Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., cited "emboldened white supremacy" as a catalyst for the reintroduction of federal legislation to consider reparations for slavery.
Bill HR 40, which had 130 co-sponsors last session, doesn't have much of a chance of passing in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, but Pressley touched on a higher calling on Wednesday. Speaking during a press briefing, Pressley's voice cracked as she spoke of the carrying on the work from the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
"It’s an honor to inherit the privilege of carrying this forward from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. In my last correspondence with her, she said keep working on our priorities and never give up," she said.
Later in the briefing Pressley said, "I got emotion because I'm humbled and because I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility. These are unprecedented and deeply consequential times."
The reintroduction of HR 40 comes as President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to all things remotely connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Since the outset of the new administration, DEI offices and initiatives across both government and the private sector are turning the lights off.
While most on the right see the move as return to meritocracy, Pressley and her followers see it as an assault on the civil rights movement.
"We find ourselves in a moment of emboldened white supremacy and anti-Black racism, and a weaponized Supreme Court that is actively gutting protections and progress that has been made," she said to NBC in an exclusive interview.
The contents of the bill have remained the same since it was first proposed a generation ago. It aims to create a commission to study and propose reparations for slavery and subsequent racial discrimination. The late Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., first introduced it in 1989, and Lee took over when he retired in 2017.
"I'm working actively to blunt the assaults from a hostile administration that means harm to everyone that calls this country home, but will have a disparate impact on Black Americans," Pressley said, "because throughout history, it has been proven that when other folks catch a cold, Black folks, figuratively, catch pneumonia."
While a federal reparations bill is unlikely to gain traction under the current politcal climate, California has already set the blueprint for how such legislation might come to fruition. In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a formal apology bill. He previously had appointed a task force to study and develop reparations proposals.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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