Myself for five minutes. Coates, you state 250 years of slavery, 90 years of jim crow, 60 years of separate but equal, 35 years of racist housing policies until we reckon with our compounding moral debts america will never be whole. Why should the federal government bear responsibility for social and economic damages for descendents of the enslaved . R. Coates thank you chairman the federal government is complicit in it. The article you spoke about, this period of White Supremacy that you referenced in the headlines, it is so broad that if i tried to cover it in one article it would have been impossible so i focused on a specific thing, housing segregation and redlining specifically in the city of chicago. The federal government was deeply complicit in housing segregation and redlining and in the plunder of black homeowners in chicago. It would not have existed if the fha had not had a policy of not insuring loans for black People Living in chicago. It would not have existed if not for the redlining map created by this government of every major city in the country which effectively relegated black people, whether they have a down not, outside of a class of people i believe one of the reasons why the folks for reparations were so widely excepted is because we separated it from black descendents of slaves getting checks. We are talking about funding initiatives, programs, addressing issues such as mass incarceration. When that is explained to people that that is reparation, that is repairing something that can be traced to slavery, than that is the case. Personally im not looking for a check from the federal government or from my church. Im concerned about those who have been left behind, the masses of africanamerican descendents of slaves who are hopelessness and despair in communities of crime, violence, poverty, and racism. Least havewe can at a civil, good conversation on the concept of reparations, then talk about money, because the moment you Start Talking about money, the idea, especially among many white persons, im going to give a check black persons, what about me. The moment you begin with money the resistance goes up read lets talk about the concept. In relation to your question, we ofe a problem in this nation able to talk civilly about race. When im talking for reparations im talking about those left behind. Imax lee talking to my White Brothers and sisters. You need this more than we do. You need this for your soul. You need this to be able to look black persons in the eye and say i can knowledge the mistake and i want to be part of the solution to repair that damage. Thank you reverend sutton. Reverend sutton speaks to the soul of dr. , you speak to the economics. Remediateis effort to the past as dr. Ogletree has moneys fort, flux of health and education and job training, if some of that went into areas where there are large concentrations of descendents of succeededt have not for a myriad of reasons and of some of that went to white folks that were there that were also living in bad conditions, with that be a problem . With that just be helping everybody in a miasma . Interesting that right this minute as were having this hearing reverend William Barber is having a hearing on poverty. This is a great day for Economic Justice issues. Poverty is a problem in our nation, but you cant fixed poverty or inequality unless you deal with racism. Dealing with racism is about dealing with reparations. Im with the reverend. I dont care about a personal weck made out, but how about fully fund historically black colleges and universities . Once upon a time brother chairman, we had more than 100 black owned banks. Now we have 23. The devil is busy. Pernicious legislation that basically cause people to lose banks, changing and reserve requirements and things like that. Gentrification. While you have empty swaths of land all over our nation, why not deal with that . I respect your question about areas, but i think that does speak to our disease, our uneasiness in talking straight up upfront about race. The first original sin was what we did to native people, racism is our second original sin. Weve got to deal with reparations by dealing exactly with that. If we want to have an american Marshall Plan that deals with all poor people, reverend barber says there are 140 million, lets deal with that but lets not forget race is central to anything we do around Economic Justice. Thank you dr. My time expired and i recognize mr. Johnson the Ranking Member for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of you for your time and heartfelt sentiments. We know they are sincere. I want to thank you for your honesty and humility and courage. I know this is not easy today. Heres a big question that hangs over all this and that all of us need to address. Many people believe on all sides of the political spectrum that racial inequality that we see today is not entirely attributable to the legacy of jim crow and slavery. Can you elaborate on what some of the other factors may be . The first thing i would say is that blaming slavery and jim crow for the entirety of racial disparity, obviously it is clearly a factor but blaming it for the entirety of the problems we see today facing black people is actually a way of not taking responsibility for policy decisions that were made just in the last 50 years. Our prisons did not balloon until the 1980s. Unemployment for black and white youths were virtually identical until the late 1950s, early 1960s. By blaming slavery and jim crow for everything, we actually fair failed to take responsibility for policy decisions made on both sides of the aisle in recent history. Secondly, i would say theres a naive assumption that wherever there is a statistical gap in outcomes between two groups that that gap must be attributable to some kind of discrimination, whether that is overt or structural and systemic. That assumption is not true. I will give one example but i could give dozens. According to 2015 census figures theres a . 21 on the dollar gap in Household Incomes between white americans of russian descent and white americans of french dissent. Disparity is the norm, not the exception. The question is not why two groups would have different outcomes, whether it is for wealth, income or incarceration, the question is why we would expect any two groups with different histories, different geographical patterns on patterns of migration to different cultures, to nevertheless get exactly the same outcomes. Thank you for that. I was moved by your testimony the fact that we are fighting for the heart of our nation. I think everyone in this room understands we see a different way. A your opinion, is there formula that allows the Africanamerican Community to achieve the measures of success that is missing today . Tothere is and im going point to booker t. Washington to tell you a few things. We are talking about restitution a little bit ago. I have so much respect for the black men and women who built that great wall street out of tulsa. Not only they had 60 millionaires, international business. Within 12 hours it was destroyed from the air by democratic kkk. They were part of a certain party. A mule that was actually implemented but the democratic president Andrew Johnson took over, they took that land back they took a way , they took away the land. Kkk has lynched 4700 people and 1300 of them were white republicans. We have a lot of people going on. Its not broadbrush this. A certain ideology and certain people that belong to a certain area and certain niche and we need to hold them accountable. Booker t. Washington had four foundations. There was head, heart, hands and home. That process, had his education, head is education heart is , compassionate service, hands are entrepreneurship and home his family. This trees not being told. They were so busy they were not looking at finding someone to blame they were busy eating beating these racists. They held on to those principles for decades until the socialism and marxism gotten to our community to stop educating our kids. 75 in 2017 department of education study, 75 of black boys in the state of california cannot pass a standard reading or writing test. You wonder where they are going to go from there. They will not learn anything about the country. They will not hear about what will not hear about what anything about anything that we the people have done together. Target tothe steal their hopes and dreams and future. We are dealing with fewer people. Dealing with the misery weve been dealing with and no one says a word other than lets look back and see what happened 200 years ago. Lets deal with the day and i think we will be in good shape. The gentlest time has expired. The chairman is recognized for five minute. I think im going to ask one question and yield to the gentlelady from california, ms. Bass. Brenda. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell says he does not support reparations for descendent of slaves saying i dont think reparations for whom none of us currently living is responsys is a good idea we african we elected an american president. There is an unconscionable denial and lack of knowledge about the true nature, facts and current consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and makes late the enslavement of a few American People upon which american prosperity and White Privilege are founded. Based on your monumental essay in the atlantic magazine, the case for black reparations can you describe the impacts and vestiges of the enslavement era on African Americans today . Things is one of the try to make clear in my testimony is that we received the era of enslavement, jim crow and mass incarceration as separate things that are not tied to each other. The greatest damage enslavement did besides economic damage, the normalization of torture, sides the normalization of treating people as though they are things is the institution in the American Mind that black people are necessarily inferior. In 1865, when black people were emancipated, that belief did not magically dissipate. It preceded for 100 years afterwards, well into the lifetime of many Panel MembersMajority Leader Mitch Mcconnell and many of the people here in this audience. Its not a matter of the past. These things are linked. Tohas been said, or alluded throughout this conversation that somehow wealthy africanamericans are immune to these effects. In addition to the wealth gap that is cited, one thing that folks should keep in mind is that wealthy africanamericans are not the equivalent of americans in his country. The average African American family in this country making 100,000, decent money, actually lives in the same kind of neighborhood the average white family making 35,000 a year lives in. That is totally tied to the legacy of enslavement and jim crow. The input and the idea in the mind that white people and black people are somehow deserving of different things. If i injure you, the injury persists even after i actually commit the act. If i stab you, you may supper complications long after that initial actual stabbing. If i shoot you you may suffer complications long after the initial shooting. Thats the case with africanamericans. People well within the living memory of this country that are still suffering from the acts. I yield to the gentlelady from california, ms. Bass. Thank you very much mr. Chair and all the witnesses that are here today and representative jackson lee we think that racism sometimes it is trivialized as behavior, as ideas, and that we are all equally racist because we refuse to accept the fact that racism is ingrained in our institutions. We say there must have been something that 12yearold did to have gotten shot. We say there must have been a reason that Police Officer pulled that pregnant woman last week with her two babies. We dont see the connection between this, because we refuse to admit it. Hr 40 calls for the establishment of a commission, it does not call for checks. We trivialize