H.Con.Res. 59

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 59 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 59

Recognizing the difficult challenges Black veterans faced when 
returning home after serving in the Armed Forces, their heroic military 
sacrifices, and their patriotism in fighting for equal rights and for 
the dignity of a people and a Nation.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

November 7, 2025

Mrs. Beatty (for herself, Mr. McGarvey, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Fields, Ms. 
Kamlager-Dove, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Bell, Mrs. McIver, 
and Mr. Jackson of Illinois) submitted the following concurrent 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Recognizing the difficult challenges Black veterans faced when 
returning home after serving in the Armed Forces, their heroic military 
sacrifices, and their patriotism in fighting for equal rights and for 
the dignity of a people and a Nation.

Whereas there has been no war fought by or within the United States in which 
Blacks did not participate, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil 
War, the War of 1812, the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, the 
Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom, 
and Operation Iraqi Freedom;
Whereas Frederick Douglass voiced his opinion on the civic value of military 
service in one of his autobiographies, ``Life and Times of Frederick 
Douglass,'' writing, ``I . . . urged every man who could, to enlist; to 
get an eagle on his button, a musket on his shoulder, the star-spangled 
banner over his head,'' and later remarking that ``there is no power on 
Earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the 
United States'';
Whereas, during the Civil War, Black soldiers, commonly referred to as the 
United States Colored Troops, fought with honor and distinction despite 
being treated as second-class citizens;
Whereas the health care and hospitals available to Black soldiers during the 
Civil War were substandard, and Black soldiers often died from the 
withholding of services that were supposed to be administered by medical 
personnel;
Whereas Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter, members of the ``first 
generation of freedom's children,'' founded the Niagara Movement in 1905 
and fought for desegregation in the Armed Forces in World War I;
Whereas, in his book, ``Black Reconstruction in America,'' published in 1935, 
DuBois recognized the importance of equity in military service writing 
that ``Nothing else made Negro citizenship conceivable, but the record 
of the Negro soldier as a fighter.'';
Whereas the 369th Infantry, known as the Harlem Hell-fighters, continued the 
history of distinguished military service despite treatment as second-
class citizens, fighting the Germans during World War I as part of the 
French Army and serving the longest stretch in combat, 191 days without 
replacement and without losing a foot of ground or a man as prisoner;
Whereas, at the end of the service of the 369th Infantry, the entire regiment 
received the Croix de Guerre, which was France's highest military honor, 
from a grateful French nation;
Whereas, in 1917, Charles Hamilton Houston encountered racism after entering 
World War I as a commissioned first lieutenant in the segregated 17th 
Provisional Training Regiment, later writing that ``I made up my mind 
that if I got through this war I would study law and use my time 
fighting for men who could not strike back.'';
Whereas Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar, wrote in 1925 about a ``New 
Negro'' who had returned from battle with a bold new spirit that helped 
spark a new mood in the Black community;
Whereas, at the start of the United States involvement in World War II, Dorie 
Miller, a messman attendant in the Navy, was catapulted to national hero 
status and an icon to generations, after displaying heroism on board the 
USS West Virginia during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 
7, 1941;
Whereas the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a group of Black pilots, flew with 
distinction during World War II under the command of Captain Benjamin O. 
Davis, Jr., the highly decorated officer who served for more than 35 
years and became the first Black general in the Air Force;
Whereas, during World War II, the 6888 (known as the ``Six Triple Eights''), the 
first postal battalion comprised exclusively of Black women, who served 
in England and then France, was given the daunting task of clearing out 
a 2-year backlog of more than 90,000 pieces of mail, completed the 
mission in 3 months, and went on to make a positive impact on racial 
integration in the Armed Forces;
Whereas, before becoming a famous baseball player, Jackie Robinson was court-
martialed in the Army in 1944 for refusing to sit in the back of the 
bus, and when he was later acquitted, he wrote that ``[i]t was a small 
victory, for I had learned that I was in two wars, one against the 
foreign enemy, the other against prejudice at home'';
Whereas, during World War II, the Army's 92nd Infantry Division, better known as 
the ``Buffalo Soldiers,'' which traces its direct lineage back to the 
9th and 10th Cavalry units from 1866 to the early 1890s, was the only 
Black segregated unit to experience combat during the Italian campaigns 
of 1944 and 1945, with several members of the unit later earning Medals 
of Honor for bravery;
Whereas Reverend Benjamin Hooks, who served in the 92nd Infantry Division, found 
himself in the humiliating position of guarding Italian prisoners of war 
who were allowed to eat in restaurants that were off-limits to him;
Whereas, even after President Truman issued Executive Order 9981, desegregating 
the military on July 26, 1948, discrimination continued;
Whereas Oliver L. Brown, a World War II Army veteran from Kansas, and Harry 
Briggs, a World War II sailor from South Carolina, were the fathers of 2 
of the 5 named plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 
U.S. 483 (1952) and Briggs v. Elliott, 342 U.S. 350 (1952), the historic 
school-desegregation cases of 1952;
Whereas the Black heroes and heroines of World War II and the Korean War, and 
their offspring such as Private Sarah Keys and Women's Army Corps 
officer Dovey Roundtree, won significant victories against 
discrimination in interstate transportation in landmark civil rights 
cases, including Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, 64 MCC 769 (1955), 
which was decided 6 days before Rosa Parks' historic protest of 
Alabama's Jim Crow laws in Montgomery;
Whereas, after serving overseas in the Army, Charles and Medgar Evers returned 
home to Mississippi, where in 1946, they tried to register to vote but 
were turned away at the polling stations;
Whereas, in 1952, Charles and Medgar Evers began to organize voter registration 
drives for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People (NAACP);
Whereas, in his address at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr., commented on the irony of Blacks fighting in Vietnam to 
guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia while not enjoying the same rights 
at home;
Whereas Black veterans who were in the forefront of the leadership of the civil 
rights movement, with their strong resolve to address the paradox of 
military service abroad and the denial of basic rights at home, brought 
deeper meaning to the word ``democracy,'' and through their example, 
transformed the face of the United States;
Whereas Black veterans of the Nation's wars sowed the seeds for today's 
bountiful harvest that includes the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the 
modern-day civil rights movement, all of which share a common ancestry 
in the Civil War, without which there would be no civil rights movement 
and no equal rights for all Americans; and
Whereas Black veterans suffer at a disproportionate rate from chronic illnesses 
and homelessness and are plagued by health disparities: Now, therefore, 
be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress recognizes--
(1) the difficult challenges Black veterans faced when 
returning home after serving in the Armed Forces, their heroic 
military sacrifices, and their patriotism in fighting for equal 
rights and for the dignity of a people and a Nation; and
(2) the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs to 
continue to work to eliminate any health and benefit 
disparities for minority veterans in the United States.
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