Requesting study of sexual assault crime rates in WV

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Vince Deeds

Recognizes February 2025 as Black History Month and urges the public to celebrate and study African American contributions, promoting equity and voting-rights protections.

To Judiciary

Summary — SCR 21 (concurrent resolution)

Note: the documents provided contain conflicting material under the same bill number (SCR 21). The title you supplied (establishing a Louisiana–Ireland Trade Commission) is not supported by the text in the supplied documents. The dominant text in the materials is a ceremonial concurrent resolution recognizing Black History Month (February 2025). Another separate SCR 21 text appearing in the record requests counseling services for correctional staff (Hawaii). This summary focuses on the Black History Month resolution in the supplied materials; please tell me if you want a summary of the other SCR 21 text or the Louisiana–Ireland trade proposal.

Purpose and intent

To recognize February 2025 as Black History Month.

To urge citizens to celebrate and study the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans.

To encourage recognition of efforts to advance equity in education, economics, and social justice and to underscore the importance of protecting voting rights and remedying racial discrimination in voting.

Key provisions and language

Formal findings recounting historical context and accomplishments, including:

Origins of Negro History Week (Dr. Carter G. Woodson) and conversion to Black History Month (1976).
Reference to the 1619 arrival of the first documented Africans in colonial Virginia and the trans-Atlantic slave trade’s human toll.
Citations of Reconstruction-era Black elected officials, inventors and inventions attributed to African Americans, civil rights milestones (Civil Rights Act of 1964; Voting Rights Act of 1965), and modern developments (e.g., election of Barack Obama, founding of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture).
Mentions of contemporary movements and events (e.g., Black Lives Matter, notable athletes and public figures).

Non-binding calls to action: urges citizens and institutions to recognize and celebrate African American history during February 2025 and to promote equity and voting rights protections.

Who is affected

As a concurrent resolution, it is primarily ceremonial and advisory:

Citizens, schools, community organizations, cultural institutions, and state agencies are encouraged (but not required) to observe and promote Black History Month activities.
No direct programmatic, regulatory, or fiscal mandates on state agencies or private parties.

Procedural and fiscal aspects

Classification: Senate Concurrent Resolution (ceremonial/expressive legislative measure).

Fiscal Committee: None (no fiscal effect indicated).

Introduced: February 26, 2025 (per materials).

Status in supplied text: adopted/enrolled (documents indicate final passage steps). Because the materials include mixed legislative-action timelines from different jurisdictions, confirm the specific state and final disposition if you need an authoritative record (filed/chaptered or transmitted to governor).

Impact

Symbolic recognition intended to raise public awareness, encourage educational activities, and affirm commitment to civil rights and voting protections.

No enforceable legal or budgetary changes; impact is cultural, educational, and declarative.

If you want:
- A summary of the Hawaii SCR 21 text (requesting clinical counseling services for corrections staff), or
- A search/summary for the SCR 21 that would establish a Louisiana–Ireland Trade Commission (if that is the intended bill),
tell me which one and I will produce it.