119-hres173

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 173 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
H. RES. 173

 Restoring the promise of freedom: honoring, preserving, and investing 
 in Freedmen's Settlements.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 February 27, 2025

Ms. Kamlager-Dove (for herself, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Ms. 
Ocasio-Cortez, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Pressley, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mrs. 
 McIver, and Mrs. Watson Coleman) submitted the following resolution; 
 which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

 Restoring the promise of freedom: honoring, preserving, and investing 
 in Freedmen's Settlements.

Whereas over 1,200 freedmen's settlements and Black towns were established 
 throughout the South and across the Nation before and after emancipation 
 by free and formerly enslaved African Americans to create safer, self-
 sustaining, and thriving communities away from racial violence and 
 economic discrimination;
Whereas the freedmen's settlements and towns are the embodiment of ``ground-up 
 emancipation'' and the untold story of community resilience, collective 
 economics, and community building of churches, schools, and enterprises 
 rooted in the African ethic of Ubuntu (I am because you/we are);
Whereas many of these freedmen's settlements and towns were destroyed by 
 Southern domestic terrorists, or otherwise became impoverished by 
 centuries of public and private divestment, which includes uncompensated 
 enslaved labor, failed Reconstruction, and the unmet Freedmen's Bureau's 
 postemancipation promises to transition people who were formerly 
 enslaved into the United States economy, Jim Crow laws, economic and 
 housing discrimination through redlining, public housing, and 
 transportation policies, and environmental racism;
Whereas, in acknowledgment of extreme economic and racial disparities, the 
 Environmental Protection Agency launched the Environmental and Climate 
 Justice Program in 2022 to provide financial and technical assistance to 
 implement environmental and climate justice activities to benefit 
 ``underserved and overburdened'' communities across the Nation, which 
 have continued ``disproportionate environmental health burdens, 
 population vulnerability, and limits to effective participation in 
 decisions with environmental consequences'';
Whereas the White House further recognized the need for greater investment in 
 disadvantaged communities through the Justice40 Initiative in 2022, 
 where the Federal Government set a goal to direct 40 percent of overall 
 benefits of Federal investments to communities that lack clean water, 
 sewer infrastructure, clean energy, clean transit, affordable and 
 sustainable housing, training and workforce development, and remediation 
 and mitigation of legacy pollution;
Whereas, approximately 45 percent of the residents of the unincorporated 
 community of Sand Branch, Texas, established as a freedmen's settlement 
 in 1878, live below the poverty line, and the community is surrounded by 
 environmentally polluting facilities such as cement plants and is also a 
 dumping ground for tires and other trash, has no local school, no 
 proximity to medical facilities, and has not had access to clean running 
 water for over 30 years due to contamination of the local well system, 
 and there is no access to municipal water or sewer system, and although 
 hydropanels have recently been installed to provide drinking water, 
 residents continue to rely on limited donations of bottled water to meet 
 the majority of their water needs;
Whereas the unincorporated community of Africatown, Alabama, established in the 
 1860s as a freedmen's settlement by West Africans brought to the United 
 States illegally aboard the ship Clotilda, consists of 1,215 people, of 
 which 34 percent live below the poverty line, and are surrounded by 
 industry-zoned land and potential expansions of chemical plants, 
 resulting in continued improper waste management, causing pollution, 
 toxic exposure, contamination, and cancer in residents;
Whereas the unincorporated community of Mossville, Louisiana, established in 
 1790, has been encircled by over a dozen petrochemical plants, 
 refineries, and other industrial facilities that pollute the air and 
 water, causing elevated rates of cancer and other diseases among 
 residents as multinational corporations continue to expand in the area, 
 displacing many Mossville families and threatening the community's long-
 term survival;
Whereas the community of Edmondson, Arkansas, incorporated in 1911, emerged as a 
 thriving hub of Black-owned businesses, churches, and cotton farming, 
 with African Americans constituting its civic leadership from the 
 outset, and despite the injustice faced in the 1930s by systematic White 
 racism to steal hundreds of town lots from the original Black owners and 
 the county sheriff making false declarations of the delinquent property 
 tax status of Black families, the Edmondson community persisted and 
 persevered, rebuilding churches, homes, and a sense of cohesion after 
 floods, fires, and storms;
Whereas the community of Allensworth, California, established in 1908 and the 
 first town in California to be founded, funded, and governed by African 
 Americans, was once a promising burgeoning town off a main railroad 
 line, but faced racist disinvestment through the relocation of their 
 train stop, seizure of water resources and subsequent drought and 
 pollution of the aquifer, leaving the town underresourced and sparsely 
 populated, and since then, the residents have organized to revitalize 
 the town through agriculture and historic preservation, and are laying 
 the groundwork for a full community revitalization using $40,000,000 of 
 State funding allocated to the town in 2022;
Whereas Oberlin Village, North Carolina, established in 1866, was once a 
 prosperous free Black community with successful small businesses, 
 schools, and university churches, and faced discrimination and 
 displacement through the mid-20th century and is now undergoing vigorous 
 efforts by the community-led Friends of Oberlin Village to restore 
 historic buildings, preserve oral histories, and ensure that the 
 community can continue to thrive in the future;
Whereas Independence Heights, Texas, was first established in 1908 and became 
 the first Black city in Texas in 1915, and the community built a 
 municipal infrastructure and an ecosystem of 40 Black-owned small 
 businesses, and now faces threats from natural disasters and 
 gentrification that are displacing residents, including those who own 
 property passed down through generations, leading the community to 
 organize vehicles such as the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council 
 to ensure community leadership in development projects and preserve its 
 cultural and historic identity;
Whereas communities such as Edmonson, Allensworth, Oberlin Village, and 
 Independence Heights should not be exceptional cases of communities 
 overcoming their circumstances, but rather models for the possibility of 
 reparation, restoration, protection, and thriving of freedmen's 
 settlement communities;
Whereas it is difficult to fully quantify and understand the history and current 
 status of all the freedmen's settlements in the United States due to 
 lack of research and investment in analyzing, preserving, and supporting 
 these historic settlements, towns, and communities, with a large part of 
 this history held by the descendants of the founders and residents;
Whereas these freedmen's settlements can serve as pillars of inspiration and 
 modeling of land regeneration, ecobased economies organized around 
 communal and collective land, and economic policies for divested 
 communities;
Whereas a handful of former freedmen's settlements have received State or local 
 designation for their historic status, offering them an opportunity for 
 preservation and public acknowledgment, such as the Freedmen's Town 
 Historic District in Houston, Texas;
Whereas there is an ongoing call, gaining much traction today, to preserve and 
 document the history of freedmen's settlements, leading to projects such 
 as the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, the Mapping Blackness Project, as 
 well as the Freedmen's Bureau Search Portal created by the National 
 Museum of African American History and Culture, among others;
Whereas, with a greater focus and leveraging of the power of various Federal 
 agencies' support, protection, and investment, transformation becomes 
 possible for all these historic communities across the United States; 
 and
Whereas the current moment presents an opportunity for the Federal Government to 
 expand on the promises made when Juneteenth was designated a Federal 
 holiday by not only fulfilling the unmet promises and possibilities of 
 the Freedmen's Bureau and the larger Reconstruction movement, but also 
 to helping right the historic and present wrongs that have placed the 
 freedmen's settlements and Black frontline communities in such 
 chronically vulnerable positions: Now, therefore, be it
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

