Full Text of HR0453 103rd General Assembly
HR0453ham001 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY | | | HR0453HAM001 | | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | AMENDMENT TO HOUSE RESOLUTION 453
| 2 | | AMENDMENT NO. ___. Amend House Resolution 453 by deleting | 3 | | everything after the heading and inserting the following: | 4 | | "WHEREAS, Slavery provided much of the revenue for the | 5 | | young State of Illinois and severed ties between enslaved | 6 | | people and their ancestors, resulting in the erasure of family | 7 | | histories for both enslaved people and their descendants; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, The U.S. has a social responsibility and duty | 9 | | towards African American descendants of enslaved individuals | 10 | | to provide the public service of assisting Black citizens in | 11 | | reconnecting with their ancestral history; the State of | 12 | | Illinois has an equal responsibility to Black Illinoisans; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, Although Illinois is a northern state, slavery | 14 | | was prevalent within its boundaries before the Northwest | 15 | | Ordinance of 1787, and enslaved individuals still worked the |
| | | HR0453HAM001 | - 2 - | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | salt springs of the Illinois Salines until 1825; slavery in | 2 | | the Illinois Salines was permitted because it provided as much | 3 | | as a third of the yearly revenue for the young State; | 4 | | indentured servitude at the salt springs continued until 1870; | 5 | | this history of slavery in Illinois deepens the responsibility | 6 | | of the State to assist African American citizens in recovering | 7 | | their lost history; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, Since the first direct-to-consumer genetic | 9 | | ancestry test was pioneered in 2000, technological | 10 | | capabilities have vastly improved, enabling refined genetic | 11 | | genealogy that can trace ancestral connections over the past | 12 | | 500 years; given this advancement in technology, the U.S., | 13 | | honoring its moral obligation to descendants of enslaved | 14 | | Africans, is now exceptionally positioned to facilitate this | 15 | | reconnection through a genealogy-based pilot program; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, In addition to restoring a sense of personal | 17 | | belonging and ethnic identity, both being critical for | 18 | | psychological well-being, genetic genealogical evidence | 19 | | provides descendants of enslaved African Americans with robust | 20 | | genetic evidentiary support of their African family origins; | 21 | | several African countries, including Ghana, Sierra Leone, | 22 | | Gabon, and Eritrea have begun offering citizenship to | 23 | | individuals who can trace their ancestry back to their | 24 | | respective country, including ancestry traced through genetic |
| | | HR0453HAM001 | - 3 - | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | genealogy; improvements in genetic genealogical technology | 2 | | provide new found support for the desire expressed by | 3 | | president Abraham Lincoln in the Emancipation Proclamation to | 4 | | establish a voluntary repatriation program for African | 5 | | descendants to return to their African ancestral homelands; | 6 | | and | 7 | | WHEREAS, Nearly all Black Americans can successfully trace | 8 | | their genetic ancestry to one or more African countries; | 9 | | today, there are currently 42 million African American | 10 | | descendants of those enslaved in the U.S.; the genetic | 11 | | analyses completed in the Genetic Consequences of the | 12 | | Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas study by Steven | 13 | | Micheletti and colleagues found that African Americans tend to | 14 | | have ancestry from four main regions in Atlantic Africa, | 15 | | including Nigeria, Senegambia (Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, | 16 | | and Senegal), Coastal West Africa (Sierra Leone, Ghana, Côte | 17 | | d'Ivoire, and Liberia), and the Congo region, which includes | 18 | | Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; approximately | 19 | | 71% of African American 23andMe research participants had | 20 | | detectable segments of DNA that are identical with current | 21 | | ethnolinguistic groups from all four Atlantic African regions | 22 | | stemming from a common ancestor; as documented by Jazlyn | 23 | | Mooney and her colleagues in their study On the Number of | 24 | | Genealogical Ancestors Tracing to the Source Groups of an | 25 | | Admixed Population, there is a high probability, over 97.5%, |
| | | HR0453HAM001 | - 4 - | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | that an average African American can trace their ancestry back | 2 | | to at least one African ancestor from each of eight to 12 | 3 | | generations ago culminating in an approximate total of 269 | 4 | | African ancestors within this timeframe; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, Approximately 15% of Black adults in the U.S. | 6 | | have taken consumer genetic genealogy tests; African Americans | 7 | | should not be economically burdened to obtain information | 8 | | regarding their ancestral history, which was forcibly taken | 9 | | from them through practices of slavery that economically | 10 | | benefited the growing United States; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, Reparations have been granted towards other | 12 | | groups residing in the U.S., yet African Americans have never | 13 | | been compensated to redress the racial harms enacted upon | 14 | | their person during times of slavery; while white slave owners | 15 | | were compensated for the emancipation of their slaves, | 16 | | enslaved individuals only had access to social support via the | 17 | | Freedmen's Bureau Act of 1865 and 1866, which provided basic | 18 | | needs including food, clothing, and shelter, due to the | 19 | | displacement of southerners after the Civil War; while the | 20 | | Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 and the Civil Liberties Act of | 21 | | 1988 paid reparations to Japanese Americans, up to $20,000 per | 22 | | survivor, and the Indian Claims Commission allocates | 23 | | approximately $1,000 per person, enslaved persons of African | 24 | | descent and their descendants have never received monetary |
