SIGH…IT’S TIME TO SCRAP H.R.40 & HERE’S WHY
By Roslyn Mickens
Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. introduced H.R. 40 in 1989. The House Resolution bill was set up to study the effects of chattel slavery on the descendants of the Freedmen who endured it. From 1989 until his resignation in 2017, John Conyers relentlessly reintroduced his House Resolution Bill 40 as the House of Representatives stubbornly tabled the bill.
MIT educated Dr. William ‘Sandy’ Darity and writer Kirsten Mullins detail in their book “From Here to Equality” the economic effects not only of chattel slavery, but also give poignant, nonfictional accounts of some of the atrocities committed against the Freedmen.
In 2019, Dr. Darity suggested that the current H.R. 40 bill be strengthened by pointing out major changes that needed to be included in the bill during the critical markup phase of the bill. The markup phase of a house bill is the final time that any changes to that bill can be made by any Congressperson.
Significantly, now that the mark up phase is complete, no changes can be made to H.R.40.
The first major issue with the bill is that it states that it is ‘’to address injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865.”
The problem with that is that the United States as a sovereign nation was not founded until 1776. One cannot hold the United States, which was a colony of various European nations and Aboriginal States prior to 1776, responsible for what the countries of England, the Netherlands, France, Spain or any nation who settled on the land before it was a nation did through this bill. In addition, the economic disparities did not end with chattel slavery in 1865. They were exacerbated with the Democratic Party sabotage of the Reconstruction era, the resulting onset of peonage/ Jim Crow and Segregation, Redlining, and hundreds of decades of systemically racist laws that led to mass incarceration and homelessness. The enduring oppression starting with chattel slavery and continues as the American Freedmen and their descendants were never made whole by the nation that used them to build the wealth and discarded them so brutally.
The next main issue with the H.R.40 bill is that it increased the number of people set to perform the study of reparations from seven (7) to thirteen (13 ) commissioners. The mix of H.R.40 commissioners will be a combination of picks made by the President and the president-pro tempore of the Senate. This is problematic simply because it is a legislative branch bill. Normally, any executive bill (from the President) stays within the executive branch to resolve and implement. The H.R.40 bill is giving the President too much jurisdiction/power and interaction with this legislative bill. The current H.R.40 bill which cannot be changed, has the President appointing 3 members, the Speaker of the House appointing 3 members, and one member appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate (Section 4. Membership A-C of H.R.40). Normally, executive orders stay within the scope of the President and the Executive Branch rather than depending on Congress (the Legislative Branch) to enact them. Not knowing exactly who is going to be on the commission puts more scrutiny on the H.R. 40 commission.
In addition, the groups NAARC (National African American Reparations Commission) founded in 2015 and N’COBRA (The National Coalition of Black for Reparations in America) founded in the fall of 1987, wrote their organizations into the bill. Section 4-D of the bill states, “Six members shall be selected from the major civil society and reparations organizations that have historically championed the cause of reparatory justice. This is a red flag because in looking at NAARC and NCOBRA’s goals, they intend to do the following:
Have clandestine, secret closed-door hearings where the public and media will not be able to view the hearings nor will the transcripts be allowed out of the hearings.
Normally, Congressional hearings with such magnitude are open to the public for observation and inclusion. Instead, these 2 organizations want to operate in secrecy, as they discuss the fate of the reparations for over 38 million American citizens - the American Freedmen.
2. Set their organization which has members in both 501.c.3 organizations as a de facto federal management for all reparations money that filters into state and local reparations organizations.
Not-for-profit groups like First Repair will, of course, extract hefty management fees from the funds, then have the Freedmen apply for their own Reparations from the local management fund. While advisors that relay where the funds are most needed in our communities are welcome, why must a “middle-man” organization distribute funds to Freedmen when the government can directly send funds to eligible recipients, as demonstrated with the recent government stimulus payments during the pandemic? This is not in line with the reparations program for those who endured the Japanese American internment camps during World War II. Those individuals received direct cash payments from the federal government. There was no additional agency or group needed to create more red-tape or interfere with those cash payments to the interned. This demonstrates a paternalistic mentality of NAARC and NCOBRA groups and will be addressed in the action items at the end of the article.
