Reparations efforts stalling despite U.S. racial reckoning
Black lawmakers and other supporters say federal action also is needed because so few of the state and local discussions about reparations are happening in the South, where the majority of descendants of slavery live.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — During last summer’s reckoning over racial injustice, decades-long debates about whether to offer reparations to the descendants of slaves in the U.S. finally seemed to be gaining momentum.
State lawmakers in California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Oregon — where Democrats control the legislatures — introduced or hoped to revive proposals to study the possibility. It turns out the wait for reparations will continue.
The state efforts have mostly stalled, raising questions about whether they can win enough support to succeed on a wide scale. California is the only state to approve a commission to study reparations statewide and how they might work.
“We need a federal reparations bill, but I don’t know when we’ll get there,” said Maryland state Del. Wanika Fisher, a Democrat who introduced legislation there to create a reparations task force. “Hopefully we will … but I think states should be accountable.”
Her bill received a committee hearing but never made it any further during this year’s legislative session, which ended earlier this month. It’s similar in the other states. Bills that would study the possibility of statewide reparations in New Jersey, New York and Oregon have been parked in legislative committees.
That mirrors the outlook in Congress. A committee in the House, which is controlled by Democrats, advanced a decades-old bill that would establish a reparations commission, but its prospects appear dim in the evenly divided Senate, where it’s unlikely to generate enough support to overcome a filibuster.
California state Sen. Steven Bradford, who will serve on the state’s reparations task force, said the effort there succeeded to the extent it has because of the commitment from the bill’s author, now-Secretary of State Shirley Weber, support from the Legislative Black Caucus and the governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom.
He said other states, whether led by Democrats or Republicans, have yet to come to terms with the extent of systemic racism in the country.
Black lawmakers and other supporters say federal action also is needed because so few of the state and local discussions about reparations are happening in the South, where the majority of descendants of slavery live.
Without a federal program, Black Americans such as Lisa Hicks-Gilbert are unlikely to benefit.
Hicks-Gilbert, of Elaine, Ark., is a descendant of survivors of the 1919 Elaine massacre, one of many episodes of racial violence against Black Americans in the early 20th century.
When Black sharecroppers in the town joined together to negotiate for fairer terms and wages, they were attacked by white mobs. More than 200 Black men, women and children were killed.
Hicks-Gilbert doesn’t believe that federal reparations will happen in her lifetime. But through her work as an advocate for descendants of the massacre, she is pushing for legislation that would have the state officially recognize the killings and set up educational opportunities.
While she acknowledges it will take time to get there, the promise is enough to keep her going, even in moments of doubt.
Piper Hudspeth Blackburn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.