A bill for an act
relating to state government; establishing the Minnesota Migration Act;
appropriating money to study reparations for American descendants of chattel
slavery; providing appointments; requiring reports.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
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The legislature finds that:
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(1) beginning in 1619 and continuing through 1863, slavery enriched American industries
and commercial and financial institutions and transformed the newly established United
States into an international economic power through the oppressive, dehumanizing, and
tortuous system of enslaved Black labor;
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(2) slave owners invested heavily in the territory that is now known as the state of
Minnesota and after slavery ended in the United States, the slave owners were compensated
for the loss of their slaves. Those persons who were held in bondage were never compensated
for their labor, despite the promise of "40 acres and a mule";
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(3) although slavery was illegal in Minnesota, Dred Scott and Harriet Scott were held
in military bondage at Fort Snelling, along with other African Americans who were used
for enslaved labor by United States Army agents. This was in violation of the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820;
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(4) in the aftermath of slavery, African American citizens of this country continued to
face brutal discrimination as evidenced by Jim Crow laws, such as forced segregation, mass
atrocities in Tulsa and Rosewood, the lynching period in history, and, to this day, mass
incarceration;
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(5) in Minnesota, systemic discrimination was perpetrated through redlining and racial
covenants; diminished access to housing; environmental injustice; and removal of St. Paul's
Rondo neighborhood, which was the center of American descendants of chattel slavery
business, residential, spiritual, and cultural life, for the construction of I-94 and other
interstate systems that harmed Black communities in Minnesota;
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(6) structural institutionalized racism in Minnesota and all of American society has led
to overwhelming Black-white disparities in housing, business investment, economic
prosperity, health and wellness, life expectancy, and infant mortality;
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(7) according to the November 2020 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine,
reparations are considered the most effective means of breaking down the societal structure
related to power, money, and access to resources and may be the only solution that can be
applied intergenerationally that would be an investment in the future and in reducing
disparities;
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(8) local and state governments throughout the United States have demonstrated a
commitment to addressing disparities by creating programs to generate public and private
sources of funding, including dedicating tax revenues from enterprises that have historically
profited from targeting African American consumers and other forms of discrimination that
have fueled Black-white disparities; and
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(9) the tragic murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has stirred a local,
national, and international reckoning of the immorality of the racial hierarchy that exists
under our democratic institutions and defies the founding values of this nation "that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
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The state must issue an apology for the past
occurrence of chattel slavery and notable slave owners in Minnesota. Minnesota
acknowledges and issues an official apology:
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(1) for holding Dred and Harriet Scott in military slavery at Fort Snelling;
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(2) to the families of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie for the lynching
that took place in 1920 in Duluth. The state must issue an antilynching proclamation and
enact antilynching legislation;
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(3) to the Rondo neighborhood and other Black communities for constructing the I-94
freeway and other highways in Black communities in Minnesota;
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(4) to the families of George Floyd, Philando Castile, Hardel Sherrell, and Jamar Clark.
The state must implement remedies to reform law enforcement in the state;
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(5) for allowing racial housing covenants in deeds in the state. The state must commit
to working to create generational wealth for the American descendants of chattel slavery;
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(6) for having the word "slavery" removed from the Minnesota state constitution; and
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(7) for the systemic racism in the state and the impact slavery has had on descendants
of chattel slavery in this state. The state must commit to ending systemic racism in the state
that prevents upward mobility of Minnesota's Black residents.
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The Minnesota Migration Act Advisory
Council is established to analyze the past economic benefits of slavery and institutional
racism that accrued to owners and businesses that received those benefits and to identify
and document the money received from the dehumanizing activity of slavery by identifying
the public and private institutions that benefited from anti-Black practices. The focus of the
advisory council is to develop criteria to determine how to compensate persons and address
systems harmed by these anti-Black practices. Nothing in this section is a substitution for
the need for reparations to the descendants of slaves from the federal government. The
advisory council must, among other issues, address the following:
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(1) review international standards of remedy for wrongs and injuries caused by the state,
including full reparations and special measures, as understood by various relevant
international protocols, laws, and findings;
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(2) provide input to the state on how to issue a formal apology on behalf of the people
of Minnesota for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against
humanity on enslaved African and American descendants of chattel slavery;
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(3) review which laws and policies that continue to disproportionately and negatively
affect African Americans as a group and perpetuate the lingering material and psychosocial
effects of slavery can be eliminated;
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(4) review and study how the injuries resulting from matters described in this subdivision
can be reversed and how to provide appropriate policies, programs, projects, and
recommendations for the purpose of reversing the injuries;
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(5) determine what form of compensation to African Americans who are descendants
of persons enslaved in the United States can be achieved;
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(6) determine what form of compensation should be awarded, through what
instrumentalities, and who should be eligible for the compensation; and
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(7) determine if any other forms of rehabilitation or restitution are appropriate to remedy
issues identified by the advisory council.
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