‘Righting wrongs’: Congress is taking another look at reparations for slavery
Cities propose reparations amid nationwide unrest
The debate over reparations for Black Americans began not long after the end of the Civil War. The bill to study the issue was first sponsored by former Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan in 1989, and he reintroduced the bill every session until he retired in 2017.
Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, the resolution’s new sponsor, reintroduced the bill in 2019 and again in January. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., filed a companion version of the bill last April.
“Economic issues are the root cause for many critical issues impacting the African American community today,” Lee said when introducing the bill last month. “Truth and reconciliation about the ‘original sin of American slavery’ is necessary to light the way to the beloved community we all seek.”
Black Americans are almost twice as likely to live below the poverty line as white Americans and on average are paid less than their white peers, no matter their profession or education, according to recent census data. Black people are also less likely to own a home than other racial and ethnic groups, a key asset for building wealth.
Lee on Wednesday cited a recent study by Harvard Medical School researchers that found reparations could have public health benefits for Black people and the entire nation. Researchers’ model for Louisiana showed that greater equity between Black and white people might have reduced COVID-19 infection transmission rates by up to 68% for every person in the state.
Opponents of the bill called it divisive and argued that present-day Americans should not be held responsible for the consequences of slavery, which was ended by the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865.
Eight experts and advocates testified for three hours Wednesday before the House subcommittee on House Resolution 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.
Witnesses including E. Tendayi Achiume, a law professor at UCLA, and Kathy Masaoka, co-chair of the Nikkei for Civil Rights Redress, said that reparations committees have international and domestic precedent including the commission that compensated Japanese Americans who were put in internment camps after World War II.
Could other nations provide a blueprint?
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As racial justice protests following the death of George Floyd heated up across the country last year, officials in cities including Providence, Rhode Island, and Asheville, North Carolina, proposed measures to examine the impact of slavery and help atone for it, including reparations.
cost of compensating Americans who descended from slaves for the legacy of bondage and subsequent racial oppression could be as much as $13 trillion, according to an estimate by historian Kirsten Mullen and economist William Darity of Duke University.
Mullen and Darity calculated that, out of an approximate 45 million Black Americans, about 40 million would be eligible recipients of these funds if eligibility is based on whether their ancestors were enslaved in America.
That would result in payments between $300,000 to $350,000 per person.
Other estimates have placed the cost even higher. A study published in June estimated the total cost of slavery and discrimination to African American descendants could be nearly $19 trillion in 2018 dollars.
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But the idea has entered the political mainstream. During the presidential primary race, Democratic candidates including Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Julián Castro voiced their support for reparations but offered few other details.
Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard and Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
Follow N’dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg
