[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 178 (Thursday, November 17, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H8551-H8554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RECONCILIATION AND RESTORATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise this morning to engage in a 
limited, but hopefully important, discussion about America's history 
and to encourage my colleagues for collaboration. It is in reference to 
H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Slavery and Develop Reparation 
Proposals.
  I stand on the perspective of how important it is for us to engage in 
dialogue. We are hearing across America that Americans are frightened 
about the discussion of our differences.
  This land was first held by the indigenous people, Native Americans. 
Every other group came to America, whether or not you are of European 
heritage, Hispanic heritage, Asian-Pacific, Southeast Asian, or whether 
you are African heritage. As a descendant of enslaved Africans, we are 
the only group that came as slaves to this country and held in bondage 
for over 200 years.
  You have not seen African Americans refuse their patriotism, refuse 
to serve. We have served in every war since the Revolutionary War.
  You have never seen African Americans refuse to shed blood for the 
freedom of this country or to wear the uniform.
  You have not seen us shy away from serving as firefighters and law 
enforcement, teachers, businesspersons, social justice leaders, such as 
Dr. King, John Lewis, and, yes, Malcolm X.
  You have not seen us, as women--Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Harriet 
Tubman, Coretta Scott King--stand away from the fight. We have embraced 
freedom, justice, and equality.
  You did not see us attack this most solid and somber institution, 
sacred, on January 6, 2021. We were not the masses that were trying to 
undermine democracy. In fact, in this last election, I stood on the 
premise of defending democracy, and I take no back seat to my love of 
this Nation.
  And so I ask my colleagues, why do you in any way doubt the value and 
importance of H.R. 40? The purpose is to acknowledge the fundamental 
injustice and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and to 
establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and 
proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery.
  It was based on the premise of racism. There was, in fact, no 
compensation, no life insurance, no salaries. Slaves were born, lived, 
and died in slavery, never seeing freedom. They worked from sunup and 
beyond, and they worked until they fell dead in the fields.

  They built this Nation. They built the United States Capitol. They 
built the White House. They, in fact, created an economic engine by 
making cotton king, and they created an economic engine by this 
transatlantic slave trade.
  The traders decided to stop trading spices and gold and to use the 
human beings that they marched for 300 miles to weaken the slaves so 
they would not have a fight before getting on those ships. Many dropped 
into the watery grave before they got on. Many died in the dark 
passage.
  But yet, here we are today.
  And so this is not pointing the finger. This is not accusatory. This 
is, in fact, a reconciliation. I insist that we establish this 
commission, and we must establish it by a vote or establish it by 
executive order.
  Reverend Mark Thompson, a political activist for social justice, 
said: If we were granted H.R. 40 by executive order, it would be 
America once and for all saying Black lives actually do matter and this 
Nation must be repaired. It is restoration and repair, but it stands on 
the basis of facts. There is no doubt that we have been impacted, that 
DNA in the trajectory of slavery to today.
  For example, COVID, Black African Americans got COVID at a rate 
nearly 1\1/2\ times higher than that of White people, were hospitalized 
at a rate nearly 4 times higher, and 3 times more likely to die. COVID 
hit us very desperately.
  Interestingly, a recent peer-reviewed study from Harvard Medical 
School suggests that reparations for African Americans could have cut 
COVID-19 transmission and infection rates both among Blacks and the 
population at large. Reparations are curative, they are not punishment. 
The analysis continued to look at data throughout the Nation.
  And so as we move in this lame duck session, it is important that we 
come together for reconciliation, restoration, and provide the 
Commission to Study Slavery and to Develop Reparation Proposals.
  I thank my colleagues for their support, and I believe together we 
make America strong, America free, America just, and America equal.
  Madam Speaker, I am proud to have authored H.R. 40, legislation that 
establishes a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for 
African Americans. Congress must pass this bill to begin the process 
toward reconciliation with the Black community. I have also called upon 
President Biden to create the H.R. 40 Commission by Executive Order.
  The purpose of H.R. 40 is to acknowledge the fundamental injustice 
and inhumanity of slavery in the U.S. and to establish a commission to 
study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for 
the institution of slavery, its subsequent racial and economic 
discrimination against African Americans, and the impact of these 
forces on living African Americans. The Commission is also charged to 
make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies.
  Now--more than ever--the timing is ripe for the enactment of H.R. 40. 
We have a President in the White House who has expressed his undeniable 
support and we urge President Biden to institute this executive order.
  My Democratic colleagues in the 117th Congress and I have made 
historic strides in advancing H.R. 40 since it was first introduced in 
1989 by the late Michigan Congressman Rep John Conyers. H.R. 40 
garnered more support over the past 33 years; it has approximately 200 
co-sponsors, including 25 U.S. senators. Also, it is supported by over 
300 organizations and allies, including the National Conference of 
Mayors.
  One of my top priorities for this lame duck session of Congress in 
November and December, regardless of who controls Congress, is to have 
H.R. 40 pass the House of Representatives because. This will send a 
message of broad support to President Biden and strengthen our hand in 
urging him to create the Commission to Study and Develop Reparations 
Proposals through Executive Order.
  Reparations are overdue. Our entire country needs reparations, to 
allow us to move forward as an untied society.
  The concept of reparations is a well-established principle of 
international law, defined as the act or process of repairing or 
restoring.
  It is payment for an injury; redress for a wrong done. In the context 
of Black people in

