IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 168 
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 26, 2021 
Mr. GREEN of Texas (for himself, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. BISHOP 
of Georgia, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Mr. 
DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. 
CA´RDENAS, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. SMITH of Washington, 
Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. WELCH, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Ms. 
OMAR, Mr. DESAULNIER, and Mr. MEEKS) submitted the following reso-
lution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History 
Month. 
Whereas the theme for Black History Month 2021 is ‘‘The 
Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity’’, 
which emphasizes how the representation, identity, and 
diversity of the Black family have been reverenced, 
stereotyped, and vilified since slavery; 
Whereas enslaved Africans in America were not legally al-
lowed to marry in any Southern States until the 13th 
Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1865; 
Whereas even in Southern States where marriage was illegal, 
many enslaved people entered into relationships that they 
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treated like marriage, considering themselves husbands 
and wives although their unions were not protected by 
the law; 
Whereas some Black slaves lived in nuclear families with a 
mother, father, and children when they all belonged to 
the same owner; 
Whereas, in other cases, the father might have a different 
owner than the mother and children and might travel 
several miles away on a distant plantation and walk, 
which was usually permissible on Wednesday nights and 
Sunday evenings, to see his family as his obligation to 
provide labor for an owner took precedence over his per-
sonal needs; 
Whereas mothers cooked meals in the fireplace and sewed or 
quilted late into the night while fathers fished and hunt-
ed, sometimes with their sons, to provide food to supple-
ment the rations handed out by owners; 
Whereas enslaved people held parties and prayer meetings in 
cabins or far out in the woods beyond the hearing range 
of their masters; 
Whereas enslaved Black families lived with the perpetual pos-
sibility of separation caused by the sale of one or more 
family members; 
Whereas it is estimated that approximately one-third of 
enslaved children in the upper Southern States of Mary-
land and Virginia experienced family separation in one of 
three possible scenarios: sale away from parents; sale 
with mother away from father; or sale of mother or fa-
ther away from child; 
Whereas, following the Civil War, when slavery finally ended 
in the United States after nearly 250 years, formerly 
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enslaved persons took measures to formalize their family 
relations, locate family members, and reunite their fami-
lies; 
Whereas following the ratification of the 15th Amendment to 
the Constitution, many States, particularly in the South, 
enacted poll taxes, literacy tests, and other means of 
disenfranchising African Americans; 
Whereas the 15th Amendment states that the ‘‘right of citi-
zens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude’’; 
Whereas the start of the lynching era is commonly referenced 
as 1877, the year of the Tilden-Hayes compromise, which 
is viewed by most historians as the official end of Recon-
struction in the United States South; 
Whereas historians broadly agree that lynchings were a meth-
od of social and racial control meant to terrorize Black 
Americans into submission and into an inferior racial 
caste position in the postbellum South; 
Whereas Equal Justice Initiative researchers documented 
4,075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in 
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Lou-
isiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ten-
nessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950—at 
least 800 more lynchings of Black people in these States 
than previously reported in the most comprehensive work 
done on lynching to date; 
Whereas Black males were vilified and targeted by lynching 
mobs with claims of sexual contact between Black men 
and White women; 
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Whereas according to the Equal Justice Initiative, nearly 25 
percent of lynching victims were accused of sexual as-
sault; 
Whereas the 1921 decimation of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, neigh-
borhood of Greenwood—sometimes referred to as ‘‘Black 
Wall Street’’ for its economic vitality—after a Black man 
was falsely charged with raping a White woman in an ele-
vator resulted in 100 to 300 Blacks being killed by White 
mobs in a matter of a few hours; 
Whereas, in contrast, White American families embraced 
lynching, not as an uncomfortable necessity or a way of 
maintaining order, but as a joyous moment of the whole-
some celebration of White supremacy; 
Whereas the disproportionate nature of lynchings among 
Black men threatened the safety and security of the 
Black family as a whole; 
Whereas Black males were also disproportionately drafted 
into the military; 
Whereas, in 1967, during the Vietnam war, Black Americans 
represented approximately 11 percent of the civilian pop-
ulation, yet they represented 16.3 percent of all draftees 
and 23 percent of all combat troops in Vietnam; 
Whereas, since the mid-1980s, the United States has under-
taken aggressive law enforcement strategies and criminal 
justice policies aimed at curtailing drug abuse through its 
War on Drugs, which has disproportionately affected 
Black Americans, specifically Black men; 
Whereas Black Americans make up 13 percent of the United 
States population and are consistently documented by the 
United States Government to use drugs at rates similar 
to those among people of other races, yet Black Ameri-
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cans account for nearly one-third of drug arrests and 
roughly 45 percent of those incarcerated in State and 
Federal prisons for drug law violations; 
Whereas Black Americans constituted 28 percent of those 
killed by police in 2020 despite being only 13 percent of 
the population; 
Whereas Black Americans are three times more likely to be 
killed by police brutality than White Americans; 
Whereas police brutality and racial bias in policing has led 
to the deaths of Gabriella Nevarez, Eric Garner, Michael 
Brown, Michelle Cusseaux, Tanisha Anderson, Akai 
Gurley, Tamir Rice, Janisha Fonville, Aura Rosser, 
Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando 
Castille, Stephon Clark, Botham Jean, Elijah McClain, 
Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude, 
George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Dijon Durand Kizzee, 
Jonathan Dwayne Price, Marcellis Stinnette, Sincere 
Pierce, 
Angelo 
‘‘AJ’’ 
Crooms, 
Casey 
Christopher 
Goodson, Jr., Andre Maurice Hill, Patrick Lynn Warren, 
Sr., and Vincent ‘‘Vinny’’ M. Belmonte; 
Whereas racism in this country has led to the deaths of 
Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, James Anderson, 
James Byrd, Jr., Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, 
Carole Robertson, Carol Denise McNair, George W. Dor-
sey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcom, Dorothy 
Malcom, Emmett Till, and so many more; 
Whereas long-standing racial health disparities affecting 
Black Americans have been exacerbated during the 
COVID–19 global pandemic; 
Whereas some of the many inequities in social determinants 
of health that put racial and ethnic minority groups at 
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increased risk of contracting and dying from COVID–19 
include access to health care, employment, education, 
wealth inequality, housing, and criminal justice; 
Whereas according to the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, Black Americans make up about 13 percent 
of the population of the United States yet disproportion-
ately account for 15.5 percent of deaths from COVID– 
19; 
Whereas the Black nuclear family has been consistently 
threatened because of mechanisms of racial bias in the 
United 
States, 
including 
slavery, 
mass 
lynchings, 
disproportioned drafting, mass incarceration, and police 
misconduct; 
Whereas biological parents may not have always been avail-
able due to various reasons, including racial injustices, 
and aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, 
and a host of family friends and fictive kin have stepped 
in to do the work of raising children; 
Whereas Black Americans have been crucial to the develop-
ment of this Nation and been at the forefront of civil 
rights that laid the foundations for other minority groups 
in the United States; 
Whereas, in 1870, Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and 
Congressman Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became 
the first African Americans to serve in the United States 
Congress; 
Whereas Senator Edward Brooke III became the first African 
American popularly elected to the Senate and the first 
Black politician from Massachusetts to serve in Congress, 
and prior to being elected to the Senate, he was the first 
African-American attorney general of any State in 1962; 
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Whereas Senator Brooke’s election ended an 85-year absence 
of African-American Senators and he represented Massa-
chusetts in the Senate from 1967 to 1979, and during 
his senatorial career, he co-wrote the Civil Rights Act of 
1968, which prohibited discrimination in housing; 
Whereas Judge Frank Minis Johnson, Jr., served on the 
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 
and the United States District Court for the Middle Dis-
trict of Alabama, and in each capacity, Judge Johnson 
courageously worked to advance the constitutional prin-
ciples of freedom and equality; 
Whereas the insight and constitutional judgment of Judge 
Johnson were invaluable and aided the Supreme Court as 
it recognized the violations and injustices in our Nation 
during the Civil Rights Movement, and without Judge 
Johnson’s judicious temperament, constitutional mindset, 
and dedication to rule of law, the Civil Rights Movement 
would have been at a great disadvantage; 
Whereas President Barack Obama, the first Black American 
elected to the Presidency of the United States, served two 
terms and led the campaign for the Affordable Care Act 
and LGBTQ+ marriage equality, making it easier for all 
families to access health care and extending the right to 
marry to all Americans; 
Whereas, in 2020, Kamala Harris became the first Black and 
South Asian person and first woman to be elected as Vice 
President of the United States; 
Whereas, in 2020, Lloyd Austin became the first Black Sec-
retary of Defense of the United States; 
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Whereas Black Americans in all walks of life have made sig-
nificant contributions throughout the history of the 
United States, including through— 
(1) the music of Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Prince, 
Michael Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, James 
Brown, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke 
Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jack-
son, Francis Johnson, and Bessie Smith; 
(2) the writings of Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, 
W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Alex Haley, Langston 
Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Alice Walk-
er, Booker T. Washington, and Richard Wright; 
(3) the publications of the North Star, the Crisis 
Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Jet Magazine, Essence Mag-
azine, Black Enterprise Magazine, the National Associa-
tion of Black Journalists (NABJ), Sister 2 Sister Maga-
zine, and Uptown Magazine; 
(4) the athletic prowess of Muhammad Ali, Arthur 
Ashe, Althea Gibson, Tiger Woods, Gabby Douglas, 
Simone Biles, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Colin 
Kaepernick, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Frederick ‘‘Fritz’’ 
Pollard, Jackie Robinson, Wilma Rudolph, Bill Russell, 
Venus Williams, and Serena Williams; 
(5) 
the 
scientific 
advancements 
of 
Benjamin 
Banneker, George Washington Carver, George Crum, 
Charles Drew, Sarah Goode, Euphemia Lofton Haynes, 
Mae Jemison, Thomas Jennings, Katherine Johnson, 
Norbert Rillieux, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Granville T. 
Woods; and 
(6) the vision of leaders such as John Lewis, Mary 
McLeod Bethune, Shirley Chisholm, Frederick Douglass, 
Fred Hampton, Marsha P. Johnson, Martin Luther 
King, Jr., Bayard Rustin, Thurgood Marshall, Huey 
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Newton, Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hammer, Rosa 
Parks, and Malcolm X; 
Whereas Negro History Week represented the culmination of 
Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s efforts to enhance knowledge of 
Black history started through the Journal of Negro His-
tory, published by Woodson’s Association for the Study 
of African American Life and History; 
Whereas the month of February is officially celebrated as 
Black History Month, which dates to 1926 when Dr. 
Carter G. Woodson set aside a special period in February 
to recognize the heritage and achievement of Black 
Americans; and 
Whereas the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick 
Douglass inspired the creation of Negro History Week, 
the precursor to Black History Month: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Original Black 
History Month Resolution of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. RECOGNIZING AND CELEBRATING THE SIGNIFI-
CANCE OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH. 
The House of Representatives recognizes the impor-
tance of commemorating Black History Month as it ac-
knowledges the achievements of African Americans 
throughout our Nation’s history and encourages the con-
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tinuation of its celebration to raise the awareness of this 
community’s accomplishments for all Americans. 
Æ 
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