§ 3-1481 — Slavery era database.

(a) Within one year of March 7, 2025, the Commissioner shall have established, and continue to maintain through the digital repository of the District of Columbia Office of Public Records Management, Archival Administration, and Library of Governmental Information, a publicly available online slavery era database that includes all records made available to the Department pursuant to subsections (b) and (c) of this section.

(b) The Commissioner shall request and obtain information from states or insurers licensed and doing business in the District of Columbia ("insurer") regarding any records of enslaver insurance policies issued by the insurer or any predecessor insurer during the slavery era, including insurance policies that provided coverage for injury to, or death of, enslaved people ("insurance records").

(1) The Commissioner may obtain this information from other states that have conducted similar data calls; except, that the Commissioner shall request an update from the insurers that reported insurance records to those states on any new records identified since the initial data calls of those states.

(2) The Commissioner may request this information from insurers in existence prior to 1865 or insurers with predecessor insurers in existence prior to 1865 that have not submitted records to other states that have conducted similar data calls.

(3) The Commissioner shall disclose the names of all enslaved persons and enslavers described in the insurance records in the slavery era database.

(1) The Commissioner shall request information from banks licensed or doing business in the District of Columbia regarding any records of participation in the slavery era by the bank or any predecessor institution ("financial records"), including financial records of:

(A) Lending capital for the purchase of enslaved persons;

(B) Accepting enslaved persons as collateral for loans;

(C) Taking ownership of enslaved persons in events of default on said loans;

(D) Financing or otherwise supporting the abolition of slavery or the passage of enslaved persons to free states or territory; and

(E) Other investments and profits from slavery.

(2) The Commissioner shall disclose the names of all enslaved persons and enslavers and the transactions and profits described in the financial records in the slavery era database.

(1) Upon the publication of the slavery era database, the Commissioner shall issue a report on the information provided to the Commissioner pursuant to subsections (b) and (c) of this section and submit the report to the Mayor and Council.

(2) The report required under this subsection shall include a summary of insurance records and financial records obtained and a copy of each document provided to the Commissioner.

(3) The report shall be made publicly available online and a hard copy of the report shall be maintained at the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law and the District of Columbia Archives.

(e) Upon request of the Commission on Reparations, established by Title I of the Reparations Act, the Commissioner shall make the insurance records and financial records available, to the extent they are available, to the Commission on Reparations to aid it in its study of reparations proposals prior to public release.

(f) The Mayor, pursuant to subchapter I of Chapter 5 of Title 2 , may issue rules to carry out the provisions of this section.

(g) For the purposes of this section, the term:

(1) "Bank" means any insured bank as defined in 12 U.S.C. § 1813(h), or any institution eligible to become an insured bank as defined therein, which accepts demand deposits and makes commercial loans.

(2) "Enslaved person" means an individual:

(A) Who had no freedom of action;

(B) Whose person and services were wholly under the control of another;

(C) Who was in a state of enforced compulsory service to another; and

(D) Who could not legally leave enforced compulsory service to another on the individual's own initiative during the individual's lifetime before the end of the slavery era.".

(3) "Enslaver" means:

(A) An owner of an enslaved person;

(B) An owner of a commercial enterprise that used the services of an enslaved person;

(C) An owner of a vessel or other means of transporting enslaved persons; or

(D) A person dealing in the purchase, sale, or financing of the business of enslaved persons and slavery.

(4) "Enslaver insurance policies" means a policy issued to or for the benefit of an enslaver to insure the enslaver against injury or the death of an enslaved person.

(5) "Slavery era" means the period prior to 1865.