On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a vote on a bill that would address slavery in the United States and create a commission in order to study potential slavery reparations.
The current bill under consideration is H.R. 40 and its purpose is:
To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to make potential adjustments to the bill and vote on it on Wednesday. The measure was first introduced in 1989 by Democratic Representative John Conyers, and if it makes it out of the committee, it will have its first vote on the House floor since then.
According to NPR, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), the sponsor of the current bill, described H.R. 40 as “enabling legislation to address the deep-seated racism and historic and systemic elements of mistreatment of African Americans through the centuries.”
“We think it will be cleansing for this nation, and we think that it will be a step moving America forward to see us debate this question on the floor of the House,” she said. – READ MORE
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