[[Page H8552]]

North America, the concept of reparations essentially constitutes four 
elements:
  1) the formal acknowledgment of an historical wrong;
  2) the recognition that there is a continuing injury;
  3) the commitment to redress by the federal government which 
sanctioned the enslavement and subsequent discrimination; and
  4) the actual compensation in whatever form or forms that are agreed 
upon.
  The reparations movement does not focus on payments to individuals. 
The harms under discussion from the legacy of slavery and racial 
discrimination are seen in well-documented racial disparities in access 
to education, health care, housing, insurance, employment and other 
social goods.
  Reparations settlements can be created in as many forms as necessary 
to equitably address the many forms of injury sustained from chattel 
slavery and its continuing vestiges.
  Now--more than ever--the facts and circumstances facing our nation 
demonstrate the importance of H.R. 40 and the necessity of placing our 
nation on the path to reparative justice.
  Reverend Mark Thompson, a political activist for social justice 
remarked ``If we were granted H.R. 40 by executive order, it would be 
America once and for all saying Black lives actually do matter, and 
this nation must be repaired.'' I along with many others share in the 
same sentiment.
  The impact of the pandemic changed the nature of the conversation. 
COVID has devastated the African American community.
  According to the latest estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease 
Control, Black people get COVID-19 at a rate nearly one and a half 
times higher than that of white people, are hospitalized at a rate 
nearly four times higher, and are three times as likely to die from the 
disease.
  Interestingly, a recent peer-reviewed study from Harvard Medical 
School suggests that reparations for African Americans could have cut 
COVID-19 transmission and infection rates both among Blacks and the 
population at large.
  Their analysis, based on Louisiana data, determined that if 
reparations payments had been made before the COVID-19 pandemic, 
narrowing the wealth gap, COVID transmission rates in the state's 
overall population could have been reduced by anywhere from 31 percent 
to 68 percent.
  In 2019, we have also seen hundreds of thousands peacefully take to 
the streets in support of Black Lives and accountability for law 
enforcement. Many of those protesters carried signs in support of H.R. 
40 and made the important link between policing and the movement for 
reparative justice.
  Tragically, we have also witnessed insurrectionist attack this 
institution, brandishing symbols of division and intolerance, that echo 
back to the darkest periods of our nation's history. Clearly, we 
require a reckoning to restore national balance and unity.
  Four hundred years ago, ships set sail from the west coast of Africa 
and in the process, began one of mankind's most inhumane practices: 
human bondage and slavery.
  For two centuries, human beings--full of hopes and fears, dreams and 
concerns, ambition and anguish--were transported onto ships like 
chattel, and the lives of many forever changed.
  The reverberations from this horrific series of acts--a transatlantic 
slave trade that touched the shores of a colony that came to be known 
as America, and later a democratic republic known as the United States 
of America--are unknown and worthy of exploration.
  Approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved 
in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 
1619 to 1865.
  The institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily 
sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 
1865.
  American Slavery is our country's original sin and its existence at 
the birth of our nation is a permanent scar on our country's founding 
documents, and on the venerated authors of those documents, and it is a 
legacy that continued well into the last century.
  The framework for our country and the document to which we all take 
an oath describes African Americans as three-fifths a person.
  The infamous Dred Scott decision of the United States Supreme Court, 
issued just a few decades later, described slaves as private property, 
unworthy of citizenship.
  And, a civil war that produced the largest death toll of American 
fighters in any conflict in our history could not prevent the 
indignities of Jim Crow, the fire hose at lunch counters and the 
systemic and institutional discrimination that would follow for a 
century after the end of the Civil War.
  The mythology built around the Civil War has obscured our discussions 
of the impact of chattel slavery and made it difficult to have a 
national dialogue on how to fully account for its place in American 
history and public policy.
  While it is nearly impossible to determine how the lives touched by 
slavery could have flourished in the absence of bondage, we have 
certain datum that permits us to examine how a subset of Americans--
African Americans--have been affected by the callousness of involuntary 
servitude.
  We know that in almost every segment of society--education, 
healthcare, jobs and wealth--the inequities that persist in America are 
more acutely and disproportionately felt in Black America.
  This historic discrimination continues: African-Americans continue to 
suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships 
including but not limited to having nearly 1,000,000 black people 
incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current white 
unemployment rate; and an average of less than 1/16 of the wealth of 
white families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.
  H.R. 40 follows the successful model of the reparations campaign for 
Japanese-Americans interned during WWII. The campaign began with a 1980 
congressional bill establishing a commission to investigate the 
internment, evaluate and consider the amount and form reparations would 
take, and make recommendations to the Congress for remedy. Based on the 
Commission's findings, President Reagan signed into law the Civil 
Liberties Act of 1988.
  In short, H.R. 40 is not about direct payments to individuals. The 
legislation creates the framework for a national discussion on the 
enduring legacy of slavery, and the complex web of 
discriminatory conduct sanctioned by the Federal government well into 
the 20th century, to begin the necessary process of atonement and 
recovery.

