For many Americans, Black History Month is a time of reflection. For Rep. Ayanna Pressley, it’s a time of action. At a Feb. 13 press conference, she reintroduced a bill that would create a federal reparations commission.
“We find ourselves at a sharp inflection point as a country, and a painful one for Black Americans. Black history is under attack, but not only Black history, Black futures. We have a weaponized Supreme Court, a hostile White House administration and efforts to aggressively dismantle and defund Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives. We’re in a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids. And so I think it’s important that we meet that with the same energy. They’re anti-Black. We should be pro-Black. And it’s not only about history, it’s also about Black futures,” she said.
The bill, H.R. 40 would establish a federal commission “to examine the lasting legacy of slavery and to develop proposals for African American descendants of enslaved people.” The commission would be composed of 15 members. Three of the members would be appointed by the president, three by the speaker of the House, three by the president pro tempore of the United States Senate and the remaining six would be subject matter experts in racial justice, economics, civil rights, reparative justice and other related fields.
Pressley said now is the time to really dig into what reparations could look like on the federal level, thanks to the work previously done in Congress.
“H.R. 40 has tremendous momentum thanks to this incredible and resilient movement of justice seekers and liberators led by our beloved and recently departed Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and before her Congressman John Conyers, who took up this mantle respectively in the last Congress. This was marked up and reported on in the Judiciary Committee. We have more co-sponsors than ever before,” said the representative for Massachusetts’s 7th congressional district.
She said history is on the side of the reparation commission thanks to the historical blueprint laid out before them.
“There’s precedent for this. We’ve done this with Japanese Americans. We’ve done this with indigenous people. And there’s momentum throughout the country for reparations, including here in the city of Boston,” Pressley said.
Here in Boston, the City’s Task Force on Reparations works with the Mayor and the City of Boston for solutions to heal racial inequities for descendants of slavery. The task force was established in 2022 through a City Council ordinance and appointed by Mayor Wu. The task force is made up of 10 members, including two youth appointees.
Some members of Boston’s Task Force on Reparations: (from left) Joseph Feaster, Carrie Mays, Mayor Michelle Wu, George (Chip) Greenidge, Jr. and Dorothea Jones. PHOTO: CITY OF BOSTON
Both the Federal Commission and the Boston Task Force have their work cut out for them when it comes to finding ways to mitigate centuries of trauma.
“The harms done to Black Americans didn’t just happen in the ether. It wasn’t just some organic cultural phenomenon. These were legislated hurt and harms. And so if the federal government, codified the harm to Black Americans through law, I think the federal government also has a responsibility to legislate equity, legislate healing, to legislate justice,” she said.
For the Japanese Americans interred in camps, reparations included an official apology, a small fund for public education, and cash payments to survivors. For indigenous people, reparations looked a little different. Native American tribes endured historical injustices and land seizures. To address that widespread mistreatment the United States government offered monetary payments or the return of land.
Pressley said merely cutting a check just won’t cut it when it comes to reparations for African Americans and that’s why the work of the Federal Commission will be so vital.
“A lot of people try to define the work of reparations as simply about a check. When you think about the systemic ways in which the vestiges of slavery show up in our day-to-day lives or even the fact that this country is still benefiting from an economy, including sugar, rice, cotton and tobacco, that was built on the brutality and the backs of Black people. This is timely. It is relevant, and it is about so much more than just a check because the harm is systemic, and that’s why this commission is so needed so that we can fully examine the systemic implications of channel slavery on our society, and then deliberate and invent comprehensive, holistic operations proposals,” said the congresswoman.
Tackling such a ubiquitous topic could take years but the Federal Commission has a tight deadline. It has 18 months to do its work. With an end date in sight, it remains to be seen what it will accomplish but Pressley is hopeful. She views H.R. 40 and the creation of the commission as a bright spot in the future of Black Americans.
“I see H.R. 40 as our North Star. As a mom to a 16-year-old, when I transition and I’m an ancestor, what I don’t want to pass on to my daughter is generational trauma, a legacy of hurt and harm. My daughter deserves to inherit a legacy of generational black wealth, generational black health, generational Black joy, and generational black freedom, to live in a country where her joy is a birthright and not a privilege. I do believe another world is possible,” she shared.
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