The
Honorable John Conyers, who represented Detroit in Congress from 1965
until 2017, introduced HR 40 every congressional session from 1989.
He worked to get cosponsors for the legislation for nearly thirty
years, but not even the entire Congressional Black Caucus would
cosponsor. Upon his retirement from Congress, he passed the baton to
Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Thanks to her efforts and
those of reparations organizations, including the National African
American Reparations Commission (NAARC) and the National Coalition of
Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), the number of cosponsors
approaches two hundred members of Congress. With 218, the legislation
could pass in Congress.
Full
disclosure. I serve as a NAARC commissioner, as does Kamm Howard, the
co-chair of N’COBRA.
With
a Senate dominated by conservative Democrats and obstructionist
Republicans, when HR 40 passes in Congress, it is unlikely to pass in
the Senate. However, it is essential to acknowledge the enormous
progress the reparations movement has experienced since Conyers first
introduced HR 40. Then, if you mentioned reparations in some circles,
including those dominated by African Americans, you'd be rewarded
with an eye roll and a "reality" check. Movements don't
happen overnight, though, and the reparations movement is rising,
thanks to the tireless work of committed activists, who have
persistently raised the issue.
Robin
Rue Simmons, a former Alderman in Evanston, Illinois, shepherded
reparations legislation in that city and helped design a program that
will use money from legal cannabis sales to fund reparations. The
program emerges from documentation of the ways local legislation
widened the wealth gap between 1919 and 1969 and explicitly targets
Evanston residents and their descendants for the initial round of
reparations. Within the next several weeks, 16 families will get
$25,000 checks to put a down payment on a home, reduce a mortgage
balance, or do repairs that increase the value of their homes. While
these modest payments do very little to reduce the wealth gap, they
improve the wealth position of these families. Evanston has taken a
small but revolutionary step in the right direction.
Robin
chose not to run for reelection, although she probably would have
faced only token opposition if she had. Instead, she has been working
full-time on the issue of local reparations, founding First Repair
(firstrepair.org), an organization focused on helping state and local
governments shape reparations initiatives. First Repair most recently
(December 9-11) co-convened a symposium (along with NAARC) with state
and local reparations leaders. Sixty people from twenty-five cities,
including Boston, Asheville, North Carolina, Houston, Denver, Los
Angeles, and San Francisco, gathered to discuss their efforts to
implement local reparations. The activist Danny Glover spoke at a
town hall meeting that included a telephone address by Congresswoman
Sheila Jackson Lee.
The
fact that so many cities and states are considering reparations
initiatives and appointing reparations commissions is invigorating
and encouraging. As Robin Rue Simmons said, change happens from the
bottom up and not the top down. The more cities and states that have
reparations conversations, the more awareness those at the top will
have that this is an issue that is not going away. Our nation is
culpable for the exploitation of enslaved people and their
descendants. We have gotten little more than a tepid apology. Our
country must do more.
While
HR 40 calls for the establishment of a commission to make reparations
suggestions, if President Biden really wanted to have our backs, as
he so often says, he could, through executive order, establish such a
commission now. I had hoped that President Obama might have done so,
but that issue was such a hot potato for our then-President that he
would not even consider it. The more talk there is about reparations,
the more information is disseminated. President Biden, Vice-President
Harris, can you take this step in the right direction?
Meanwhile,
I'm lifting up Robin Rue Simmons, a 45-year-old leader, activist, and
tireless reparations advocate. She has dedicated her life to the
reparations movement, using the Evanston experience as a blueprint
for other municipalities considering reparations. It's important to
note that reparations are not just about a check. It is about
healing, restoring, reclaiming what has been taken from the
descendants of enslaved people. It's not just about enslavement. It's
about laws passed after Emancipation that systematically robbed us of
our rights, work, worth, and wealth. Thanks to folks like Robin Rue
Simmons (also a NAARC commissioner), Kamm Howard, Dr. Ron Daniels,
Sheila Jackson Lee, Danny Glover, and so many others, the reparations
movement is rising!
