The hearing focused in part on reparations bill H.R. 40, which seeks to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on African Americans alive today.
Author Ta-Nehisi Coates, actor/activist Danny Glover and former presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker were among those who testified at the first congressional hearing in more than 10 years on reparations by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Coates quoted Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky who told reporters that he opposes reparations. Coates talked about systemic crimes against Black people in the senator’s lifetime and said that people impacted would “love a word with the majority leader.”
