On Juneteenth, Sheila Jackson Lee spearheads congressional hearing on reparations, calling them “long overdue”

For the first time in a decade, members of Congress examined the topic of reparations for African Americans over slavery at a hearing on a proposed study on the issue from U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston.

In her opening remarks to a packed committee room Wednesday, Jackson Lee said her measure would be “long overdue,” adding that “slavery has never received an apology.”

“The role of the federal government in supporting the institution of slavery and subsequent discrimination directed against blacks is an injustice that must be formally acknowledged and addressed,” she said.

Her resolution calls for a commission to “study and develop reparation proposals for African-Americans” and consider a national apology by the government “for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.”

“Let this day, June 19, 2019, be the marker for the commitment for each and every one of you,” she later said. “On my watch, we will watch this bill pass and be signed by the president of the United States of America.”

Although her measure received a warm reception from many civil rights advocates and black Americans, it will be a tougher sell in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, dismissed reparations for slavery as not “a good idea” and said that it would “be pretty hard to figure out who to compensate.”

“We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation,” McConnell said. “We’ve elected an African American president.”

Still, the hearing by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on House Resolution 40 — named for the unfulfilled federal promise to provide freed African Americans “40 acres and a mule” — marked the first opportunity in more than a decade that House members were able to tackle the issue, with witnesses including actor and activist Danny Glover; writer Ta-Nehisi Coates; U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and presidential candidate who proposed a companion version of the bill to the Senate; and retired NFL player Burgess Owens.

During his testimony, Coates rebuked McConnell for his earlier comments on reparations, noting that “for a century after the Civil War, black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror.” That campaign, Coates added, “extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell.”

Wednesday’s hearing fell on Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the emancipation of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865, but also comes amid a national discussion on reparations among 2020 Democratic presidential contenders.

Booker told the House panel that the nation has “yet to truly acknowledge and grapple with the racism and white supremacy that tainted this country's founding.” The two Texans in the race — Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro — have both said they backed Jackson Lee’s reparations proposal, as do most members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters that Democrats plan to vote on the bill, calling the proposal a “very serious issue,” according to Politico.

Aside from Jackson Lee, three other Texans on the committee — Republican U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler and Democratic U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia of Houston and Veronica Escobar of El Paso — were part of a bevy of lawmakers who peppered witnesses with questions about the potential benefits and shortfalls of the proposal.

Escobar and Garcia, who both arrived in Congress this year, asked panelists to respond to critics who argue the country has already addressed reparations through policies like affirmative action or dismiss the idea of reparations as little more than just writing out checks to black Americans.

Gohmert, meanwhile, noted that the Democratic Party, not the Republican Party, played a role in introducing Jim Crow laws and historically supported the institution of slavery.

“It is important that we know our history and we not punish people today for the sins of their predecessors in the Democratic Party,” he said.

“You lie,” a protestor in the audience shouted back.

“I just stated all facts, and again, we have people who are denying history,” Gohmert responded. “That's not helpful to our discussion.”