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Danny Glover & Ta-Nehisi Coates Will Testify At Juneteenth House Hearing On Reparations

The conversation around reparation is becoming more and more visible thanks to activist campaigns and politicians being challenged on the subject. Now, legislation around reparations that’s been stalling in Congress FOREVA is getting another major push, and actor Danny Glover and author Ta-Nehisi Coates will be lending their voice in support.

According to USA Today, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties will be holding a hearing to discuss the legislation on Wednesday. The hearing will rightfully occur on Juneteenth, the day slaves in Texas got the final message that they were free on June 19, 1865.

The bill known as House Resolution 40 would create a commission to study the history of slavery and it’s generational effects on Black people. The bill was originally sponsored by former Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan in 1989. He reintroduced the bill every session until his retirement in 2017. Then Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee introduced the bill again earlier this year as the resolution’s new sponsor.

“The impact of slavery and its vestiges continues to effect African Americans and indeed all Americans in communities throughout our nation,” Jackson Lee explained in a statement in January. “The call for reparations represents a commitment to entering a constructive dialogue on the role of slavery and racism in shaping present-day conditions in our community and American society.”

Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker filed a companion version of H.R. 40 in April:

“Since slavery in this country, we have had overt policies fueled by white supremacy and racism that have oppressed African-Americans economically for generations,” Booker said. “Many of our bedrock domestic policies that have ushered millions of Americans into the middle class have systematically excluded blacks through practices like GI Bill discrimination and redlining.”

Danny Glover and Ta-Nehisi Coates will be testifying at the hearing on Juneteenth alongside economic and legal experts. Ta-Nehisi definitely isn’t a new voice on the subject. His 2014 Atlantic article “The Case for Reparations” helped reignite the discussion on the topic on a mass scale. Now, it seems he’s continuing the fight with the Juneteenth hearing.

“The purpose of the hearing is to examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, its continuing impact on the community and the path to restorative justice,” a press release for the hearing reads.

The fight continues!

 

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