House Dems pitch bill on reparations for descendants of slaves

On Wednesday, House Democrats reintroduced legislation that would see a plan created to give black Americans who are the descendants of slaves reparations.

The reintroduction of HR 40, or the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, is being co-led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), per Fox News.

In a news conference, Pressley said that "reparations are a necessary step in achieving justice," and that "We are in a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids and we refuse to be silent. We will not back down in our pursuit of racial justice."

The bill would create a commission to "study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans as a result of" the "institution of slavery," the "de jure and de facto discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present," the "lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the discrimination," the "manner in which textual and digital instructional resources and technologies are being used to deny the inhumanity of slavery and the crime against humanity of people of African descent in the United States," and the "role of Northern complicity in the Southern based institution of slavery."

The commission would "identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery which existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 through 1865,” the bill adds, “The Commission’s documentation and examination shall include facts related to" the "capture and procurement of Africans," the "transport of Africans to the United States and the colonies that became the United States for the purpose of enslavement, including their treatment during transport," the "sale and acquisition of Africans and their descendants as chattel property in interstate and intrastate commerce," and the "extensive denial of humanity, sexual abuse, and the chattelization of persons," among other things.

The commission will also study the role "which the Federal and State governments of the United States supported the institution of slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions, including the extent to which such governments prevented, opposed, or restricted efforts of formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants to repatriate to their homeland."

The legislation would have the commission study the impact that laws enacted with "discriminatory intent or discriminatory effect" had on former slaves and their descendants as well as other forms of discrimination.

In making recommendations as to "appropriate remedies," the bill states that the commission will consider "how the Government of the United States will offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of the United States for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants," and what form of compensation should be awarded and who should be eligible for such compensation.

The commission would be composed of three members appointed by the President, three members appointed by the House Speaker, and three members appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate.