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The Grio reported that the panel of the House of Representatives passed legislation to create a federal commission to study the issue of reparations.
This is the first move in history that the House Judiciary Committee has made regarding the decades-long issue.
Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Texas representative, is the driving force behind the bill, which would create a commission that would examine slavery and discrimination in America from 1619 to the present.
The bill would decide how Americans are educated on the matter, consider a formal national apology, and consider compensation to descendants.
New York Representative and the Democratic chairman of the committee, Jerry Nadler, said, “This legislation is long overdue.”
“H.R. 40 is intended to begin a national conversation about how to confront the brutal mistreatment of African Americans during chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and the enduring structural racism that remains endemic to our society today.”
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Republicans remain opposed, and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan said the commission’s creation would lead to a foregone conclusion to endorse reparations.
“Spend $20 million for a commission that’s already decided to take money from people who were never involved in the evil of slavery and give it to people who were never subject to the evil of slavery,” he argued. “That’s what Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are doing.”
Democrats are attempting to remind lawmakers that although slavery ended, its legacy remains in our nation’s deep structural racism.
Although the passing of this bill is considered a historical success, creating a committee to study reparations for the descendants of millions of enslaved Africans led to a heated debate in the U.S. House. They passed by only 25-17, with all Republicans opposed.
This being said, the bill could be on the House floor for a vote by this summer.