Resolution calling upon Congress to add an amendment to the Constitution of the United States directly negating the language of Article 1, Section two, Paragraph 3, known as the "three-fifths clause".

Res. No. 1001-A

Resolution calling upon Congress to add an amendment to the Constitution of the United States directly negating the language of Article 1, Section two, Paragraph 3, known as the “three-fifths clause”.

By Council Members King, Chin, Barron, Cornegy, Gibson, Mendez, Torres, Rose, Cabrera, Mealy, Dickens, Dromm, Cohen, Levin and Ulrich

Whereas, Article one, Section two, Paragraph three of the Constitution of the United States, contains what is known as the “three-fifths clause”; and

Whereas, The three-fifths clause allows a state to consider as part of its population, for the purposes of determining representation in Congress, three-fifths of the slave population within that state; and

Whereas, The three-fifths clause was established in 1787 as a compromise between states with and those without a slave population; and

Whereas, Although the three-fifths clause takes into consideration the number of slaves in any given state, enslaved persons were barred from voting at the time the clause was added; and

Whereas, The systematic disenfranchisement of enslaved African Americans during the 18^th, 19^th, and early 20^th centuries created a system of sociopolitical inequality, the effects of which are still felt today; and

Whereas, The 13^th and 14^th Amendments to the United States Constitution technically superseded the three-fifths clause, but did not denounce or repeal it; and

Whereas, Despite the passage of these Amendments, the “three-fifths” language remains part of the Constitution; and

Whereas, The continued existence of the three-fifths clause in the Constitution is a vestige of a time when African Americans were enslaved in the United Sates and denied basic human and civil rights; and

Whereas, While our nation had made progress to ensure civil rights of all Americans, race-based discrimination still persists today; and

Whereas, The nation’s premier body of law should explicitly negate any language that condones slavery, discrimination, and the denial of civil rights; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon Congress to add an amendment to the Constitution of the United States directly negating the language of Article 1, Section two, Paragraph 3, known as the “three-fifths clause”.

LS #5660

04/26/2016

MA/AB