IV
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. RES. 173
Restoring the promise of freedom: honoring, preserving, and investing in
Freedmen’s Settlements.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Ms. K
AMLAGER-DOVE(for herself, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. JACKSONof Illinois, Ms.
O
CASIO-CORTEZ, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. MOOREof Wis-
consin, Mrs. M
CIVER, and Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN) submitted the fol-
lowing 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 for-
merly enslaved African Americans to create safer, self-
sustaining, and thriving communities away from racial vi-
olence and economic discrimination;
Whereas the freedmen’s settlements and towns are the em-
bodiment 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);
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Whereas many of these freedmen’s settlements and towns
were destroyed by Southern domestic terrorists, or other-
wise became impoverished by centuries of public and pri-
vate 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 econ-
omy, Jim Crow laws, economic and housing discrimina-
tion 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 Pro-
gram in 2022 to provide financial and technical assist-
ance to implement environmental and climate justice ac-
tivities to benefit ‘‘underserved and overburdened’’ com-
munities across the Nation, which have continued ‘‘dis-
proportionate environmental health burdens, population
vulnerability, and limits to effective participation in deci-
sions 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 Fed-
eral 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, estab-
lished as a freedmen’s settlement in 1878, live below the
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poverty line, and the community is surrounded by envi-
ronmentally 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 al-
though hydropanels have recently been installed to pro-
vide 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, Ala-
bama, established in the 1860s as a freedmen’s settle-
ment by West Africans brought to the United States ille-
gally 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 expan-
sions of chemical plants, resulting in continued improper
waste management, causing pollution, toxic exposure,
contamination, and cancer in residents;
Whereas the unincorporated community of Mossville, Lou-
isiana, established in 1790, has been encircled by over a
dozen petrochemical plants, refineries, and other indus-
trial facilities that pollute the air and water, causing ele-
vated 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, incor-
porated in 1911, emerged as a thriving hub of Black-
owned businesses, churches, and cotton farming, with Af-
rican Americans constituting its civic leadership from the
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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 per-
sisted and persevered, rebuilding churches, homes, and a
sense of cohesion after floods, fires, and storms;
Whereas the community of Allensworth, California, estab-
lished 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 rail-
road line, but faced racist disinvestment through the relo-
cation 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 revital-
ization 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 vig-
orous efforts by the community-led Friends of Oberlin
Village to restore historic buildings, preserve oral his-
tories, 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 infrastruc-
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ture and an ecosystem of 40 Black-owned small busi-
nesses, and now faces threats from natural disasters and
gentrification that are displacing residents, including
those who own property passed down through genera-
tions, leading the community to organize vehicles such as
the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council to en-
sure 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 cir-
cumstances, but rather models for the possibility of rep-
aration, restoration, protection, and thriving of freed-
men’s settlement communities;
Whereas it is difficult to fully quantify and understand the
history and current status of all the freedmen’s settle-
ments 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 re-
ceived 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;
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Whereas there is an ongoing call, gaining much traction
today, to preserve and document the history of freed-
men’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 invest-
ment, transformation becomes possible for all these his-
toric 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 settle-
ments and Black frontline communities in such chron-
ically vulnerable positions: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1
(1) affirms, that on Juneteenth 2024, 158 2
years after the 250,000 enslaved in Galveston Bay, 3
Texas, received the news from Union troops that 4
they were freed, that the efforts for racial justice 5
after 250 years of United States slavery did not end 6
on June 19, 1865; 7
(2) acknowledges that following Juneteenth, 8
many African Americans faced terror and repression 9
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which suppressed their ability to create stable and 1
resilient communities or freedmen’s settlements after 2
the Civil War; 3
(3) honors the rich history of emancipated Afri-4
can Americans who built communities by acquiring 5
land and housing security for freedmen’s settle-6
ments; 7
(4) supports preserving freedmen’s settlements 8
through comprehensive documentation that utilizes 9
oral histories and existing records as well as physical 10
commemoration of settlement remnants; 11
(5) encourages investing in the lasting legacies 12
of freedmen’s settlements with designated funding 13
for historic preservation and funding economic jus-14
tice initiatives to support the descendants and re-15
maining residents of these communities; 16
(6) recognizes the need for coordination 17
amongst the Federal Government, State govern-18
ments, agencies, and nonprofit organizations is war-19
ranted to better understand the power dynamics of 20
the historical injustices that have taken place in the 21
freedmen’s settlements; 22
(7) expresses a commitment to identify United 23
States freedmen’s settlements to enshrine their his-24
toric community preservation, including protecting 25
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communities from development, gentrification, and 1
environmental hazards through strategic investment, 2
external development regulation, community-led and 3
driven economic development, small business cre-4
ation, workforce development, and education; 5
(8) urges the Federal Government, States, lo-6
calities, nonprofit organizations, schools, and com-7
munity organizations to provide ongoing support to 8
the residents and descendants of the founders of 9
freedmen’s settlements who hold long-standing 10
knowledge of the history of their communities to 11
preserve the historical foundation of this Nation; 12
(9) recognizes that coordination among the 13
Federal Government, State governments, agencies, 14
and nonprofit organizations is warranted to support 15
freedmen’s settlement communities and municipali-16
ties, including, but not limited to, the Environmental 17
Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and 18
Urban Development, food assistance programs, his-19
toric land preservation, and clean water foundations; 20
(10) affirms that freedmen’s settlements in the 21
United States have fair standards of living, includ-22
ing sewage, roads, emergency services, climate-resil-23
ient infrastructure, and an overall focus on the 24
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health, well-being, sustainability, and resilience of 1
these communities; 2
(11) recognizes that recognizing and providing 3
resources for freedmen’s settlements will lead to 4
greater equity and investment in historically dis-5
advantaged communities that have faced centuries of 6
racism, discrimination, environmental and climate 7
injustices, and violence, as conceived since the col-8
onization of the Americas and is continually built 9
upon today; and 10
(12) honors the legacies of freedom, ingenuity, 11
resilience, and community care created by the com-12
munities in the freedmen’s settlements and brings 13
recognition and honor to the efforts of these for-14
merly enslaved people on Juneteenth 2024. 15
Æ
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