A member of the House of Representatives’ progressive “Squad” is reviving legislation aimed at giving reparations payments to Black Americans for slavery.
Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., reintroduced a resolution Thursday that, if passed, could give federal dollars to the descendants of enslaved people brought from Africa to the United States.
Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who lost her 2024 primary to a more moderate Democrat, introduced the reparations bill in the last Congress. Bush’s bill, unveiled in May 2023, called for $14 trillion to be put toward reparations payments for descendants of slavery in the United States, but it did not go anywhere.
“We say to the rest of America: If you are truly committed to justice, as you try to say you are, you cannot look away. You cannot turn your back on the demand for reparations, because until there is repair, there will be no justice. And where there is no justice, we will continue to fight. We’re not going anywhere. We are awake. We are organized, and we will win. Reparations now,” Bush said alongside progressive Democrat Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., at Lee’s announcement.
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Pressley reintroduced a reparations bill during Black History Month this year with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., rejecting the “unprecedented onslaught against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the Trump Administration.”
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“Trump’s policies are nothing but anti-Blackness on steroids,” Pressley said Thursday before adding, “This America wants to make America Jim Crow again, and then some.”
“Reparations are a necessary step towards true equity in our country, and a more just future. There is an opportunity for Congress to confront our nation’s racist history of slavery and White supremacy. We must provide the descendants of enslaved Black families with the reparations they were promised,” Tlaib added.
It’s an effort mounted by progressive Democrats every year, but one that has little chance of passing.
That’s especially true for the 119th Congress, which is controlled by Republicans while President Donald Trump is also in the White House.
One longtime GOP lawmaker, House Science Committee Chair Brian Babin, R-Texas, even introduced legislation earlier this year to pull federal funding from state and local jurisdictions that enacted reparations policies.
“We know there will be pushback,” Lee said Thursday, adding, “Reparations are a proposal to level the playing field, but the only way we could ever have a level playing field is by remedying the harms that have been done by the system.”
But Lee signaled on Wednesday that the long odds would not deter her.
“When we think about the debt that is owed through our country . . . the Trump administration and the Republican Party talks a lot about paying our debts. This is one of them,” Lee told Fox News.
The Pennsylvania progressive argued that the U.S. government crafted policies that intentionally disadvantaged Black Americans.
“They were not theoretical, but they were harms from government policies and practices and laws. There were real laws that were on the book that caused systemic disadvantages. They created systemic advantages for other people. So you can never have equal footing until you remedy that,” Lee said.
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