Sec. 2. Findings and purpose
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The Congress finds that— approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865; the institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 1865; the slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans’ life, liberty, African citizenship rights, and cultural heritage, and denied them the fruits of their own labor; and sufficient inquiry has not been made into the effects of the institution of slavery on living African-Americans and society in the United States.
The purpose of this Act is to establish a commission to— examine the institution of slavery which existed from 1619 through 1865 within the United States and the colonies that became the United States, including the extent to which the Federal and State Governments constitutionally and statutorily supported the institution of slavery; examine de jure and de facto discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present, including economic, political, and social discrimination; examine the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the discrimination described in paragraph
(2)on living African-Americans and on society in the United States; recommend appropriate ways to educate the American public of the Commission’s findings; recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commission’s findings on the matters described in paragraphs
(1)and (2); and submit to the Congress the results of such examination, together with such recommendations.