  Assessing the quantifiable amount owed to Black citizens due to 
generational racism and injustice should be left in a commission's 
hands.
  H.R. 40 seeks to establish a national commission to examine the 
lasting economic effects of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and racially 
discriminatory federal policies on income, wealth, educational, health, 
and employment outcomes; to pursue truth and promote racial healing; 
and to study reparations.
  The committee should comprise of appointed members (seen in section 
4) and pioneers in the field of reparatory justice.
  I also support President Eiden in creating a reparations committee 
through executive action.
  Given the political limitations of moving legislation in the Senate, 
an executive order is the only practical method for establishing an 
H.R. 40 commission.
  Black household wealth is less than one fifth of the national 
average.
  The median black household had a net worth of just $17,600 in 2016. 
Yet in that same year, the median white household held $171,000 in 
wealth while the national household median was $97,300.
  The black unemployment rate is 6.6 percent more than double the 
national unemployment rate.
  Approximately 31 percent of black children live in poverty, compared 
to 11 percent of white children. The national average is 18 percent, 
which suggests that the percentage of black children living in poverty 
is more than 150 percent of the national average.
  In the healthcare domain, the disparities suffered by African 
Americans is also troubling.
  Over 20 percent of African Americans do not have health insurance, 
compared to a national average between 8.8 percent and 9.1 percent.
  One in four African American women are uninsured.
  Compared to the national average, African American adults are 20 
percent more likely to suffer from asthma and three times more likely 
to die from it.
  Black adults are 72 percent more likely to suffer from diabetes than 
average.
  Black women are four times more likely to die from pregnancy related 
causes, such as embolisms, and pregnancy-related hypertension, than any 
other racial group.
  In our nation, among children aged 19-35 months, black children were 
vaccinated at rates lower than white children: 68 percent versus 78 
percent, respectively.
  Education has often been called the key to unlocking social mobility.
  African American students are less likely than white students to have 
access to college-ready courses.
  In fact, in 2011-12, only 57 percent of black students have access to 
a full range of math and science courses necessary for college 
readiness, compared to 81 percent of Asian American students and 71 
percent of white students.
  Black students spend less time in the classroom due to discipline, 
which further hinders their access to a quality education.
  Black students are nearly two times as likely to be suspended without 
educational services as white students.
  Black students are also 3.8 times as likely to receive one or more 
out-of-school suspensions as white students.

[[Page H8553]]

