Resolution In Support Of A Federal And Congressional  “Commission To Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act – H.R. 40 Bill” For The Descendants of African Slaves 

WHEREAS, The People of African Descent were wrongfully taken from their Mother Country, brought across the Atlantic Ocean, to a place that they knew not, and 

WHEREAS, These People of African Descent were enslaved here in America, to work from sunup to sundown from 1619 until the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, and 

WHEREAS, These People of African Descent were auctioned off like cattle, kept in bondage forced to perform free labor, with as many as 25 million lives lost, and 

WHEREAS, There was a “Breach of Contract”, where in January of 1865, slaves were promised, a plot of not more than 40 acres of tillable ground, one mule and fifty dollars in cash, in Special Field Order No. 15, as promised by the Freedmen’s Bureau and issued by General William T. Sherman, and 

WHEREAS, Three months later, this order was rescinded by President Andrew Johnson, and the United States Government seized the land it had already given to some 40,000 ex-slaves in Florida and South Carolina, and 

WHEREAS, The People of African Descent since Emancipation, until this present day, have been subjected to over 100 years of Jim Crowism, unjust segregation, lynchings,displacement, systematic racism, political and economic inequality, financial deprivation, and many other forms of inhumane treatment, and 

WHEREAS, The People of African Descent have fought valiantly in all wars of these United States of America, and stood arm in arm with other American Soldiers to maintain freedom, liberty, justice, and humanity for all, and 

WHEREAS, In the political sphere, only one major bill demanding slavery reparations has been proposed, the “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals For African Americans Act”, which former House Representative, John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), proposed unsuccessfully to the United States Congress every year from 1989 until his

resignation in 2017; as its name suggests, the bill has only recommended the creation of a commission to study the “impact of slavery on the social, political, and economic life of our nation…hence, H.R. 40 Bill, and, 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SPENCER PRECINCT OF THE ROWAN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY, THAT WE APPROVE AND ADOPT THIS RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF HAVING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION APPOINTED TO STUDY AND DEVELOP REPARATION PROPOSALS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ACT, AS PROPOSED BY FORMER HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE, JOHN CONYERS, JR. (D-MICH.), HENCE H.R.40 BILL, AND ON JANUARY 4, 2021 WHICH WAS REINTRODUCED FOR FUNDING IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BY REP. BARBARA LEE, 13TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, CA., FORMER CHAIR OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND FURTHERMORE WE MOVE THAT THE ROWAN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY ADOPT A SIMILAR RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT, AS WELL. 

Read, approved and adopted this the 24th day of March, 2021, by the Spencer Precinct of the Rowan County Democratic Party. 

Read, approved and adopted this the 10th day of April, 2021, by the Rowan County Democratic Party at the Annual County Convention.