I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6261 

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 

DECEMBER 14, 2021 

Mr. BOWMAN (for himself, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. 

PAYNE, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. DAVID

SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. CARSON, Mr. 

CLEAVER, Mr. JONES, Ms. NORTON, Ms. TLAIB, Mrs. CAROLYN B. 

MALONEY of New York, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. EVANS, Mr. NADLER, Ms. 

WILLIAMS of Georgia, Mr. CA ́RDENAS, Ms. BUSH, Mr. BROWN of Maryland, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. DANNY

K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. KAHELE, Mr. MCGOVERN, 

Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. 

ADAMS, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. 

HORSFORD, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. COHEN, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. 

AUCHINCLOSS, Ms. MENG, Mr. RUSH, Ms. BASS, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, 

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. OMAR, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. POCAN, Ms. 

PRESSLEY, and Mr. GREEN of Texas) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on House 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘African American His3 tory Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In this Act: 

6 (1) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY.—The term 

7 ‘‘African American history’’ means the history of Af8 rican Americans, including the history of African 

9 peoples beginning in the African diaspora through 

10 the present day, that illuminates the passage to the 

11 Americas, slavery, abolition, reconstruction, and the 

12 civil rights movements. This history also includes a 

13 focus on the innovations and contributions of Afri14 can Americans to society both past and present, and 

15 the impact of African Americans on the history and 

16 development of the United States. 

17 (2) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY EDUCATION

18 PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘African American history 

19 education program’’ means an educational program 

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

21 culture, including programs— 

22 (A) using digital, electronic, and inter23 active technologies; and 

24 (B) carried out in collaboration with ele25 mentary schools, secondary schools, and post26 secondary schools. 


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

2 the Director of the National Museum of African 

3 American History and Culture. 

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

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

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

7 the meaning given such terms in section 8101 of the 

8 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 

9 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

10 SEC. 3. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

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

12 any program of the National Museum of African American 

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

14 date of the enactment of this Act, may use the funds ap15 propriated under section 5 to carry out any of the fol16 lowing activities at the discretion of the Director: 

17 (1) Developing and making available accurate, 

18 relevant, and accessible resources to promote the un19 derstanding of African American history, which may 

20 include digital resources and other types of re21 sources, such as print resources and traveling exhibi22 tions. 

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

24 convening experts, providing opportunities for disVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:09 Dec 22, 2021 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6261.IH H6261

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1 course, and engaging with the public through pro2 gramming, educational resources, and social media. 

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

4 increasing resource capacity, technical support, and 

5 content creation to engage various audiences in per6 son and via online platforms. 

7 (4) Creating, expanding, and disseminating 

8 scholarly work through research, curricula, in-house 

9 and traveling exhibitions, publications, and program10 ming. 

11 (5) Providing language translation of the work 

12 of the National Museum of African American His13 tory and Culture, including scholarly work, research, 

14 traveling exhibitions, publications, programming, 

15 pamphlets, and other information distributed about 

16 activities funded under this Act. 

17 (6) Expanding the collection acquisition and 

18 collection access processes, including staffing, con19 servation, processing, and digitization. 

20 (7) Augmenting one or more of the following 

21 African American history education program activi22 ties: 

23 (A) Development, dissemination, and im24 plementation of principles of sound pedagogy 

25 for teaching about African American history. 


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1 (B) Provision of professional development, 

2 such as, but not limited to, through— 

3 (i) local, regional, and national work4 shops; 

5 (ii) teacher trainings or engagement 

6 in conjunction with African American his7 tory education centers and other appro8 priate partners; 

9 (iii) engagement with— 

10 (I) local educational agencies; 

11 and 

12 (II) early childhood education 

13 programs, elementary schools, and 

14 secondary schools that are inde15 pendent of any local educational agen16 cy; and 

17 (iv) operation and expansion of a 

18 teacher fellowship program to cultivate and 

19 support leaders in African American his20 tory education. 

21 (C) Engagement with State and local edu22 cation leaders to encourage the adoption of re23 sources supported under this Act into curricula 

24 across diverse disciplines. 


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1 (8) Creating, developing, implementing, repli2 cating, or taking to scale entrepreneurial, evidence3 based, field-initiated innovations for museum im4 provement, and evaluating rigorously such innova5 tions. 

6 (b) ONLINE AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY EDU7 CATION RESOURCES.— 

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

9 appropriated under section 5 to develop and main10 tain on the website of the National Museum of Afri11 can American History and Culture content des12 ignated for educators, students, and families to im13 prove their awareness and understanding of African 

14 American History. 

15 (2) INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION.—The Direc16 tor may use such funds to distribute information 

17 about the activities funded under this Act through 

18 the website of the National Museum of African 

19 American History and Culture, and may respond to 

20 inquiries for supplementary information concerning 

21 such activities. 

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

23 that the National Museum of African American History 

24 and Culture is engaged in an activity described in sub25 section (a) or (b) on the date of the enactment of this 


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1 Act, the Director may use the funds appropriated under 

2 section 5 to continue that activity. 

3 SEC. 4. ANNUAL REPORT AND BRIEFINGS. 

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

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

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

7 made available under this Act have been used— 

8 (1) to create and promote educational activities; 

9 and 

10 (2) otherwise to carry out this Act. 

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

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

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

14 designee shall brief the Committee on House Administra15 tion of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

16 on Rules and Administration of the Senate on the pro17 grams and activities carried out under this Act. 

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

19 be effective on September 30, 2026. 

20 SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

21 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

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

23 4 succeeding fiscal years. 

Æ 


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