  In addition, black children represent 19 percent of the nation's 
preschool population, yet 47 percent of those receiving more than one 
out-of-school suspension.
  In comparison, white students represent 41 percent of pre-school 
enrollment but only 28 percent of those receiving more than one out-of-
school suspension.
  Even more troubling, black students are 2.3 times as likely to 
receive a referral to law enforcement or be subject to a school-related 
arrest as white students.
  School districts with the most students of color, on average, receive 
15 percent less per student in state and local funding than the whitest 
districts.
  And, of course, we cannot consider the disparities between black and 
white in America without considering the intersection of African 
Americans and the Criminal Justice system.
  There are more Black men in bondage today who are incarcerated or 
under correctional control, than there were black men who were enslaved 
in the 1800s.
  The United States locks up African American males at a rate 5.8 times 
higher than the most openly racist country in the world ever did:
  South Africa under apartheid (1993), African American males: 851 per 
100,000.
  United States (2006), African American males: 4,789 per 100,000.
  Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment. For example, 
incarceration rates in the United States by race were:
  African Americans: 2,468 per 100,000.
  Latinos: 1,038 per 100,000.
  Whites: 409 per 100,000.
  African American offenders receive sentences that are 10 percent 
longer than white offenders for the same crimes and are 21 percent more 
likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants 
according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
  Looking at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on 
even clearer:
  For White males ages 25-29: 1,685 per 100,000.
  For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,912 per 100,000.
  For African American males ages 25-29: 11,695 per 100,000. (That's 11 
percent of Black men in their late 20s.)
  Looking at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on 
even clearer:
  For White males ages 25-29: 1,685 per 100,000.
  For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,912 per 100,000.
  For African American males ages 25-29: 11,695 per 100,000. (That's 11 
percent of Black men in their late 20s.)
  And African Americans are more likely to be victims of crimes.
  Black children die from firearm homicides at a rate 10 times higher 
than their white counterparts.
  Overall, one in 50 murders is ruled justified--but when the killer is 
white and the victim is a black man, the figure climbs to one in six.
  A handgun homicide is nine times more likely to be found justified 
when the killer is white and the victim is a black man.
  Handgun killings with a white shooter and a black male victim exhibit 
an even more dramatic bias: one in four is found justified.
  But then again, we knew these inequities existed because for many 
Black Americans, these disparities are just a part of daily life.
  Examined in the aggregate, they represent a stunning chasm between 
the destinies of White America and that of Black America.
  This is why, in 1989, my predecessor as the most senior African 
American on this august Judiciary Committee, the honorable John 
Conyers, a past Chairman of this Committee introduced H.R. 40, 
legislation that would establish a commission to study and develop 
proposals attendant to reparations.
  Though many thought it a lost cause, John Conyers believed that a day 
would come when our nation would need to account for the brutal 
mistreatment of African-Americans during chattel slavery, Jim Crow 
segregation and the enduring structural racism endemic to our society.
  I would like to take this moment to personally thank the estimable 
John Conyers for his work on this legislation for the last thirty 
years.
  With the rise and normalization of white supremacist expression 
during the Trump administration, the discussion of H.R. 40 and the 
concept of restorative justice have gained more urgency, garnering the 
attention of mainstream commentator, and illustrating the need for a 
national reckoning.
  H.R. 40 is intended to create the framework for a national discussion 
on the enduring impact of slavery and its complex legacy to begin that 
necessary process of atonement.
  The designation of this legislation as H.R. 40 is intended to 
memorialize the promise made by General William T. Sherman, in his 1865 
Special Field Order No. 15, to redistribute 400,000 acres of formerly 
Confederate owned coastal land in South Carolina and Florida, 
subdivided into 40 acre plots.

