Michigan Representative John Conyers has been in Congress since 1965. For the last 28 years, he has dutifully introduced a bill — H.R. 40 — to the floor of the House of Representatives. Some years it makes progress towards become a law. Other years, it is ignored completely.
Introducing it this year, Conyers said, “I’m not giving up. Slavery is a blemish on this nation’s history, and until it is formally addressed, our country’s story will remained marked by this blight.”
In past years, Conyers’ bill called for the establishment of a commission whose duty would be to investigate slavery in the United States, and in its colonies, and more importantly, to suggest restitution for our country’s 250 year embrace of the savagely peculiar institution.
This year, NBC News reports, he’s making explicit what he thinks the hypothetical commission should conclude, titling his bill The Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.
That’s right — if Conyers has his way, reparations will be in black hands across the country.
There are a few obstacles, however. In those halcyon early Obama days, when the Democrats last controlled the Capitol Building, H.R. 40 had 70 co-sponsors. In the current Congress, it has 18 (including usual suspects John Lewis and Danny Davis).
There’s also the matter of public opinion. A PBS poll taken in 2016 showed that while 58 percent of black Americans believe that monetary reparations should be given out, 81 percent of white Americans believe monetary reparations should not be paid. Latino Americans were split; 47 percent polled believed reparations should not be paid, while 46 percent responded that reparations should be paid.
Overall, PBS found that 72 percent of Americans believe that reparations should not be given to black Americans.
72 percent of America is a lot to overcome. But Mashariki Jywanza, a member of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, is hopeful, saying, “We have a new generation of young people who can help us organize and make it happen.”
And though, in that same PBS poll, 70 percent of white respondents said that the current wealth of the United States has no ties to slavery, supporters of reparations like Jywanza hope that recent revelations like Jack Daniel’s being created in part by a slave or New York Life admitting that it exists today thanks to selling policies covering slaves will help to change some minds.
Besides the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Green Party have added their support for Conyers’ bill.
If you would like to add your voice to theirs, let your representative know how you feel — learn how to contact your Congressional representatives here.
