May 16, 2025
Lee, who is a descendent of enslaved people: “Black folks are owed more than thoughts and prayers.”
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) is reviving the conversation surrounding reparations for Black Americans by reintroducing legislation to give federal dollars to descendants of enslaved people, The Hill reports.
The Reparations Now Resolution, first proposed by former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in 2023, pushes for the federal government to secure trillions of dollars in reparations toward Black Americans for the country’s involvement with slavery, Jim Crow, and the continuous effects of policies relating to racial discrimination.
Lee, a descendant of enslaved people, said, “Black folks are owed more than thoughts and prayers. We’re here to say that there’s no more waiting, no more watering down, no more putting justice on layaway,” she said at a May 15 press conference.
“We’re owed repair, we’re owed restitution, and we’re owed justice.”
Bush, who lost her 2024 primary, attended the press conference supporting Lee.
The United States, Bush said, has “profited off the stolen labor, the stolen land and stolen lives of Black people. From the first shackled bodies brought to these shores—and those that didn’t make it to the shores—to the grueling, back-breaking, murderous work done on plantations that built America’s wealth, to the federal officials who enslaved human beings while they wrote our laws even here in this building, America has been cashing checks written in Black blood.”
Members of the Congress known as “The Squad”—Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)—also showed support at the conference. Pressley has continued the push for reparations by reintroducing H.R. 40.
The bill would create a federal commission targeting research to examine the lasting impact of slavery, systemic racism and racial discrimination in addition to identifying measures like reparations, addressing the harms.
Lee, Pressley and Bush blamed the Trump administration for carrying on the harm with attempts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and issuing threats against the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“We are in a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids, and we refuse to be silent,” Pressley said. “We will not back down in our pursuit of racial justice. The antidote to anti-Blackness is to be pro-Black, and we will do it unapologetically. The United States government owes us a debt, and we need reparations now.”
Of course, the vocal lawmakers will have some pushback. According to Fox News, after Pressley’s notion, supported by Sen. Cory Booker, GOP lawmaker Brian Babin (R-TX) introduced legislation in early 2025 threatening to pull federal funding from state and local areas that touched reparations policies.
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