Reparations Today

PARALLEL STORY

Today, the word “reparations” is often associated with the ongoing call for acknowledgment of and compensation for the descendants of enslaved peoples. Before, during, and after the Japanese American redress movement, Japanese Americans within the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations supported similar efforts for African American reparations. This call, however, has not received the same public support.

In 1989, just one year after the passage of reparations for Japanese Americans, Congressman John Conyers introduced HR40. He continued introducing it until his death in 2019 when Representative Sheila Jackson Lee took up the cause. This bill would establish a bipartisan federal commission to examine the institution of slavery, study the ongoing impacts of slavery and other historic harms on African Americans, and consider a national response to these complex issues – a similar process to that of Japanese American redress. Although HR40 currently has close to 200 co-sponsors, progress has been stalled for decades.