Groups Urge the Congressional Black Caucus to Advance H.R. 40 – Human Rights Watch

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Reparatory Justice is a Must
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The Honorable Steven Horsford
Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus
Room 406, Cannon House Office Building
25 Independence Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20515-2804
 
Mr. Vince Evans
Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus
Room 2303, Rayburn House Office Building
50 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20515-3503
January 20, 2023
Dear esteemed members of the Congressional Black Caucus,
We, the undersigned organizations and community members, extend much gratitude to the ongoing impactful work of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), while it continues to navigate many political hurdles. Since the CBC is now 57 members strong, it should harness its power in the first 100 days of the 118th congressional session to obtain co-sponsorship for, advance, and implement H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African-Americans Act.
We recommend two parallel structures in achieving the passage and implementation of H.R. 40. The first being that you follow lead sponsor Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s and the US Senate’s call to action and hold President Joe Biden accountable for the enactment of an H.R. 40, federal reparations commission via Executive Order immediately. Had it not been for the African American/Black vote, President Biden’s success for a 1st term as president would have been questionable. Secondly, it is essential that as a legislative body you put H.R. 40 as a priority and get it passed out of the House of Representatives within the first 100 days of the 118th Legislative Session. It is owed to the African American/Black community.
As you are aware, since H.R. 40 was first proposed in 1989 by the late Congressman John Conyers, we, members of many local and national organizations, as well as general communities, have consistently, over the last few decades, written and called many of you to place this legislation and the issue of reparations at the forefront of the CBC’s legislative agenda. As stated above, this can be achieved by using the necessary measures and levers of pressure to get H.R. 40 passed both out of subcommittee and out of the House chamber by a floor vote, as well as actively lobbying the Biden administration to set up the H.R. 40 reparations commission via executive order as soon as possible. When the CBC polled the community about the most pressing issues last congressional session, reparations was the top priority. Unfortunately, H.R. 40 never crossed the goal line in the House during the 117th Legislative Session, despite obtaining a record-number 196 co-sponsors and 21 additional secured “yes” votes.
The United States government has given some form of reparations to other groups, yet, to date Black people have yet to receive what they historically and presently have always been entitled to: full remedy and reparations. Groups that have received reparations have included Jewish Holocaust survivors, Japanese Americans, some Indigenous Nations, and even white slave-owners.
As should be recognized, African descendants in the United States have been subjected to centuries of racial terror, oppression, exploitation from the Transatlantic Slave Trade and enslavement, eugenics, failed Reconstruction, Jim Crow, War on Drugs, and ongoing racial discrimination.  As you are aware, during both the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement, we witnessed and/or experienced the continued racist war against Black people expressed via COINTELPRO, and racialized violence by white supremacists and non-affiliated white groups. Structural racism persists in the extreme wealth gap between Black and White Americans, overwhelming incarceration of the Black population, and lack of availability to the necessary resources that would provide a vehicle for the quality of life to which all Americans are entitled.  Institutional and systemic racism continues to be the underpinning for racial disparities in income, health, education and opportunity for personal and group growth, and ability to thrive. The harm is transgenerational and without addressing and remedying the fundamental harms caused by this barbarism with necessary reparations, Black people will never be afforded an equal opportunity to excel.
Black people have been the backbone to the growth and wealth of this nation and of the global economy, and justly, should be recipients of its fruits. Black people can’t achieve equity without the United States acknowledging the historical past and materially addressing past and present harms.  Reparatory justice is a must. The questions that must be addressed in its full context are: (1) Why is there such resistance to reparations for Black people? (2) Who are detractors of this legislation and this movement? and (3) What collective strategies can be put in place to ensure that H.R. 40 is passed and a federal reparations commission is established in 2023?
As individuals who historically have supported the passage of H.R. 40 and the movement for Black reparations, we are available for consultation on the subject and look forward to a favorable response.
We thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Organizations 
AAPI Montclair
Academy for Diaspora Literacy, Inc.
Accomplices of the Dayton Area SURJ
African American Future Society
African Diaspora for Justice (AD4Justice.org)
AJ Williams-Myers Africanroots Center
All Souls Movement 
American Humanist Association
Amherst extensions & beauty salon 
Amnesty International USA
Artists for Reparations
Austin Justice Coalition
Beacon UU Congregation
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Berkeley Chapter, Japanese American Citizens League
Bethel AME CHURCH 
Biddeford Saco Area SURJ
Black Jewish Justice Alliance
Black Mental Health Task Force
Black Music Action Coalition
Black Veterans Project
Blacks in Law Enforcement 
Black Voters Matter Fund 
BLK FLWR MRKT
Blount County (TN) SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)
Blue
Boston Workers Circle 
Campaign For Justice: Redress NOW for Japanese Latin Americans!
Cash Reparations for Slavery
Central VT SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)
Church WORLD SERVICE
Collaborating Voices Foundation
Collective Grant Writing & Consulting
Coming to the Table
Coming To The Table Tucson Chapter
Community Healing Network, Inc.
Community Health Councils
Congressional black Caucus
CTTT Denver
Dayton Chapter Japanese American Citizens League
DC Justice Lab
Decolonizing Wealth Project
Democrats Abroad Reparations Task Force 
Difficult Conversations About Race
Drug Policy Alliance
Edfu Foundation Inc.
Embracing Race
Emmett Till Legacy Foundation 
Executive Director/Community Stabilization Project
Faith for Black Lives
Faith in New Jersey
Father’s Alive In The Hood Inc
FirstRepair
Friends Committee on National Legislation 
Friends of the African Union
Fund For Reparations NOW!
Global Progressive Caucus, Democrats Abroad
Grassroots Reparations Campaign 
Green Earth Goods 
High School Democrats of America National Black Caucus 
Human Rights Watch
https://amcrecordsmedia.com/
IKAR
Incarcerated Nation Network 
Insight 2 Heal, Inc. 