    (1) affirms, that on Juneteenth 2024, 158 years after the 
 250,000 enslaved in Galveston Bay, Texas, received the news 
 from Union troops that they were freed, that the efforts for 
 racial justice after 250 years of United States slavery did not 
 end on June 19, 1865;

    (2) acknowledges that following Juneteenth, many African 
 Americans faced terror and repression which suppressed their 
 ability to create stable and resilient communities or 
 freedmen's settlements after the Civil War;

    (3) honors the rich history of emancipated African 
 Americans who built communities by acquiring land and housing 
 security for freedmen's settlements;

    (4) supports preserving freedmen's settlements through 
 comprehensive documentation that utilizes oral histories and 
 existing records as well as physical commemoration of 
 settlement remnants;

    (5) encourages investing in the lasting legacies of 
 freedmen's settlements with designated funding for historic 
 preservation and funding economic justice initiatives to 
 support the descendants and remaining residents of these 
 communities;

    (6) recognizes the need for coordination amongst the 
 Federal Government, State governments, agencies, and nonprofit 
 organizations is warranted to better understand the power 
 dynamics of the historical injustices that have taken place in 
 the freedmen's settlements;

    (7) expresses a commitment to identify United States 
 freedmen's settlements to enshrine their historic community 
 preservation, including protecting communities from 
 development, gentrification, and environmental hazards through 
 strategic investment, external development regulation, 
 community-led and driven economic development, small business 
 creation, workforce development, and education;

    (8) urges the Federal Government, States, localities, 
 nonprofit organizations, schools, and community organizations 
 to provide ongoing support to the residents and descendants of 
 the founders of freedmen's settlements who hold long-standing 
 knowledge of the history of their communities to preserve the 
 historical foundation of this Nation;

    (9) recognizes that coordination among the Federal 
 Government, State governments, agencies, and nonprofit 
 organizations is warranted to support freedmen's settlement 
 communities and municipalities, including, but not limited to, 
 the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing 
 and Urban Development, food assistance programs, historic land 
 preservation, and clean water foundations;

    (10) affirms that freedmen's settlements in the United 
 States have fair standards of living, including sewage, roads, 
 emergency services, climate-resilient infrastructure, and an 
 overall focus on the health, well-being, sustainability, and 
 resilience of these communities;

    (11) recognizes that recognizing and providing resources 
 for freedmen's settlements will lead to greater equity and 
 investment in historically disadvantaged communities that have 
 faced centuries of racism, discrimination, environmental and 
 climate injustices, and violence, as conceived since the 
 colonization of the Americas and is continually built upon 
 today; and

    (12) honors the legacies of freedom, ingenuity, resilience, 
 and community care created by the communities in the freedmen's 
 settlements and brings recognition and honor to the efforts of 
 these formerly enslaved people on Juneteenth 2024.
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