3. Include non-US Freedmen to the reparations justice claim
The addition of “anybody Black” which will dilute and confuse the Freedmen whose ancestors built the United States through chattel slave labor and its subsequent atrocities. It effectively includes anyone with melanin, conflating Freedmen with those Blacks who arrived on the U.S. shores just yesterday.
Dr. Darity and Ms. Mullins insist that the recipients for reparations be people who have directly descended from those who were enslaved in the United States. Many of the NAARC and NCOBRA members are not Freedmen, but recently arrived immigrants who have done well for themselves in the US. How do non-Freedmen of U.S chattel slavery have the audacity to negotiate and manage reparations for the American Freedmen when their ancestors did not suffer under U.S. chattel slavery nor build the nation? In addition, by including people who have melanin is not a specific group and only confuses the true issue. Anyone having melanin would be a great reason to throw out the American Freedmen’s claim for restorative justice through reparations.
Also, Darity and Mullins stipulate that only those who have identified themselves as Black, Negro or African American for at least 12 years before the study commission or reparations plan whichever comes first be eligible for reparations from the government. The lineage standard must show that they have at least one ancestor who was enslaved in the United States before 1865. The current H.R.40 bill has no such identity standard.
Additionally, It is imperative that this reparations commission do the following:
a) address the Racial Wealth disparity that is in the United States. Currently, American Freedmen have around 1/16 of the wealth that white Americans have due hundreds of years of anti-Freedmen laws and discrimination.
b) have a substantive direction as to the goals of what it reports. Dr. Darity insists on direct cash payments to the direct descendants of American chattel slavery. Currently it does not.
Lastly and most importantly, the current H.R.40 bill has a salary provision for commissioners to receive compensation equivalent to that of government employees with a civilian rank of GS-18. That essentially pays out upwards of $200K/ annum for the commissioners. This will exclude any currently elected government officials. So these members will be well-paid for their annual work by the federal government with no specific directives needed. Dr. Darity suggests that instead, to preserve the integrity of the commission members, that they receive a small stipend for travel, lodging (if necessary) and food. This will distinguish the people who wish to join the commission for the greater good and not muddy the waters by including contract work for various sub organizations to get funded.
In summary, Texas Congressperson Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced the current H.R. 40 bill with N’COBRA and NAARC’s guidance, and she is now the lead sponsor of the H.R.40 bill. The current H.R.40 bill is fraught with problems including: NAARC and N’COBRA being shoe-horned into the reparations management of all funding; the vilification of direct cash payments from the federal government to the citizens who are American Freedmen; incorrect dates of 1619 to 1865 - how can one hold the country responsible when America was not an official country until 1776?; and the inclusion of non-Freedmen who did not endure chattel slavery in the United States. The involvement and stewardship of Freedmen reparations by NAARC and N'COBRA is highly problematic.
The commission and staff should consist of experts in American History, Constitutional Law, Economics, U.S. Slavery History, Political Science, Sociology, Employment Discrimination, Wealth Disparities, Slavery and Jim Crow, Health Disparities, Media, Criminal Justice, Education Disparities, and Housing Inequities in order to display a full picture of why America owes the debt of reparations to Freedmen.
With the fact that H.R.40 cannot be altered by any U.S. Congressman, we are calling for Freedmen and allies alike to contact their respective House Representative, particularly those who sponsored the H.R.40 bill, to withdraw their sponsorship from the bill. We do not want this version of the H.R. 40 bill to succeed in Congress!
Instead of using this sullied version of the bill as a money grab for these groups, a new bill replacing the H.R.40 bill is already written to shore up the highly problematic issues listed above. In this new bill, NAARC and N’COBRA are excluded as money managers for reparations; cash payments and other restitutions are going directly to the American Freedmen from the U.S. government with no middle- man to siphon off resources. Now it is important to get this new bill in front of and passed by Congress.
Here’s how to find the sponsors of H.R.40. At the top of the bill, it lists all of its co-sponsors. See if your Congressperson has co-sponsored H.R.40. and ask him or her to un-sponsor H.R.40, as it is a bad bill giving the wrong people control over such a crucial issue for Freedmen.
To find out who your representative is, go to this link and enter your zip code.
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
To take a look at the current H.R.40 bill and who has sponsored it, follow this link:
Unfortunately, it is too late to change the bill, so it is imperative to call your representative and ask them to un-sponsor it and to let them know the reasons why.