Integrative Wellness, Inc
Inter-Racial Wellbeing and Racial Justice Committee, West Knoxville Friends Meeting
Interfaith Council of Franklin County,   MA
International Black Women’s Congress
International Black Women’s Congress
International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma
International Civil Society 
International Institute for Health and Wellness 
Islamophobia Studies Center
It Takes A Village Family of Schools
Japanese American Citizens League
Japanese American Citizens League, Florin-Sacramento Valley Chapter
Japanese American Citizens League, Seattle Chapter
Japanese American Citizens League, Twin Cities Chapter
Japanese American Families for Justice 
Japanese American Museum of Oregon
Japanese American National Museum 
Japanese Community Youth Council
Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project
JBS FOUNDATION, INC.
Johnson & Klein Law
JP Consulting LCSW PLLC
Jrinks By Jenn
Loretto Community 
Lost River Racial Justice (SURJ affiliate)
Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic
Make It Plain
Mindbridge
N’COBRA “Chicago Chapter”
NAACP Newark, NJ
National Black Justice Coalition
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America – New England Chapter
National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL)
National Consumers League
National Council of Churches
National Council of Jewish Women San Francisco
National Council of Negro Women, Inc – Hudson Valley Section
National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc.
National LGBTQ+ Bar Association 
National Nikkei Reparations Coalition (NNRC)
National Organization for Women
NAWS Central Queens
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
New Brunswick Area NAACP
New England Peace Pagoda
New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
New York State Democrat Party
Next Generation Action Network (NGAN)
Not in Our Town Princeton
One-People, One Each 
Oranges & Maplewood NAACP
Outta Bound Sportz
People’s Organization for Progress
Portland Japanese American Citizens League 
Putney Friends Meeting
Racial Justice Project
Ramapough Mountain Indians, Inc. 
RASR
Reparation Education Project
Reparation Generation
Reparations Circle Denver 
Reparations Committee of the Jewish Community of Amherst
Reparations Community of Practice
Reparations Finance Lab
Reparations United
Reparations4Slavery.com
Restorative Genealogy
Rising Voices, a Project of Center for Empowered Politics 
SAFES
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc.
San Francisco Black & Jewish Unity Coalition 
San Jose Nikkei Resisters
Sankofa Farm at Bartram’s Garden
Showing Up for Racial Justice – St. Johns, Portland OR
Showing Up for Racial Justice — Twin Cities Chapter
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Boston
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Rochester
Showing Up for Racial Justice Annapolis and Anne Arundel County (SURJ3A)
Showing Up for Racial Justice NYC
Showing Up for Racial Justice, Santa Barbara Chapter
Showing Up for Racial Justice, Santa Cruz County
Singles Pop Up
Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Congregational Leadership
Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Western Province Leadership
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Sketch House Games
Social Justice at Trinity Asbury Park
Social Justice Matters, Inc.
Springfield Unity Project
Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), San Diego Chapter
Standpipe Hill Strategies
Storywiz Records
SURJ Marin
SURJ Mendo Coast
SURJ Sacramento (Showing Up for Racial Justice)
Synergy Unlimited LLC
Take Action Advocacy Group
Temple Isaiah (Lexington MA) Reparations Committee
Terence Crutcher Foundation
The Asbury Park Affordable Housing Coalition 
The Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project
The Cardinal Recreation Park
The Diocese of New Jersey
The E Pluribus Unum Project
The Goodnight Initiative 
The International Institute for Health and Wellness 
The Northampton Reparations Committee
The Nuance Company
The Reparations Collective 
The Taifa Group
The Who We Are Project
The Workers Circle
Tremain Smith Studio
Tsuru for Solidarity
Tule Lake Committee
Tulsa African Ancestral Society 
UN PFPAD – International Civil Society Working Group 
UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab | People of African Descent & the SDGs E-Team
Union for Reform Judaism
United Asian Voices of West Orange
United Parents Against Lead & Other Environmental Hazards (UPAL)
University of California, Santa Cruz
Until Freedom 
Vashon-Maury SURJ – Showing Up for Racial Justice
Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative (VEJC)
West Knoxville Friends Meeting
Westchester Black Women’s Political Caucus
Where Is My Land
Whm Msw Healing Well Inc
YAH’s House
Yonkers City Council, District 1
Young Buddhist Editorial
Individuals
Ms. Sharin Alpert 
Alice Pierce-Bonifaz, Ph.D. 
Ms. Zia Bowen
Ms. Olivia Dennen, University of California, Santa Cruz 
Jacqueline A. Faison, ESL Teacher 
Ms. Giovanna
Regina Goodwin, Oklahoma State Representative 
Ms. Lee Guion, Coming to the Table 
Ms. Beverly Head, Coming to the Table  
Ms. Cynthia Henebry 
Waymon R. Hinson, Ph.D.
Ms. Diane R. Irvin 
Ollie Johnson 
Kevin Jones
Keisha Lanell, DBA: Dr. Coach Kay
Sierra Morton, Social Worker 
Albert Mosley, Professor Emeritus, Smith College
Effie Phillips, National Council of Negro Women, Inc – Hudson Valley Section 
Ms. Elizabeth Sand 
Tamara Scott, Attorney 
Dee Seligman, Ph.D. 
Kisha Skipper, 1st Vice President, YONKERS NAACP UNIT 2188
Imani Williams, Private Teacher 
Anthony Lee Williams 
Cc: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Lead Sponsor of H.R. 40; Rep. Yvette Clark, 1st Vice Chair; Rep. Troy Carter, 2nd Vice Chair; Rep. Marilyn Strickland, Whip; Rep. Lucy McBath, Secretary; Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader 
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