A member of the House of Representatives’ progressive “Squad” is reviving legislation aimed at giving reparations payments to Black Americans for slavery.
Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., reintroduced a resolution Thursday that, if passed, could give federal dollars to the descendants of enslaved people brought from Africa to the United States.
Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who lost her 2024 primary to a more moderate Democrat, introduced the reparations bill in the last Congress. Bush’s bill, unveiled in May 2023, called for $14 trillion to be put toward reparations payments for descendants of slavery in the United States, but it did not go anywhere.
“We say to the rest of America: If you are truly committed to justice, as you try to say you are, you cannot look away. You cannot turn your back on the demand for reparations, because until there is repair, there will be no justice. And where there is no justice, we will continue to fight. We’re not going anywhere. We are awake. We are organized, and we will win. Reparations now,” Bush said alongside progressive Democrat Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., at Lee’s announcement.
HOUSE DEMOCRAT TO INTRODUCE REPARATIONS PUSH, DECLARES ‘MORAL OBLIGATION’ TO SEND TRILLIONS TO BLACK AMERICANS
Rep. Summer Lee has unveiled a bill aimed at giving reparations payments to descendants of slavery. (Getty Images)
Pressley reintroduced a reparations bill during Black History Month this year with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., rejecting the “unprecedented onslaught against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the Trump Administration.”
HOUSE DEMS REINTRODUCE REPARATIONS LEGISLATION: ‘WE REFUSE TO BE SILENT’
“Trump’s policies are nothing but anti-Blackness on steroids,” Pressley said Thursday before adding, “This America wants to make America Jim Crow again, and then some.”
“Reparations are a necessary step towards true equity in our country, and a more just future. There is an opportunity for…
