I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 765 

To authorize the Director of the National Museum of African American 

History and Culture to support African American history education programs, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 2, 2023 

Mr. BOWMAN (for himself, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Ms. BARRAGA ́N, 

Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. BROWN, Ms. 

BUSH, Mr. CA ́RDENAS, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. 

CASAR, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. CHU, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. CLYBURN, 

Mr. COHEN, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. 

DELBENE, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. DOGGETT, Ms. 

ESCOBAR, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mrs. FLETCHER, Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida, Mr. FROST, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. 

EVANS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. 

HIMES, Mr. HORSFORD, Ms. JACOBS, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. JOHNSON of 

Georgia, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. KEATING, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. 

KHANNA, Mr. LANDSMAN, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. LARSON of 

Connecticut, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Ms. 

LEGER FERNANDEZ, Mr. LIEU, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. MANNING, Mrs. 

MCBATH, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. MENG, Mr. 

MFUME, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. MORELLE, Mr. MOSKOWITZ, Mr. 

MOULTON, Mr. NADLER, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. OMAR, 

Mr. PANETTA, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. PETERS, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. POCAN, Ms. 

PRESSLEY, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. ROSS, Ms. 

SCANLON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, 

Ms. SEWELL, Mr. SOTO, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. THANEDAR, Mr. THOMPSON

of Mississippi, Ms. TITUS, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. TONKO, Mr. 

TORRES of New York, Mrs. TORRES of California, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. 

VEASEY, Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mrs. WATSON

COLEMAN, Ms. WILD, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Ms. WILSON of Florida, 

and Ms. STEVENS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on House Administration 


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A BILL 

To authorize the Director of the National Museum of African 

American History and Culture to support African American history education programs, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘African American His5 tory Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY.—The term 

9 ‘‘African American history’’ means the history of Af10 rican Americans, including the history of African 

11 peoples beginning in the African diaspora through 

12 the present day, that illuminates the passage to the 

13 Americas, slavery, abolition, reconstruction, and the 

14 civil rights movements. This history also includes a 

15 focus on the innovations and contributions of Afri16 can Americans to society both past and present, and 

17 the impact of African Americans on the history and 

18 development of the United States. 

19 (2) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY EDUCATION

20 PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘African American history 

21 education program’’ means an educational program 


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1 relating to African American life, art, history, and 

2 culture, including programs— 

3 (A) using digital, electronic, and inter4 active technologies; and 

5 (B) carried out in collaboration with ele6 mentary schools, secondary schools, and post7 secondary schools. 

8 (3) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

9 the Director of the National Museum of African 

10 American History and Culture. 

11 (4) ESEA TERMS.—The terms ‘‘early childhood 

12 education program’’, ‘‘elementary school’’, ‘‘local 

13 educational agency’’, and ‘‘secondary school’’ have 

14 the meaning given such terms in section 8101 of the 

15 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 

16 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

17 SEC. 3. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director, in accordance with 

19 any program of the National Museum of African American 

20 History and Culture established before, on, or after the 

21 date of the enactment of this Act, may use the funds ap22 propriated under section 5 to carry out any of the fol23 lowing activities at the discretion of the Director: 

24 (1) Developing and making available accurate, 

25 relevant, and accessible resources to promote the unVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:05 Feb 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H765.IH H765

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1 derstanding of African American history, which may 

2 include digital resources and other types of re3 sources, such as print resources and traveling exhibi4 tions. 

5 (2) Through a social justice and anti-bias lens, 

6 convening experts, providing opportunities for dis7 course, and engaging with the public through pro8 gramming, educational resources, and social media. 

9 (3) Through a social justice and anti-bias lens, 

10 increasing resource capacity, technical support, and 

11 content creation to engage various audiences in per12 son and via online platforms. 

13 (4) Creating, expanding, and disseminating 

14 scholarly work through research, curricula, in-house 

15 and traveling exhibitions, publications, and program16 ming. 

17 (5) Providing language translation of the work 

18 of the National Museum of African American His19 tory and Culture, including scholarly work, research, 

20 traveling exhibitions, publications, programming, 

21 pamphlets, and other information distributed about 

22 activities funded under this Act. 

23 (6) Expanding the collection acquisition and 

24 collection access processes, including staffing, con25 servation, processing, and digitization. 


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1 (7) Augmenting one or more of the following 

2 African American history education program activi3 ties: 

4 (A) Development, dissemination, and im5 plementation of principles of sound pedagogy 

6 for teaching about African American history. 

7 (B) Provision of professional development, 

8 such as, but not limited to, through— 

9 (i) local, regional, and national work10 shops; 

11 (ii) teacher trainings or engagement 

12 in conjunction with African American his13 tory education centers and other appro14 priate partners; 

15 (iii) engagement with— 

16 (I) local educational agencies; 

17 and 

18 (II) early childhood education 

19 programs, elementary schools, and 

20 secondary schools that are inde21 pendent of any local educational agen22 cy; and 

23 (iv) operation and expansion of a 

24 teacher fellowship program to cultivate and 


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1 support leaders in African American his2 tory education. 

3 (C) Engagement with State and local edu4 cation leaders to encourage the adoption of re5 sources supported under this Act into curricula 

6 across diverse disciplines. 

7 (8) Creating, developing, implementing, repli8 cating, or taking to scale entrepreneurial, evidence9 based, field-initiated innovations for museum im10 provement, and evaluating rigorously such innova11 tions. 

12 (b) ONLINE AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY EDU13 CATION RESOURCES.— 

14 (1) WEBSITE.—The Director may use the funds 

15 appropriated under section 5 to develop and main16 tain on the website of the National Museum of Afri17 can American History and Culture content des18 ignated for educators, students, and families to im19 prove their awareness and understanding of African 

20 American history. 

21 (2) INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION.—The Direc22 tor may use such funds to distribute information 

23 about the activities funded under this Act through 

24 the website of the National Museum of African 

25 American History and Culture, and may respond to 


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1 inquiries for supplementary information concerning 

2 such activities. 

3 (c) CONTINUATION OF ACTIVITIES.—To the extent 

4 that the National Museum of African American History 

5 and Culture is engaged in an activity described in sub6 section (a) or (b) on the date of the enactment of this 

7 Act, the Director may use the funds appropriated under 

8 section 5 to continue that activity. 

9 SEC. 4. ANNUAL REPORT AND BRIEFINGS. 

10 (a) REPORT.—Not later than February 1 of each 

11 year, the Director shall submit to the Congress, and make 

12 available to the public, a report describing how the funds 

13 made available under this Act have been used— 

14 (1) to create and promote educational activities; 

15 and 

16 (2) otherwise to carry out this Act. 

17 (b) BRIEFINGS.—Not later than 6 months after the 

18 date on which funding is first distributed under this Act, 

19 and annually thereafter, the Director or the Director’s 

20 designee shall brief the Committee on House Administra21 tion of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

22 on Rules and Administration of the Senate on the pro23 grams and activities carried out under this Act. 

24 (c) SUNSET.—Subsections (a) and (b) shall cease to 

25 be effective on September 30, 2028. 


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1 SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

3 this Act $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2024 and each of the 

4 4 succeeding fiscal years. 

Æ 


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