House to hold first hearing on slavery reparations in over a decade

The House will reportedly hold its first hearing on reparations for slavery in more than a decade next week.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is holding the hearing next Wednesday “to examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its continuing impact on the community and the path to restorative justice,” according to The Associated Press. It will mark the first hearing on the topic since 2007.

{mosads}Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor Danny Glover are set to testify. Coates is the author of the widely read 2014 essay in The Atlantic “The Case for Reparations.” Glover has championed the issue through his activist work, the AP reported.

The hearing’s date coincides with Juneteenth, a holiday that marks the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865.

Former Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.) introduced H.R. 40, which called for a study of reparations, every legislative session from 1989 until his resignation in 2017.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) reintroduced the bill earlier this year, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in February she would support a study.