[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5505 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5505
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to
determine the feasibility of designating the study area as the Black
Metropolis District National Heritage Area in the State of Illinois,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 27, 2008
Mr. Rush introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to
determine the feasibility of designating the study area as the Black
Metropolis District National Heritage Area in the State of Illinois,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Black Metropolis District National
Heritage Area Study Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Black Metropolis district on Chicago, Illinois'
South Side has a cohesive and distinctive history as well as an
important streetscape that distinguishes the area as worthy of
designation as a National Heritage Area.
(2) The historic features of Chicago's Black Metropolis
District predate the Great Migration of 1916-1919 and
illustrate its influence on African-American life in Chicago
and the Nation as a result of this demographic phenomenon in
which 500,000 African-Americans migrated to the North in search
of work and other opportunities, with 50,000 of that aggregate
relocating in Chicago.
(3) The Black Metropolis, as a setting, witnessed some of
the finest accomplishments in African-American contributions to
Chicago, the State of Illinois, and the Nation, while its
legally and socially proscribed citizens challenged their
environment and their Nation to fulfill its promise as a place
of opportunity for all.
(4) These contributions and accomplishments fall into the
following main categories:
(A) Business and entrepreneurial pursuits.--With
State Street developing as the Black Metropolis
District's ``Wall Street'', the area produced two of
the largest Black banking operations in the Nation in
the Binga State and Douglass National Banks and scores
of smaller businesses ranging from print shops to
restaurants to clothing stores to hair salons and
barbershops.
(B) Culture and aesthetics.--The area emerged as a
musical mecca ranging from jazz to gospel to delta and
urban blues to rhythm and blues and was home for
institutions such as the George Cleveland Hall Branch
Library, which nurtured literary giants such as
Langston Hughes, the South Side Community Arts Center,
and the DuSable Museum of African American History and
Culture.
(C) Education.--The area includes the first public
secondary school in the State of Illinois built
specifically to accommodate the educational needs of
African-American students, which opened in 1934 at 4934
South Wabash Avenue and was named in honor of Chicago's
first non-native inhabitant and trader, Jean Baptiste
Pointe du Sable, a Black man from Haiti, and whose
illustrious graduates include Nat ``King'' Cole and
Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.
(D) Governance and politics.--From its political
bases in the area's Second Ward and the First
Congressional District, Chicago's Black Metropolis
proved itself a political center for all African-
Americans, producing the first African-American to sit
in Congress in the 20th Century, the Honorable Oscar
DePriest, as well as the first African-American
Democratic congressman, the Honorable Arthur W.
Mitchell, succeeded by Honorable William L. Dawson, the
Honorable Ralph H. Metcalfe, the Honorable Bennett M.
Stewart, and the Honorable Harold Washington, later the
city's first elected African-American mayor, and the
Honorable Charles A. Hayes.
(E) Health care.--The area includes Provident
Hospital, founded in 1891 by the brilliant African-
American surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and site of
the first successful suturing of the human heart by Dr.
Williams in 1893.
(F) Labor.--The area was home to millions of
unskilled and semi-skilled African-American workers,
including the packinghouse workers who arrived during
the Great Migration and constituted 25 percent of the
stockyards work force during World War I, and the
Pullman porters who represented a full 20 percent of
the Nation's African-American workforce during the
early 1900s.
(G) Military life and patriotism.--African-American
men enlisted in the Union Army on the grounds of Camp
Douglass within the Black Metropolis District as part
of the 29th Infantry Regiment of the United States
Colored Troops, and a generation later trained at the
Eighth Regiment Armory nearby before embarking for
France as part of what President Wilson referred to as
the great crusade to ``make the world safe for
democracy'' during the World War I.
(H) Recreation and competitive sports.--Early on,
the Nation's most popular sports: baseball, boxing,
football, track and basketball, enjoyed support from
the Black Metropolis' population and drew participants
who earned widespread recognition such as Rube Foster,
a native Chicagoan, who founded the Negro Baseball
League and its local team, the American Giants.
(I) Religion and church activism.--The area
includes Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal
(A.M.E) Church, an antebellum center of abolitionist
activity, and a major station on the Underground
Railroad, and with emancipation, there was another
religious movement to provide and protect the civil
rights of all citizens led by Black Metropolis churches
such as Quinn Chapel and Bethel A.M.E.
(J) Social justice and civil rights.--It was from
within the Black Metropolis District in the early 20th
century that Ida B. Wells-Barnett waged her crusade for
justice for African-Americans and women and worked to
establish the first National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People branch in that group's
national network in 1912.
(K) Streetscapes.--The area includes many historic
locations, including those along State Street and 35th
Street, ranging from the Overton Hygienic Manufacturing
Building at 3617 South State Street and the Chicago Bee
Building at 3647 South State Street (both designated as
Chicago City Landmarks) to Liberty Life Insurance
Company at 3501 South Parkway and a monument and park
dedicated to United States Senator Stephen Douglas
(designated as a State Landmark) at Lake Park Avenue
and 35th Street, green and public spaces, stretching
from Chicago's lakefront to historic park and boulevard
systems to the West, and is now the proposed site for
the 2016 Olympics in the City of Chicago's bid to host
this event.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Heritage area.--The term ``Heritage Area'' means the
Black Metropolis District National Heritage Area.
(2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of the Interior.
(3) Study area.--The term ``study area'' means the region
bounded as follows:
(A) 18th Street on the North and 22nd Street on the
South, from Lake Michigan on the East to Wentworth
Avenue to the West.
(B) 22nd Street on the North to 35th Street on the
South, from Lake Michigan on the East to the Dan Ryan
Expressway on the West.
(C) 35th Street on the North and 47th Street on the
South, from Lake Michigan on the East to the B&O
Railroad (Stewart Avenue) on the West.
(D) 47th Street on the North to 55th Street on the
South, from Cottage Grove Avenue on the East to the Dan
Ryan Expressway on the West).
(E) 55th Street on the North to 71st Street on the
South, from State Street on the West to Cottage Grove
Avenue/South Chicago Avenue on the East.
SEC. 4. BLACK METROPOLIS DISTRICT NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA STUDY.
(a) In General.--The Secretary, in consultation with the managers
of any Federal land within the Heritage Area, appropriate State and
local governmental agencies, and any interested organizations, shall
conduct a study to determine the feasibility of designating the study
area as the Black Metropolis District National Heritage Area.
(b) Requirements.--The study shall include analysis, documentation,
and determinations on whether--
(1) the study area--
(A) has an assemblage of natural, historic,
cultural, educational, scenic, or recreational
resources that together are nationally important to the
heritage of the United States;
(B) represents distinctive aspects of the heritage
of the United States worthy of recognition,
conservation, interpretation, and continuing use;
(C) is best managed through agreements between
public and private entities at the local or regional
level;
(D) reflects traditions, customs, beliefs, and
folklife that are a valuable part of the heritage of
the United States;
(E) provides outstanding opportunities to conserve
natural, historical, cultural, or scenic features;
(F) provides outstanding recreational and
educational opportunities; and
(G) has resources and traditional uses that have
national importance;
(2) residents, business interests, nonprofit organizations,
the Federal Government (including relevant Federal land
management agencies), and State, local, and tribal governments
within the study area--
(A) are involved in the planning; and
(B) have demonstrated significant support through
letters and other means for designation and management
of the Heritage Area; and
(3) the study area has been identified and supported by the
public, private business, and local and State agencies.
SEC. 5. REPORT.
Not later than 3 fiscal years after the date on which funds are
made available to carry out the this Act, the Secretary shall submit to
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a report
that describes the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the
Secretary with respect to the study.
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