The General Assembly finds that:
     (a) Illinois became the 21st state on December 3, 1818, 42 years after the formation of the United States of America and after thousands of years of Indigenous communities and peoples inhabiting the land.
     (b) Illinois figured prominently in the expansion of the United States of America as the scene of extensive French and British exploration and early economic generation with the fur trade, serving as a frontier boundary for Westward expansion, and as a place of forced removal of Indigenous nations.
     (c) The historic and contemporary systems of inequality produced through the enslavement of African American people in Illinois must be acknowledged. Though the 1848 State Constitution declared slavery to be illegal, the practice of enslaving African Americans continued in Illinois, as did participation in kidnapping and enslaving African Americans to benefit Illinois’ economy. Even following the abolition of slavery, the 1908 Race Riot in Springfield led to the slaughter of free African Americans and destroyed their communities within the Illinois State capital city.
     (d) Illinois was a key state in the American Civil War, deploying over 250,000 soldiers to fight in the war. Illinois served as the home of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America. Illinois was the first State to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.
     (e) Millions of people have emigrated from and immigrated to Illinois, or sought refuge in our State, bringing with them their culture, lifeways, knowledge, and labor, which has shaped Illinois into one of the nation’s most diverse states. With its largest city in Illinois, and the 3rd largest in the nation, founded by a Black man, John Baptiste Point du Sable, more than 110,000 African Americans came to Illinois as a part of the Great Migration from the South through the advocacy of Robert Abbott’s Chicago Defender distributed by the Pullman Porters. Illinois has proudly been made home by immigrants and their descendants from Ireland, Italy, China, Poland, Eastern Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, Central and South America, Russia, Somalia, Eritrea, and across the continents of Africa and Asia, the Caribbean, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and many other parts of the world.
     (f) Illinois is responsible for numerous social and economic improvements that shaped the infrastructure and social fabric of our nation, including, but not limited to, the creation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal opening navigation and trade between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes; Jane Addams’ innovative social work at the Hull House; Ida B. Wells’ courageous journalism and commitment to abolition; inventions like the John Deere steel plow and modern barbed wire by Joseph Glidden that reshaped agriculture; the opening of Route 66, the Mother Road, originating in Chicago; the first McDonald’s, a restaurant that would change how Americans eat; and the first cellular telephone, which changed communication forever.
     (g) In 2008, the nation elected its first African American president, President Barack Obama, who built his career as a community organizer, law professor, and elected official in Illinois.
     (h) The 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding presents an opportunity for Illinoisans and Americans to consider this legacy and reflect on a diversity of perspectives and experiences that are often left untold.
     (i) The nation’s Semiquincentennial offers a commemoration that focuses on all people who call Illinois home, in every part of the State and of all ages and backgrounds, and centers our shared humanity in this process, as well as our common purpose. It offers every person in Illinois the opportunity to see themselves within this complex history and create a more just future.