reparations by saying that these are just africanamericans that want to be paid. I think mr. Coates goes into details about reparations meaning much more than that. Frankly, when i hear from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we need to be encouraged to work harder, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, that we can actually achieve that that is the only thing that is the problem and then to talk about the Democratic Party i think maybe people dont remember who Fannie Lou Hamer was. Black folks thought the Democratic Party. Nobody act as though the Democratic Party was not a racist party until there was a movement that fought for justice. This legislation moving to the floor. I want to emphasize at one point at what point can we in this country have a conversation about race . We will never get past it until we can have the conversation and the conversation begins with a commission. Thank you. [applause] thank you. I would like to recognize let me have a word please. Andar several hats certainly most people consider me one hat and know me from the hat i wear as an artist and an activist and artist. I worked in City Government 1971 in years in San Francisco, california. Worked in thei mission at that particular point in time. Therealization about programs about the great society, those programs that came about. I saw those programs eviscerated. Those programs designed to bring great opportunities and great hope lasted only a short time. Ive lived in the same community my entire life in San Francisco. Migrant someone who met my father and came to San Francisco after world war ii. They became they had decent jobs. Work for the post office in 1948. Able to raise a family on that income as well. They were able to eventually buy a house in the same neighborhood i live in right now. They were also part of that generation who were the first beneficiaries of the ongoing civil rights movement. Ive watched that city and worked in that city and im just talking about the city of San Francisco, this liberal city that has this great tradition around labor and everything else. We talked about harry bridges and what he did to bring in africanamericans for longshoremen. I watch the of is a ration of the cities and peoples lives because of crack cocaine mass incarceration as well. Right in my neighborhood, in my family. Those are the kinds of longterm impacts that we dont realize. Those children, who are the of the generation that had the opportunities after world war ii, those children did not have the same opportunities and now those children are abandoned. As adults in that city, that great city. E have to look at this this is just a study to look at racism and all of this manifestation in terms of gentrification as well. I was in the fillmore area in 1966 going to Organization Meetings where people were desperate to find different ways in which they were not being removed from their communities. These are real issues that happen. There have been longstanding issues that go back and find themselves resonating in slavery , going further than that. All the material we have come of the books we have now, all the studies that have been done have outlined that. We have to begin to say, the tell ourselves the truth. James baldwin, the great writer, once said if we cannot tell ourselves the truth of our past we become trapped in it. We are trapped in it. This country is trapped in the truth of not telling the truth. We have to start that as leverage right there. , boblk about education moses has talked about mass literacy is important. Articularly children of color we are to talk about education and preparing our children for 21st century citizenship. This is what we are talking about. Those people who have been most disadvantaged historically, we create a better country. Create a better country. Thank you, sir. The way we operate as we go from member to member and they ask questions. Klein, your recognize for your five minutes. I want to thank the witnesses were being here. Mr. Coates i followed your career with interest. Mr. Glover, im a big fan. I want to thank the witnesses for their remarks. Mr. Hughes, i wanted to ask if there was anything previously that you would like to respond to. Id like to address myself to the comments made on the subject of us not knowing our history, not having told the truth about slavery and jim crow. It strikes me that this is not exactly true. Mr. Glover mentioned all of the studies and books that have been written on the subject. I would argue that in the 10,000 year history of slavery on every continent, theres not a single example of slavery that has been slavery ind than america from the 17th century to the 19th century. Truth thatold the she is not true that we have not told the truth. In the past 50 years if we are talking about what scholars in america and the American Social sciences have directed their attention towards its hard to find a subject on which more books have been written that has been more studied than racial thank you for that. That your career in the nfl and also you spoke of your family. What was the greatest legacy or you to thet brought opinions you hold now question mark the greatest . The greatest legacy was my dad who served in war more to, came world war ii could not a postgraduate in texas because of jim crow laws. Of hundreds of rejection letters. Eventually got to ohio state where he got his phd. A successful entrepreneur, college professor, researcher and someone who is proud of our race. Country they can succeed and if they pull themselves up by their bootstraps, world work harder than the next guy, that is the american way. Him, my legacy from believe to do everything i could that he was proud that i held his name. The greatest thing for my mom, we have come to a point we allow our young men to disrespect women with no consequences. We are not going to develop men we allow our men to call women babies mamas. Its not about 200 years ago. Chicago inn the state of california against antichoice by the way. These kids are stuck in these failing schools because we have a party that is against them moving on to someplace else. In 1932 specifically to still in place today. They wonder why we have so much high unemployment. Business ownership has gone from 40 to 30. 