| | | HR0453HAM001 | - 5 - | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | compensation for the atrocities committed against them prior | 2 | | to the abolition of slavery; this is despite there having been | 3 | | over 10 million African Americans human trafficked from their | 4 | | families and homeland only to be forced to build the | 5 | | infrastructure of America and generate wealth for early white | 6 | | Americans; in 1989, H.R. 40 was introduced to establish a | 7 | | commission to investigate the impacts of enslavement and to | 8 | | evaluate proposals for reparation; though this resolution has | 9 | | been introduced for decades, it has not been passed; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, It is technologically straightforward and a moral | 11 | | imperative to rectify the erasure of family histories | 12 | | resulting from slavery; it is now possible to establish a | 13 | | family roots genealogy pilot program that can equip | 14 | | descendants of enslaved African Americans with robust genetic | 15 | | evidentiary support of their African family origins; Dr. | 16 | | LaKisha David, an assistant professor at the University of | 17 | | Illinois (U of I) Urbana-Champaign in the Department of | 18 | | Anthropology, is a distinguished expert on reuniting African | 19 | | Americans with long lost kin in Africa through autosomal DNA | 20 | | genetic testing; she is a former postdoctoral fellow of | 21 | | Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Genetics and | 22 | | Genomics at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School | 23 | | of Medicine; she will be the principal investigator in | 24 | | establishing this genealogy-based family roots program; U of | 25 | | I's Department of Anthropology has expressed their commitment |
| | | HR0453HAM001 | - 6 - | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | to these efforts and interest in ways they can continue to | 2 | | serve both reparative and decolonizing efforts of the State | 3 | | more generally; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, The procedure will begin with the collection of | 5 | | saliva samples that will be processed at The Illinois Roy J. | 6 | | Carver Biotechnology Center, situated in Urbana, pending | 7 | | appropriation funding; once the processing is completed, the | 8 | | saliva samples will be securely destroyed; the resulting data | 9 | | will then be transferred to a secure storage and computing | 10 | | environment that adheres to the Health Insurance Portability | 11 | | and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) regulations; the sample | 12 | | will be accompanied by a unique identifying code rather than | 13 | | participants' personal information; nongenetic data for this | 14 | | project will be stored in facilities that meet requirements | 15 | | established by HIPAA; participants logging in will receive | 16 | | results that are hosted on a HIPAA-compliant platform; for the | 17 | | protection of all participants, DNA samples collected may not | 18 | | be subjected for subpoenas or accessed for any other purposes; | 19 | | and | 20 | | WHEREAS, Researchers cannot release or use information, | 21 | | documents, or samples that may identify participants in any | 22 | | action or suit unless the participant consents; researchers | 23 | | also cannot provide data as evidence unless participants have | 24 | | agreed; this protection includes federal, state, local, civil, |
| | | HR0453HAM001 | - 7 - | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | criminal, administrative, legislative, or other proceedings; | 2 | | this does not stop participants from willingly releasing | 3 | | information about their involvement in this research and does | 4 | | not prevent participants from having access to their own | 5 | | information; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, The U of I at Urbana-Champaign, established as a | 7 | | land-grant institution through the Morrill Act of 1862, was | 8 | | entrusted with a mission to democratize higher education and | 9 | | serve the public interest across Illinois and beyond; despite | 10 | | this intent, U of I's historical record is marked by periods of | 11 | | exclusion and insufficient representation of African Americans | 12 | | that cast a shadow over its commitment to true inclusivity; | 13 | | these specialized centers, backed by the State of Illinois, | 14 | | hold the potential to make amends and realign with the | 15 | | original vision of the land-grant mission; the centers carry a | 16 | | paramount duty to redress past neglect, actively engage with | 17 | | the African American community, and to emphasize the profound | 18 | | need to reconnect individuals to their ancestral roots; | 19 | | through this initiative, the centers have an opportunity, and | 20 | | indeed an obligation, to play a transformative role in | 21 | | facilitating understanding, reconnection, and healing, and, in | 22 | | doing so, work towards rectifying the U of I's historical | 23 | | shortcomings in relation to a community with a deeply | 24 | | impactful, yet often sidelined, history; therefore, be it |
| | | HR0453HAM001 | - 8 - | LRB103 34799 MST 67163 a |
|
| 1 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 2 | | HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 3 | | we urge support for the Family Roots Genealogy Pilot Program | 4 | | as it provides African American descendants of enslaved | 5 | | individuals the opportunity to trace their roots back to their | 6 | | ancestral homelands, to reconnect with their ancestral | 7 | | heritage, and to promote their well-being; and be it further | 8 | | RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be presented to | 9 | | the Family Roots Genealogy Pilot Program as a symbol of our | 10 | | esteem and respect." |
|