Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance of emancipation in the Nation's capital on the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which established the "first freed" on April 16, 1862, and celebrating passage of the District of Columbia statehood bill in the House of Representatives.

first freed Whereas the District of Columbia has been a focal point of the Nation’s complex racial history, which has included slavery, the Civil War, brutal and unjustified killings, racial segregation, and legal disenfranchisement, among other violations of civil and human rights; Whereas, on April 16, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which freed the approximately 3,100 enslaved individuals in the District of Columbia and authorized compensation to former enslavers; Whereas, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which established a new birth of freedom Whereas the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which reads Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation Whereas the enslavement of persons of African descent endured for more than two centuries in what is now the United States, including the District of Columbia; Whereas, in 2005, District of Columbia Emancipation Day, commemorating April 16, the date of the signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, was made a legal public holiday in the District of Columbia to be celebrated annually on April 16; Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia pay more per capita in Federal taxes than the residents of any State; Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia, who pay the full freight of Federal taxes, serve in the United States Armed Forces, are subject to all of the requirements of citizenship, and otherwise have long made contributions to the life, culture, and leadership of the United States, still are denied the voting representation in the Congress and independence from congressional interference in local matters afforded to other United States jurisdictions in violation of the basic principles of taxation requiring representation and local governance; Whereas, on April 22, 2021, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, only the second time in history the D.C. statehood bill has been passed by either chamber of Congress; and Whereas S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, has a record 45 cosponsors: Now, therefore, be it That the House of Representatives— (1) recognizes District of Columbia Emancipation Day, marking the anniversary of the end of slavery in the District of Columbia and symbolizing the aspirations of the residents of the District of Columbia for the same rights and freedoms afforded to residents of States; and (2) calls on the Senate to pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act in 2022.

Summary: This resolution recognizes District of Columbia Emancipation Day, marking the anniversary of the end of slavery in the District of Columbia and symbolizing the aspirations of its residents for the same rights and freedoms afforded all state residents. The resolution also calls on the Senate to pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act in 2022.