text: 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.
target: Black Metropolis District National Heritage Area Study Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of designating the Black Metropolis District in Chicago, Illinois, as the Black Metropolis District National Heritage Area.
feat_title: 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.