(NPR)
Richard Gonzales June 18, 2019 10:26 PM
For the first time in a decade Congress will hold a hearing Wednesday on the subject of reparations for the descendants of slaves in the United States, a topic that has gained traction in the run-up to the 2020 elections.
The hearing is set for June 19, also known as "Juneteenth," the day when in 1865 former enslaved people in Texas first learned that they had been emancipated two years earlier.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is holding the hearing on H.R. 40, which calls for a commission to "study and develop reparation proposals for African-Americans," including a formal apology by the U.S. government "for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants."
The hearing is scheduled to feature testimony from author Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose article "The Case for Reparations," published by The Atlantic magazine in 2014, is widely credited with re-igniting the debate over restorative justice for the descendants of slaves. Also scheduled to appear are actor Danny Glover, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), as well as legal experts, economists and civil rights leaders.
H.R. 40 is sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). The commission has the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Aside from Booker, several other Democratic presidential aspirants have expressed support for some form of reparations, including Beto O'Rourke, Sen. Kamala Harris, (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (D-Mass.), and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Julián Castro.
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