119-hres333

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 333 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
H. RES. 333

 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.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 April 14, 2025

 Ms. Norton submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
 the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

 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.

Whereas the District of Columbia has been a focal point of the Nation's complex 
 racial history, which has included slavery, the Civil War, killings, 
 segregation, and 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 their former enslavers;
Whereas, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation 
 Proclamation, which established a ``new birth of freedom'' by legally 
 emancipating millions of enslaved individuals in the 10 States of the 
 Confederacy not under Union control, freeing the majority of the 
 Nation's enslaved individuals;
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'', was adopted on December 6, 1865, and 
 effectively outlawed slavery in the United States;
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 voting representation in the Congress and independence 
 from congressional interference in local matters in violation of the 
 Nation's founding principles of no taxation without representation and 
 consent of the governed;
Whereas, on June 26, 2020, and April 22, 2021, the House of Representatives 
 passed the Washington, DC Admission Act, the first and the second times 
 in history, respectively, the DC statehood bill had been passed by 
 either chamber of Congress;
Whereas H.R. 51, the Washington, DC Admission Act, has 189 cosponsors; and
Whereas S. 51, the Washington, DC Admission Act, has 42 cosponsors: Now, 
 therefore, be it
 Resolved, 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 Congress to pass the Washington, DC Admission 
 Act.
 <all>