IV 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 181 
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History Month. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 3, 2025 
Mr. GREEN of Texas (for himself, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. AMO, Ms. ANSARI, Ms. 
BARRAGA´N, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. BISHOP, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. BROWN, Ms. 
BROWNLEY, Ms. BYNUM, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. 
CASE, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. COHEN, Mr. COSTA, 
Ms. CROCKETT, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. DEAN of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
DELUZIO, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. ELFRETH, Mr. 
ESPAILLAT, Mr. EVANS of Pennsylvania, Mr. FIELDS, Mr. FIGURES, 
Mrs. FLETCHER, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. GARCIA of California, Mr. GOLD-
MAN of New York, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HOYER, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. 
JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. 
KENNEDY of New York, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. LANDSMAN, Ms. 
LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. LICCARDO, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Ms. 
MCCOLLUM, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mrs. MCIVER, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. MENG, Ms. 
MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. NADLER, Mr. 
NEAL, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. OMAR, Ms. PRESSLEY, 
Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. SOTO, 
Ms. STRICKLAND, Mr. THANEDAR, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. 
TITUS, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. TONKO, Mr. TORRES of New York, 
Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. VEASEY, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. WATERS, 
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, and Ms. WILSON of Florida) submitted the fol-
lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and 
Government Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing and celebrating the significance of Black History 
Month. 
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•HRES 181 IH 
farmers, and sharecroppers, and continued contributing 
to the country’s agricultural industry; 
Whereas, as the United States economy transitioned into an 
industrial-based economy, many Black people migrated to 
wage-earning jobs; 
Whereas convict leasing, or slavery by another name, contin-
ued to exploit the labor of the (often unjustly) incarcer-
ated, the majority of whom were Black people, by leasing 
convict labor to private companies; 
Whereas, during the early Reconstruction period, 214 dele-
gates attended the Colored National Labor Union con-
vention in December 1869 because White trade unions 
excluded Black workers; 
Whereas Mary McLeod Bethune started a school for Black 
girls in Florida in 1904, eventually being elected the first 
woman president of the National Association of Teachers 
in Colored Schools, which would eventually become the 
American Teachers Association; 
Whereas Bethune would go on to be appointed director of Af-
rican American Affairs by President Franklin D. Roo-
sevelt and founded the National Council of Negro 
Women; 
Whereas, during the Great Migration of 1916 to 1930, over 
1,000,000 Black people moved from the South to the 
North, taking advantage of the labor shortage created in 
the wake of World War I; 
Whereas, in 1921, Nannie Helen Burroughs established the 
National Trade School for Women and Girls, which 
sought to improve working conditions and expand career 
pathways for Black women; 
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•HRES 181 IH 
Whereas A. Philip Randolph was a labor organizer and civil 
rights activist who helped create the Brotherhood of 
Sleeping Car Porters and Maids in 1925, the first Black 
union to receive a charter in the American Federation of 
Labor; 
Whereas the growing need for workers and soldiers during 
World War II led to the economic advancement of Black 
people, including the abolishment of racial pay differen-
tials and the integration of the Armed Forces; 
Whereas, during the civil rights movement, Black activists la-
bored to organize a variety of movements, most notably 
the Montgomery bus boycotts in 1955 and the March on 
Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ 
speech; 
Whereas A. Philip Randolph was the lead organizer of the 
March on Washington in 1963, which brought more than 
200,000 persons to Washington, DC, in support of civil 
rights for Black people in America; 
Whereas Anna Arnold Hedgeman, a Black activist, educator, 
writer, and the only woman on the March’s administra-
tive committee, persuaded organizers to include economic 
and women’s issues in the day’s program; 
Whereas, in 1965, Randolph and fellow March organizer 
Bayard Rustin founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute 
(the African-American constituency group of the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations (AFL–CIO)), and they coled the institute 
until Randolph’s death in 1979; 
Whereas Reverend Addie Wyatt, a Black woman who became 
the international vice president of the United Food and 
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•HRES 181 IH 
Commercial Workers in 1976, advocated for women and 
minority workers within her labor union; 
Whereas labor also includes the work of local activists to 
build relationships within their community, such as with-
in churches, social clubs, and other organizations; 
Whereas Melnea Cass, also known as the ‘‘First Lady of 
Roxbury’’, was an activist who helped workers in the 
Boston community by providing labor rights education, 
professional training, and social services, including a pro-
gram to provide childcare for working mothers; 
Whereas, in 1990, Hattie Canty became the first Black 
woman elected as the president of the Culinary Workers 
Union (CWU), during which time she founded the Cul-
inary Training Academy to give people of color more op-
portunities within the hospitality industry; 
Whereas Chris Smalls is the founder and president of the 
Amazon Labor Union (ALU), who successfully unionized 
an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, the first Amazon 
union in United States history; 
Whereas, today, the legacy of Black labor is still beset with 
racial and gender economic disparities, which can be seen 
in the wage gap as well as unemployment rates; 
Whereas, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center study, 
the median Black worker makes $878 weekly compared 
to $1,059 for all other United States workers; 
Whereas, similarly, as of January 2025, Black men have a 
6.3-percent unemployment rate compared to approxi-
mately 3 percent for White men and women; 
Whereas the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick 
Douglass inspired the creation of Negro History Week, 
the precursor to Black History Month; and 
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•HRES 181 IH 
Whereas the month of February is officially celebrated as 
Black History Month, which dates to 1926 when Dr. 
Carter G. Woodson set aside the second week in Feb-
ruary as Negro History Week to recognize the heritage 
and achievement of Black Americans: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Original Black 
History Month Resolution of 2025’’. 
SEC. 2. SUPPORTING BLACK HISTORY MONTH. 
The House of Representatives recognizes the impor-
tance of commemorating Black History Month as it ac-
knowledges the achievements of Black Americans through-
out the Nation’s history and encourages the continuation 
of its celebration to raise the awareness of this commu-
nity’s accomplishments for all Americans. 
Æ 
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