percent
unemployment rate compared to approximately 3 percent for White men and
women;
Whereas the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass inspired the
creation of Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month;
and
Whereas the month of February is officially celebrated as Black History Month,
which dates to 1926 when Dr. Carter G. Woodson set aside the second week
in February as Negro History Week to recognize the heritage and
achievement of Black Americans: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ``Original Black History Month
Resolution of 2025''.
SEC. 2. SUPPORTING BLACK HISTORY MONTH.
The House of Representatives recognizes the importance of
commemorating Black History Month as it acknowledges the achievements
of Black Americans throughout the Nation's history and encourages the
continuation of its celebration to raise the awareness of this
community's accomplishments for all Americans.
<all>
Submitted in House
Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
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