Slavery reparations issue revived in Congress

Weeks after Democrats took control of Congress and the White House, a Black lawmaker is making a renewed push for a national commission to examine the impact of slavery and reparations for descendants of millions of enslaved Africans.

Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Texas, announced the reintroduction of H.R. 40 to create the reparations commission last month, and next week the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is set to hear testimony on the bill.

H.R. 40 has a long history in the House, championed for decades by the late Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and now by Lee.

The reparations commission would study the history of slavery, the role federal and state governments played in supporting slavery and racial discrimination against the descendants of enslaved Africans.

“Economic issues are the root cause for many critical issues impacting the African American community today,” Lee said.

The commission would make recommendations regarding “any form of apology,” compensation and atonement for slavery, Lee said. “Truth and reconciliation about the ‘original sin of American slavery’ is necessary to light the way to the beloved community we all seek. The uncomfortable truth is that the United States owes its position as the most powerful nation in the world to its slave-owning past.”

Calls for reparations increased this summer after anti-racism protests swept the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck. It also became an issue during the Democratic presidential primary race, with the eventual winner, Joe Biden, supporting the creation of a commission.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who oversees the full committee, said America has been forced recently to pay greater attention to the stark racial disparities dividing the country.

“As our nation continues to reckon with systemic racism in policing and a pandemic that has disproportionately devastated communities of color, the need to substantively confront America’s legacy of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow subjugation has only grown in urgency,” Nadler said in a statement. “Discussing H.R. 40, a bill to study reparations, affords an opportunity to do just that. It is only by initiating national conversations about reconciliation, reparative justice, and reparations that we can build a fairer, more equitable future. I am proud that the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on this issue.”