  In addition to the more well-known land redistribution, the Order 
also established autonomous governance for the region and provided for 
protection by military authorities of the settlements.
  Though Southern sympathizer and former slaveholder President Andrew 
Johnson would later overturn the Order, this plan represented the first 
systematic form of Freedmen reparations.
  Since its introduction, H.R. 40 has acted to spur some governmental 
acknowledgement of the sin of slavery, but most often the response has 
taken the form of an apology.
  However, even the well intentioned commitments to examine the 
historical and modern day implications of slavery by the Clinton 
administration fell short of the mark and failed to inspire substantive 
pubic discourse.
  For many, it was not until The Atlantic published Ta-Nehisi Coates' 
The Case for Reparations that the mainstream public began to reckon 
with, or even consider, the concept of reparations.
  Though the Federal government has been slow to engage the issue of 
reparations, individuals, corporations and other public institutions 
have engaged the discussion out of both necessity and conscience.
  In 1994, a group of California plaintiffs brought suit against the 
Federal government and by 2002, nine lawsuits were filed around the 
country by the Restitution Study Group.
  Though litigation has yielded only mixed success in court, a serious 
foundation was laid for alternative forms of restitution.
  For example, in 2005, J.P. Morgan & Company tried to make amends for 
its role in the slave trade with an apology and a $5 million, five-year 
scholarship fund for Black undergraduates in Louisiana.
  In 2008, the Episcopal Church apologized for perpetuating American 
slavery through its interpretation of the Bible and certain diocese 
have implemented restitution programs.
  In 2003, Brown University created the Committee on Slavery and 
Justice to assess the University's role in slavery and determine a 
response.
  Similarly, in 2016, Georgetown University apologized for its 
historical links to slavery and said it would give an admissions edge 
to descendants of slaves whose sale in the roth century helped pay off 
the U.S. school's debts.
  In 2017, my alma mater Yale University announced that it would rename 
Calhoun College--named for John C. Calhoun--would be changed to honor 
Grace Murray Hopper, a trailblazing computer scientist who also served 
as rear admiral in the United States Navy.
  The University's president, Peter Salovey, indicated that removing 
Calhoun's name was consistent with its values because Calhoun had a 
legacy of a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately 
promoted slavery as a positive good.
  And, in April of this year, students at Georgetown University voted 
in favor of paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved people 
who were sold by the university in order to satisfy its debts.
  In 1838, in a practice likely far wider spread than is likely 
accounted for, Georgetown Jesuits sold 272 slaves who worked on 
plantations.
  When the results of the Georgetown poll were announced, the numbers 
were overwhelming: 2/3 of students indicated that payments should be 
funded to descendants of these slaves and would be paid for by a fee 
that would apply to all undergraduate students.
  While the vote was nonbinding, it nonetheless represents the first 
time the student body of a university has voted to implement a 
mandatory fee to account for reparations.
  These are only a few examples of how private institution have begun 
reckoning with their past records.
  I expect that a growing number of institutions will be forced to 
examine their histories of discrimination, if for no other reason than 
increasing public scrutiny will force their history to light.
  Since my reintroduction of H.R. 40 at the beginning of this Congress; 
both the legislation and concept of reparations have become the focus 
of national debate.
  For many, it is apparent that the success of the Obama administration 
has unleashed a backlash of racism and intolerance that is an echo of 
America's dark past which has yet to be exorcised from the national 
consciousness.
  Commentators have turned to H.R. 40 as a response to formally begin 
the process of analyzing, confronting and atoning for these dark 
chapters of American history.
  Even conservative voices, like that of New York Times columnist David 
Brooks, are starting to give the reparations cause the hearing it 
deserves, observing that ``Reparations are a drastic policy and hard to 
execute, but the very act of talking and designing them heals a wound 
and opens a new story.''
  Similarly, a majority of the Democratic presidential contenders have 
turned to H.R.40 as a tool for reconciliation, with 17 cosponsoring or 
claiming they would sign the bill into law if elected.

[[Page H8554]]

  Though critics have argued that the idea of reparations is unworkable 
politically or financially, their focus on money misses the point of 
the H.R. 40 commission's mandate.
  The goal of these historical investigations is to bring American 
society to a new reckoning with how our past affects the current 
conditions of African Americans and to make America a better place by 
helping the truly disadvantaged.
  Consequently, the reparations movement does not focus on payments to 
individuals, but to remedies that can be created in as many forms 
necessary to equitably address the many kinds of injuries sustained 
from chattel slavery and its continuing vestiges.
  To merely focus on finance is an empty gesture and betrays a lack of 
understanding of the depth of the unaddressed moral issues that 
continue to haunt this nation.
  While it might be convenient to assume that we can address the 
current divisive racial and political climate in our nation through 
race neutral means, experience shows that we have not escaped our 
history.
  Though the Civil Rights Movement challenged many of the most racist 
practices and structures that subjugated the African American 
community, it was not followed by a commitment to truth and 
reconciliation.
  For that reason, the legacy of racial inequality has persisted, and 
left the nation vulnerable to a range of problems that continue to 
yield division, racial disparities and injustice.
  Reparations are ultimately about respect and reconciliation--and the 
hope that one day, all Americans can walk together toward a more just 
future.
  We owe it to those who were ripped from their homes those many years 
ago an ocean away; we owe it to the millions of Americans- yes they 
were Americans--who were born into bondage, knew a life of servitude, 
and died anonymous deaths, as prisoners of this system.
  We owe it to the millions of descendants of these slaves, for they 
are the heirs to a society of inequities and indignities that naturally 
filled the vacuum after slavery was formally abolished 154 years ago.
  Let us also do with the spirit of reconciliation and understanding 
that this bill represents.
  Finally, if we truly want to build better, brighter future, we can't 
do it on a rotten foundation. Therefore, for the house that is America, 
we must repair the damage caused by the original crime that separates 
us. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
  The H.R. 40 Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for 
African Americans must be created by executive order. Today we call on 
President Biden to right this historical wrong and take a monumental 
step towards reparative justice.

                          ____________________