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Managing America: Civil Rights

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Week Ending October 5, 2007

H.R.3432 To establish the 200th Anniversary Commemoration Commission of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and for other purposes.

The bill would establish the 200^th Anniversary Commemoration Commission of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade to ensure a suitable national observance of the anniversary and support commemorative programs.

The Commission will cooperate with organizations throughout the US and assure that the observations are inclusive and appropriately recognized. The Commission will also support and facilitate international involvement.

The Commission will have four members appointed by the Speaker of the House, three by the Senate Majority Leader, one by the Senate Minority Leader and one by the House Minority Leader. Members will demonstrate expertise or experience in the study and program facilitation on the transatlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery in the US.

The Commission will not be compensated except for travel and per diem. An executive director will be appointed and will be on salary at the Level V Executive Schedule.

The Commission will expire on December 31, 2009.

Thomas Jefferson signed, on March 3, 1807, a law to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place under US jurisdiction but the Constitution provided that it could not be banned before 1808. On January 1, 1808 the law went into effect.

More ‘findings’ below….

Sponsor:  Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-NJ-10^th)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote September 2, 2007

Cost to the taxpayers: Authorizes such sums as may be necessary.

Earmark Certification:   Not applicable to this bill.

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MORE INFORMATION

(a) Findings- Congress finds the following:

(1) On March 3, 1807, President Thomas Jefferson signed into law a bill approved by Congress `An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States' and made it unlawful `to import or bring into the United Sates or territories thereof from any foreign kingdom, place or country, any negro, mulatto, or person of colour, with intent to hold, sell, or dispose of such ... as a slave, or to be held to service or labour'.

(2) Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution clearly spelled out that the international slave trade could not be banned before 1808, and it is only on January 1, 1808, that the American Act went into effect.

(3) An Act entitled `An Act to continue in force `An act to protect the commerce of the United States, and punish the crime of piracy,' and also to make further provisions for punishing the crime of piracy', enacted May 15, 1820, made it unlawful for any citizen of the United States to engage `in the slave trade, or ... , being of the crew or ship's company of any ship ... , seize any negro or mulatto ... with the intent to make ... a slave ... or forcibly bring ... on board any such ship ... .'.

(4) The transatlantic slave trade was the capture and procurement of Africans, mostly from West Africa, in order to bring them to the United States and the colonies that became the United States, for the purpose of enslavement between the sixteenth and late nineteenth centuries.

(5) The Middle Passage was the forced migration through overseas transport of millions of Africans to the Americas, many of whom suffered abuses of rape and perished as a result of torture, malnutrition, disease, and resistance in transit, with those who survived sold into slavery.

(6) During the transatlantic slave trade more than 12,000,000 Africans were transported in bondage from their African homelands to the Americas.

(7) The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States recognizes that `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.'.

(8) The slave trade and the legacy of slavery continue to have a profound impact on social and economic disparity, hatred, bias, racism, and discrimination, and continue to affect people of African descent today.

(9) In 2007, the British Parliament marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the former British Empire with plans launched by the Department for Education and Skills which provided joint funding of

241 910,000 ($1,800,000) for the understanding slavery initiative, and the Heritage Lottery Fund announced awards of over

241 20,000,000 ($40,000,000) for projects to commemorate the anniversary.

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