Jackson Lee pushes for slavery reparations
Congress debates creating commission to study ways to resolve long-standing issue
By Jeremy Wallace AUSTIN BUREAU
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, right, speaks during a hearing about reparations for the descendants of slaves. “I just simply ask: Why not and why not now?” she said.
Legislation to create a commission to examine the possibility of reparations for American slavery had its first hearing ever in the U.S. Congress with U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee playing a lead role.
“HR 40 is, in fact, the response of the United States of America long overdue,” the Houston Democrat said of the bill she is sponsoring. “Slavery is the original sin. Slavery has never received an apology.”
Under Jackson Lee’s bill, a 13-member commission would be created to study the role of slavery in the U.S. and the “lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery” in America. The bill calls on the commission to consider reparations and how any compensation to descendants of enslaved Africans would be calculated.
“The role of the federal government supporting the institution of slavery and subsequent discrimination directed against blacks is an injustice that must be formally acknowledged and addressed,” Jackson Lee said during a 10-minute introduction of the legislation.
Jackson Lee noted the hearing was happening on Juneteenth, a day that commemorates a day 154 years ago when it was announced in Galveston that Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves. The news got to Texas two years after the president’s signing.
During the hearing, Jackson Lee said it’s time for the government to fully address the impact of slavery on America.
“I just simply ask: Why not and why not now?” she said.
While support is growing in the U.S. House for H.R. 40, the legislation faces a tougher battle in the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this week that he opposes reparations because “none of us currently living are responsible” for slavery.
Democrats vying for the 2020 presidential nomination have also taken up reparations, with former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke supporting further study of the matter. Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Cory Booker of New Jersey have also signed on in one way or another.