II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3547 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 1, 2022 

Mr. BOOKER (for himself, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. BROWN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, 

Mr. CARDIN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, and Mr. MURPHY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration 

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: 


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1 (1) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY.—The term 

2 ‘‘African American history’’ means the history of Af3 rican Americans, including the history of African 

4 peoples beginning in the African diaspora through 

5 the present day, that illuminates the passage to the 

6 Americas, slavery, abolition, reconstruction, and the 

7 civil rights movements. This history also includes a 

8 focus on the innovations and contributions of Afri9 can Americans to society both past and present, and 

10 the impact of African Americans on the history and 

11 development of the United States. 

12 (2) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY EDUCATION

13 PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘African American history 

14 education program’’ means an educational program 

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

16 culture, including programs— 

17 (A) using digital, electronic, and inter18 active technologies; and 

19 (B) carried out in collaboration with ele20 mentary schools, secondary schools, and post21 secondary schools. 

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

23 the Director of the National Museum of African 

24 American History and Culture. 


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

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

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

4 the meaning given such terms in section 8101 of the 

5 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 

6 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

7 SEC. 3. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

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

9 any program of the National Museum of African American 

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

11 date of the enactment of this Act, may use the funds ap12 propriated under section 5 to carry out any of the fol13 lowing activities at the discretion of the Director: 

14 (1) Developing and making available accurate, 

15 relevant, and accessible resources to promote the un16 derstanding of African American history, which may 

17 include digital resources and other types of re18 sources, such as print resources and traveling exhibi19 tions. 

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

21 convening experts, providing opportunities for dis22 course, and engaging with the public through pro23 gramming, educational resources, and social media. 

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

25 increasing resource capacity, technical support, and 


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1 content creation to engage various audiences in-per2 son and via online platforms. 

3 (4) Creating, expanding, and disseminating 

4 scholarly work through research, curricula, in-house 

5 and traveling exhibitions, publications, and program6 ming. 

7 (5) Providing language translation of the work 

8 of the National Museum of African American His9 tory and Culture, including scholarly work, research, 

10 traveling exhibitions, publications, programming, 

11 pamphlets, and other information distributed about 

12 activities funded under this Act. 

13 (6) Expanding the collection acquisition and 

14 collection access processes, including staffing, con15 servation, processing, and digitization. 

16 (7) Augmenting one or more of the following 

17 African American history education program activi18 ties: 

19 (A) Development, dissemination, and im20 plementation of principles of sound pedagogy 

21 for teaching about African American history. 

22 (B) Provision of professional development, 

23 such as, but not limited to, through— 

24 (i) local, regional, and national work25 shops; 


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1 (ii) teacher trainings or engagements 

2 in conjunction with African American his3 tory education centers and other appro4 priate partners; 

5 (iii) engagement with— 

6 (I) local educational agencies; 

7 and 

8 (II) early childhood education 

9 programs, elementary schools, and 

10 secondary schools that are inde11 pendent of any local educational agen12 cy; and 

13 (iv) operation and expansion of a 

14 teacher fellowship program to cultivate and 

15 support leaders in African American his16 tory education. 

17 (C) Engagement with State and local edu18 cation leaders to encourage the adoption of re19 sources supported under this Act into curricula 

20 across diverse disciplines. 

21 (8) Creating, developing, implementing, repli22 cating, or taking to scale entrepreneurial, evidence23 based, field-initiated innovations for museum im24 provement, and evaluating rigorously such innova25 tions. 


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1 (b) ONLINE AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY EDU2 CATION RESOURCES.— 

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

4 appropriated under section 5 to develop and main5 tain on the website of the National Museum of Afri6 can American History and Culture content des7 ignated for educators, students, and families to im8 prove their awareness and understanding of African 

9 American history. 

10 (2) INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION.—The Direc11 tor may use funds appropriated under section 5 to 

12 distribute information about the activities funded 

13 under this Act through the website of the National 

14 Museum of African American History and Culture, 

15 and may respond to inquiries for supplementary in16 formation concerning such activities. 

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

18 that the National Museum of African American History 

19 and Culture is engaged in an activity described in sub20 section (a) or (b) on the date of the enactment of this 

21 Act, the Director may use the funds appropriated under 

22 section 5 to continue that activity. 

23 SEC. 4. ANNUAL REPORT AND BRIEFINGS. 

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

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


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

2 made available under this Act have been used— 

3 (1) to create and promote educational activities; 

4 and 

5 (2) otherwise to carry out this Act. 

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

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

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

9 designee shall brief the Committee on Rules and Adminis10 tration of the Senate and the Committee on House Admin11 istration of the House of Representatives on the programs 

12 and activities carried out under this Act. 

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

14 be effective on September 30, 2026. 

15 SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

16 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

17 this Act $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2022 and each of the 

18 4 succeeding fiscal years. 

Æ 


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