Should America atone for slavery through reparations? The issue the focus of an emotional hearing on Juneteenth — the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was repeatedly called out Wednesday at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the path to restorative justice and reparations, as a response to slavery.
"We grant that Mr. McConnell was not alive for Appomattox, but he was alive for the electrocution of George Stinney," said author Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The hearing came just a day after McConnell was asked where he stood on reparations.
"I don’t think we should be trying to figure out how to compensate for it," McConnell said.
"It is tempting to divorce this modern campaign of terror, of plunder, from enslavement, but the logic of enslavement, of white supremacy, respects no such borders and the guard of bondage was lustful and begat many heirs," Coates said.
The debate, once an issue relegated to the margins, has received new life among Democrats on the campaign trail. Presidential hopeful Senator Cory Booker was among those who testified.
The attention has bolstered the viability of a perennial bill, HR40, to form a commission to study how America would compensate black people for theft of labor and the brutal installation of institutions, like Jim Crow, that followed.
"I’ve watched the evisceration of our cities and people’s lives because of crack cocaine and mass incarceration as well," said actor Danny Glover.
"On my watch, we will watch this bill pass and be signed by the president of the United States of America," said Rep.Sheila Jackson Lee, (D) Texas.
"This is a difficult conversation to have and one that is so long overdue," said Veronica Escobar, (D) Texas.
The hearing was dominated by discussions of systemic economic inequality, redlining as a method of generational housing discrimination and the impact of poll taxes.
A typical black family in this country has 1/10th the wealth of a typical white family, but like the Senate majority leader, not everyone agrees reparations is the best path forward.
"Black people don’t need another apology. We need safer neighborhoods and better schools. We need a less punitive criminal justice system, we need affordable health care and none of these things can be achieved through reparations for slavery," said writer Coleman Hughes.
Among the payment methods discussed included fully funding historically black colleges and doing more to empower black owned blanks.