California SCR 21: Relative to the creation of the Joint Committee on Government Oversight.

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 |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | Version: 03/25/25 - Chaptered
 03/21/25 - Enrolled
 02/11/25 - Introduced

 SCR-21 Black History Month.(2025-2026)

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SCR21:v97#DOCUMENTBill Start

 Senate Concurrent Resolution

 No. 21

 CHAPTER 28

 Relative to Black History Month. 

 [
 Filed with

 Secretary of State
 March 25, 2025.
 ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SCR 21, Smallwood-Cuevas.
 Black History Month.

This measure would recognize February 2025 as Black History Month, urge all citizens to join in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans during Black History Month, and encourage the people of California to recognize the many talents of African Americans and the achievements and contributions they make to their communities to create equity and equality for education, economics, and social justice. The measure would also recognize the significance in protecting citizens’ right to vote and remedying racial discrimination in voting.

Digest Key

 Fiscal Committee:
 NO 

Bill Text

WHEREAS, The history of the United States is rich with inspirational stories of great individuals whose actions, words, and achievements have united Americans and contributed to the success and prosperity of the United States; and 

WHEREAS, Among those Americans who have enriched our society are the members of the African American community, individuals whose accomplishments have contributed to every endeavor throughout the history of our nation and who have been steadfast in their commitment to promoting brotherhood, equality, and justice for all; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, the distinguished African American author, editor, publisher, and historian who is known as the “Father of Black History,” founded Negro History Week in 1926, which became Black History Month in 1976, with the intent to encourage further research and publications regarding the untold stories of African American heritage; and 

WHEREAS, August 2019 marked 400 years since the first arrival of Africans to present-day America, and the United States Congress established the 400 Years of African American History Commission to commemorate the historic heritage and contributions that Americans of African descent have made to help shape the cultural, academic, social, economic, and moral attributes of this nation; and

WHEREAS, In August 1619, the first documented Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. The group, recorded upon arrival as “20 and odd Negroes,” was part of a larger group of West Africans enslaved by Portuguese slave traders. They were on their way to Veracruz aboard a Portuguese ship when they were captured off the coast of Mexico by an English warship and transported to Virginia, where they were put ashore at what is now Hampton, Virginia, and sold as involuntary laborers or indentured servants; and

WHEREAS, Slavery had not yet been institutionalized, so the Africans were informed they would work under contract for a certain period of time before being granted freedom and the rights afforded other settlers. However, while European indentured servants were listed along with their year of expected freedom, no such information accompanied the names of the African indentured servants; and

WHEREAS, The historic arrival of the group of “20 and odd Negroes” marked the beginning of the trend in colonial America where people of Africa were taken unwillingly from their homeland and transplanted to a foreign land, condemned to a lifetime of slavery and racial discrimination, and endured atrocities and conditions mostly undreamt of up until that time; and 

WHEREAS, During the course of the slave trade, an
 estimated 50,000,000 African men, women, and children were lost to their native continent. Of those, the majority—about 35,000,000—lost their lives on African soil or along the Guinea coast, or finally in holds on the ships during the dreaded Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean; and

WHEREAS, In spite of the African slave trade, Africans and African Americans continued to move forward in society. During the Reconstruction period, 2 African Americans served in the United States Senate and 14 sat in the House of Representatives; and 

WHEREAS, From the earliest days of the United States, the course of its history has been greatly influenced by African American heroes and pioneers in many diverse areas, includ