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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n3VIEW ALL PHOTOS<\/a> Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, center, listens as Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., right, chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, attends a markup in the House Judiciary Committee of a bill to create a commission to study and address social disparities in the African American community today. Rep. Jackson-Lee is the sponsor of that legislation. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n WASHINGTON (AP) \u2013 A House panel advanced a decades-long effort to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves by approving legislation Wednesday that would create a commission to study the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the first time the House Judiciary Committee has acted on the legislation. Still, prospects for final passage remain poor in such a closely divided Congress. The vote to advance the measure to the full House passed 25-17 after a lengthy and often passionate debate that stretched late into the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The legislation would establish a commission to examine slavery and discrimination in the United States from 1619 to the present. The commission would then recommend ways to educate Americans about its findings and appropriate remedies, including how the government would offer a formal apology and what form of compensation should be awarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill, commonly referred to as H.R. 40, was first introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., in 1989. The 40 refers to the failed government effort to provide 40 acres (16 hectares) of land to newly freed slaves as the Civil War drew to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis legislation is long overdue,\u201d said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the committee. \u201cH.R. 40 is intended to begin a national conversation about how to confront the brutal mistreatment of African Americans during chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation and the enduring structural racism that remains endemic to our society today.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The momentum supporters have been able to generate for the bill this Congress follows the biggest reckoning on racism in a generation in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s death while in police custody.FILE \u2013 In this Nov. 25, 2019 file photo, Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, 5th Ward, proposes a reparations fund during a City Council meeting in Evanston, lll. (Genevieve Bookwalter\/Chicago Tribune via AP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the House bill has no Republicans among its 176 co-sponsors and would need 60 votes in the evenly divided Senate, 50-50, to overcome a filibuster. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee were unanimous in voting against the measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the committee, said the commission\u2019s makeup would lead to a foregone conclusion in support of reparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSpend $20 million for a commission that\u2019s already decided to take money from people who were never involved in the evil of slavery and give it to people who were never subject to the evil of slavery. That\u2019s what Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are doing,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Supporters said the bill is not about a check, but about developing a structured response to historical and ongoing wrongs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI ask my friends on the other side of the aisle, do not ignore the pain, the history and the reasonableness of this commission,\u201d said the bill\u2019s sponsor, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Other Republicans on the committee also spoke against the bill, including Rep. Burgess Owens, an African American lawmaker from Utah, who said he grew up in the Deep South where \u201cwe believe in commanding respect, not digging or asking for it.\u201d The former professional football player noted that in the 1970s, Black men often weren\u2019t allowed to play quarterback or, as he put it, other \u201cthinking positions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cForty years later, we\u2019re now electing a president of the United States, a black man. Vice president of the United States, a black woman. And we say there\u2019s no progress?\u201d Owens said. \u201cThose who say there\u2019s no progress are those who do not want progress.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n But Democrats said the country\u2019s history is replete with government-sponsored actions that have discriminated against African Americans well after slavery ended. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., noted that the Federal Housing Administration at one time refused to insure mortgages in Black neighborhoods while some states prevented Black veterans of World War II from participating in the benefits of the GI Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis notion of, like, I wasn\u2019t a slave owner. I\u2019ve got nothing to do with it misses the point,\u201d Cicilline said. \u201cIt\u2019s about our country\u2019s responsibility, to remedy this wrong and to respond to it in a thoughtful way. And this commission is our opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Last month, the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, became the first U.S. city to make reparations available to its Black residents for past discrimination and the lingering effects of slavery. The money will come from the sale of recreational marijuana and qualifying households would receive $25,000 for home repairs, down payments on property, and interest or late penalties on property in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other communities and organizations considering reparations range from the state of California to cities like Amherst, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Asheville, North Carolina; and Iowa City, Iowa; religious denominations like the Episcopal Church; and prominent colleges like Georgetown University in Washington.FILE \u2013 In this Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, file photo, Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., raises her fist as she speaks during the March on Washington, on the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have A Dream\u201d speech.(Jonathan Ernst\/Pool via AP, File)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Polling has found long-standing resistance in the U.S. to reparations to descendants of slaves, divided along racial lines. Only 29% of Americans voiced support for paying cash reparations, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll taken in the fall of 2019. Most Black Americans favored reparations, 74%, compared with 15% of white Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Joe Biden captured the Democratic presidential nomination and ultimately the White House with the strong support of Black voters. The White House has said he supports the idea of studying reparations for the descendants of slaves. But it\u2019s unclear how aggressively he would push for passage of the bill amid other pressing priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of the Congressional Black Caucus brought up the bill during a meeting with Biden at the White House on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re very comfortable with where President Biden is on H.R. 40,\u201d Jackson Lee told reporters after the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by KEVIN FREKING Associated Press Monday, April 19th 2021 (local12.com) 3VIEW ALL PHOTOS Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, center, listens as Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., right, chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, attends a markup in the House Judiciary Committee of a bill to create a commission to… Continue reading ![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/local12.com\/resources\/media\/f8dc4243-f832-499b-8320-b4468d783e63-medium16x9_AP21082589906889.jpg?1618825585244\")
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