•HCON 42 IH 
the regions and continents that were voluntary and moti-
vated by free will, ambition, and courage; 
Whereas an estimated 50,000 African-Americans attempted 
or succeeded in running away to freedom to northern cit-
ies, Canada, the western territories of the United States, 
and Mexico; 
Whereas discrimination, political suppression, and economic 
privation led thousands of African-Americans to search 
for equality and freedom through emigration or coloniza-
tion in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Haiti, and other African 
and Caribbean countries; 
Whereas political unrest and revolution led to a wave of black 
immigrants from Haiti to the United States, and these 
immigrants settled in Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, but primarily in 
Louisiana, bringing with them a commitment to the prin-
ciples of a free and mobile society, a legacy of revolu-
tionary republicanism, an unflagging commitment to the 
democratic ideals of the romantic era, and the courage to 
challenge racial oppression; 
Whereas the search for freedom and opportunity led African- 
Americans in years before the Civil War and in the ante-
bellum era to engage in a series of migrations, with the 
western migration moving to California, the Dakotas, 
Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, 
Texas, Utah, and Washington, and the northern migra-
tion populating cities in the east and west, including Bos-
ton, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit, New Bedford, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Providence; 
Whereas the ongoing quest for economic opportunity and 
equality inspired the Great Migration, from 1916 to 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
04:05 Feb 11, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HC42.IH
HC42
rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with BILLS
•HCON 42 IH 
1930, when more than one-tenth of the country’s black 
population moved northward and began the nationaliza-
tion of the African-American population, and was fol-
lowed by the Second Great Migration, from 1946 to the 
1970s, when 5,000,000 African-Americans left the South 
for urban centers in the North and West, leading to the 
concentration of these populations in cities, and a grow-
ing political, social and cultural movement; 
Whereas 4,500,000 United States residents traced their na-
tional origins to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican 
Republic by 2000, and these immigrants and their de-
scendents reshaped the cultural landscape of American 
communities and contributed to eroding the traditional 
dichotomy between Black and White people that has been 
prevalent in United States history; 
Whereas, over the past 30 years, more Africans have come 
voluntarily to the United States than came during the 
era of the transatlantic slave trade, and these immi-
grants, often from Sub-Saharan Africa, have been quick 
to seize educational and professional opportunities and 
have established themselves as one of the most dynamic 
and entrepreneurial groups in the country; 
Whereas the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center 
for Research in Black Culture has created an Internet 
presentation called ‘‘In Motion: The African-American 
Migration Experience’’ that presents the history of the 
great migrations of the African-American people across 
oceans and over continents to diverse countries, regions, 
and island nations, and back across geographic divides, 
from rural agricultural lands to urban landscapes, from 
slavery and debasement to freedom and triumph; and 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
04:05 Feb 11, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HC42.IH
HC42
rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with BILLS
•HCON 42 IH 
Whereas based on the resources of the Schomburg Center for 
Research in Black Culture, ‘‘In Motion: The African- 
American Migration Experience’’ describes 13 defining 
migrations that transformed the United States, Africa, 
and the Caribbean using 13 individual narratives, with 
more than 16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, 60 
maps, and provides additional resources for students, in-
cluding essays, books, articles, and manuscripts, as well 
as lesson plans for teachers: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That the Congress— 
(1) recognizes the contributions of the New 
York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Re-
search in Black Culture in educating the people of 
the United States about the African-American mi-
gration experience; 
(2) acknowledges the displacement, suffering, 
and loss of life and freedom that forced the move-
ment of populations from the lands of their birth in 
the transatlantic and domestic slave trade, and reaf-
firms the commitment to achieving racial, social, and 
political equality in the memory of those who lived 
and died in bondage; 
(3) honors the courage, initiative, and self-reli-
ance of immigrants who left their homeland in 
search of opportunity, prosperity, and social justice, 
and braved hardships, inequity, violence, and dis-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
04:05 Feb 11, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC42.IH
HC42
rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with BILLS
•HCON 42 IH 
crimination, while recommitting the United States to 
relieving inequities and conquering injustices that 
pressure migrations and displace people from their 
homes; and 
(4) recommits itself to the goal of educating the 
racially diverse population of the United States to 
honor African-American migration as part of a com-
mon migratory tradition and to providing further 
support for library projects that provide a com-
prehensive history that illuminates the past and in-
forms our common future. 
Æ 
VerDate Nov 24 2008 
04:05 Feb 11, 2009
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\HC42.IH
HC42
rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with BILLS