Black folks in America carry many wounds from their government: Stolen labor, stolen wealth opportunities by government-sanctioned red-lining, being blocked from the Homestead Act, discriminatory banking regulations backed by the U.S. government, continued discriminatory practices that to this day affect Black farmers, and a racial wealth gap that economists state cannot be fixed by income but rather requires a great repair of the generational effects of slavery and racism.
In acknowledgement of and response to this long history of injustice, the United Church of Christ Synod passed a resolution twenty years ago calling for a study on reparations for slavery, demanding that we as a nation start to make right injustices that have for so long been allowed to fester in America, untreated. The resolution emphasized that this process “can never be singularly reducible to monetary terms; [it] is a historical reckoning involving acknowledgment that an offense against humanity was committed and the victims have not received justice.”
H.R. 40 aims be the first step in studying and moving toward racial justice. First introduced by Rep. John Conyers (MI-13) in 1989, Conyers re-introduced the bill every year until his retirement, when he passed the mantle to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18) to carry the legislation forward as lead sponsor. If passed, H.R. 40 would establish a federal commission to examine the legacy of enslavement in the US, including ongoing racial discrimination, and recommend proposals for repair. This bill does not authorize payments or any other specific remedy. Instead, it offers a path toward reparations by officially detailing the breach of enslavement and white supremacy and creating actionable options for Congress to consider repairing the breach.
The legislation is supported by a wide and diverse coalition, including the United Church of Christ. In particular, Japanese American Citizens League, in their open letter in support of H.R. 40 wrote a powerful reminder of the importance of reparations from their own experience receiving reparations for the forced incarceration in internment camps during WWII. They say: “It took the Japanese American community 40 years to reconcile four years of incarceration. Now, 156 years after the official end of slavery, we seek to right a wrong that spanned nearly three centuries, destroying the lives of millions of people and continues to create a system of inequity and racial bias in our nation. Our country needs to heal from the wounds of slavery, and continued discrimination.” The time to stand together is now.
Our history as a country of enslavement and white supremacy must be addressed and H.R. 40 outlines a path for the study of reparations. As people of faith, we believe in restoration, and that healing and repair are needed for true justice. We are asking that Congress bring this bill to the House floor for a vote before the summer recess. Please contact your member of Congress and use your voice to help bring us into a right relationship with one another.