Calling on all of Philadelphia to recognize Black History Month, the stain of slavery in America, and the ways it still affects our laws and our common humanity, and to uplift and recall those who have advocated for moving our city and nation toward full inclusion and equity.

WHEREAS; It has been four hundred and eight years since African enslavement began in this place we now call America; and

WHEREAS; America’s origins, founding, and literal foundations have been built by enslaved Africans; and

WHEREAS; Despite a Civil War, Reconstruction, constitutional changes, and the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans still must singularly bear the burden of America’s original sin; and

WHEREAS; these burdens are social, cultural, political, and economic, impacting health and home, finances, business development, job applications, college admissions, among many more; and

WHEREAS; any reasonable accounting and reckoning must take full measure of the wage, body, and soul theft that was slavery and the multi-generational traumas it has embedded in America; and

WHEREAS; Voices over centuries have called for a larger justice, which a modern Freedman’s Bureau could explore, King’s promissory note language echoed, and actions taken by Council Members, community groups, and brave ancestors have reinforced, now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby recognizes Black History Month, the stain of slavery in America and the ways it still affects our laws and our common humanity, and to uplift and recall those who have advocated for moving our City and nation toward full inclusion and equity.

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