IV
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. RES. 333
Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance of emancipation
in the Nation’s capital on the anniversary of President Abraham Lin-
coln’s signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation
Act, which established the ‘‘first freed’’ on April 16, 1862, and cele-
brating passage of the District of Columbia statehood bill in the House
of Representatives.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL14, 2025
Ms. N
ORTONsubmitted 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 anniver-
sary of President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Dis-
trict 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 dis-
enfranchisement, among other violations of civil and
human rights;
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Whereas, on April 16, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War,
President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Colum-
bia Compensated Emancipation Act, which freed the ap-
proximately 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 mil-
lions of enslaved individuals in the 10 States of the Con-
federacy 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 in-
voluntary 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 en-
dured 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 Colum-
bia to be celebrated annually on April 16;
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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 require-
ments of citizenship, and otherwise have long made con-
tributions to the life, culture, and leadership of the
United States, still are denied voting representation in
the Congress and independence from congressional inter-
ference 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, respec-
tively, 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
(1) recognizes District of Columbia Emanci-2
pation Day, marking the anniversary of the end of 3
slavery in the District of Columbia and symbolizing 4
the aspirations of the residents of the District of Co-5
lumbia for the same rights and freedoms afforded to 6
residents of States; and 7
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(2) calls on Congress to pass the Washington, 1
DC Admission Act. 2
Æ
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