The House of Representatives Judicial Affairs Committee adopted, Wednesday, April 14, a bill on the principle of financial compensation to repair the misdeeds of slavery in the United States. The text was adopted by 25 votes to 17, the Democrats all voting for and the Republicans all against. This historic vote is part of a climate of tension caused by the death on Sunday of Daute Wright, 20, in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis where the trial of Derek Chauvin, accused of the murder in May 2020 of George Floyd is currently taking place.
The lower house of Congress, where the Democrats are in the majority, will then have to approve in plenary session at an undetermined date this text, called HR40, in reference to the promise, not kept, to the African-American slaves freed after the Civil War to give to former slaves “40 acres [de terre à cultiver] and a mule [pour tirer une charrue] “(” 40 acres and a mule “). But the fate of the text is uncertain in the Senate, where Democrats will have to obtain the votes of at least ten Republicans for it to be finally adopted.
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Compensation proposals, republican opposition
The bill provides for the creation of a commission of experts that would be responsible for making proposals on the government’s compensation for the descendants of some four million Africans forcibly brought to the United States between 1619 and 1865, date of the abolition of slavery.
He tackles “The injustice, cruelty, brutality and fundamental inhumanity of slavery” and the disparities that the black American minority still suffers today.
This vote “Historical” is destined to “To continue a national debate on how to combat the mistreatment suffered by African Americans during slavery, segregation and the structural racism which remains endemic in our society today”Justice Committee chairman, Democrat Jerry Nadler, said ahead of the vote.
African-American Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee begged her peers not to “Ignore the pain, history, and wisdom of this commission”.
President Joe Biden, also a Democrat and who met African-American elected officials in Congress on Tuesday, spoke “Engaged” to support this text, she said.
But the Republican members of the commission, while acknowledging the brutality of slavery, oppose this legislation. “It takes us away from the important dream of judging someone on the content of their personality and not the color of their skin”said Republican representative Chip Roy.
First version of the text presented in 1989
The legislation, an early version of which was drafted and presented in 1989 by Michigan representative John Conyers, has become central again since the deaths of several African Americans during police interventions prompted the United States to look more closely at it. their slavery past and the multiple discriminations suffered by the black minority, which represents nearly 13% of the population.
Despite the advances in the struggle for their civil rights in the 1960s, African Americans still have fewer qualifications, have less social security and live shorter lives than whites. They also suffer a disproportionate number of incarcerations compared to the rest of the American population. In 2019, the median annual income for a black household was $ 43,771, compared to $ 71,664 for a white household, according to official statistics.
A group of 13 experts will thus have to make compensation proposals. “For the institution of slavery and [les] racial and economic discrimination against African Americans ”. These experts must make recommendations on how to calculate this compensation, what form it should take and who will be eligible.
Local repair initiatives
The issue of compensation had been raised by several candidates for the 2020 Democratic primary in the larger debate on racial inequalities and income differences.
Before a decision at the federal level, the issue of reparations had already been addressed at the local level. The small town of Evanston, near Chicago, in March became the first to decide to compensate its black residents to the tune of $ 10 million over the next ten years.
Residents who meet the criteria will each receive $ 25,000 to finance their mortgage or the renovation of their homes.
And in 2019, students at Georgetown University in Washington symbolically approved the creation of a fund for the benefit of descendants of slaves sold in the 19th century.e century by the Jesuits who created the establishment.