8 . It keeps our young people out of work. It keeps them they are too expensive to hire or get started if you have higher minimum wage. The unions benefit from that by the way. Pen borders hurts our race it is common sense if you have nonamericans coming in paying the work for moral lower wages we get hurt first. Lets get this thing right. Its about our people, my race. We are just as good as anyone else given the opportunity and not told we cant. Already stealing their dreams. We cant afford to do that. My parents generation told us to dream big. Show them they are wrong and we did that. I yield back. Mr. Chairman. Im looking for some im sorry. I saw ms. Lawrence here earlier and she disappeared and she is back and i want to recognize im sorry ms. Lawrence was here and she is gone. Ms. Beatty is here now. Thank you mr. Chairman. Both sides seem to agree this is something that should have been done long ago. I think i heard mr. Hughes say that and mr. Coates you said that. There was an effort after the civil war and reconstruction organized around a field command to redistribute 40 acres and a mule and it never happened and was interrupted and then we had a period of a decade of active National Investment in reconstruction in the south that was undone by White Supremacy. We were never able to follow through on the Political Economic and social promise of reconstruction. Given this history and the distance between now and slavery and the continuing injuries of and theith jim crow sharecropper system and the criminalization of the africanamerican population coates,e civil war, mr. What are the differences in approach that have to be taken now, given the distance of time that has lapsed then had hit been done then had it been , beforeer the civil war the socalled redemption took place . If i could just address the notion of slavery having been well studied and understood, i think my fellow panelist is correct at this moment in history it is true that the system of enslavement in america is probably been the most studied in america. That is not particularly surprising given the extensive and revolutionary and wide system of universities we have in this country, which is probably unprecedented and new development. But i think even given that, it is worth noting the lack of penetration that those studies have had into the mindsets. I dont know if its still here but recently there was a statue garden in the capital that i believe had statues of general lee and Alexander Stephens and one has to ask, in the capital if people understood the history of this country why there would be statues honoring people who led a revolution to destroy it. One would have to ask if that history were well understood, why for instance in the state of mississippi there still was a flag flying, dedicated to people who tried to destroy this country . Why only a couple of years ago we saw the murder of heather heyer, precipitated by a movement to erect a new that one person should stand up and speak for all the generations that came before me, i think the proper thing to do is for this body to convene a committee and convene a discussion about the study to study what the damage was and what potential remedy might be offered and to convene conversations around the country. I also would like to say there has been a lot of shade throwing shall we say on the notion of cutting of checks. I want to say in the spirit of openness, in the spirit of actual study i dont think we should rule out cutting checks. There are people who deserve checks. That actually should be part of the study. We are not ruling out any solution and we should not rule out that when either. Thank you for your emphasis on what hr 40 would do. It would set up a commission to study all of the different dimensions and ramifications of reparations. And what it means. One of the productive aspects of this conversation has been that we have learned it is not just about cutting checks although it is not to the exclusion of that. Its about rethinking our relationship to this whole history, which has been so injurious to so many of our people. Let me focus on the question of the congressional role, because i moved by the fact that it is congress that is taking this up seriously. Enslaved americans helped to build the capital were congress meets. Enslaved americans helped to build the white house where the president sleeps and it was the slave market across the street where the Supreme Court stands today. That was the Supreme Court that gave america the dred scott decision in 1857 and the Supreme Court that gave us plessy versus ferguson in 1896 and recently gave a Shelby County versus holder and shop versus reno in the undoing of the modern civil rights movement, the modern reconstruction. , why is ittion is that congress should be the one you would think we would rely on the Supreme Court for justice in the country but people are coming to congress to act. Perhaps reverend sutton let me come to you about that. I do have to identify the fact that we have two great marylanders here, mr. Coates and mr. Sutton. We are very proud of the view proud of both of you. Let me say i am a bit that my and appalled brother panelist here when we are talking about reparations goes to family and all of that. We are all hardworking and of course i just dont want the impression to be that if those are for reparations dont know about the role of family. Let me just ask you why congress, because your leaders. Legislation helped get us into this mess, legislation has a role, the church has a role, educational systems have a role and maybe even the Supreme Court and hopefully the president. Redress some of what your predecessors did in this congress. So i think you are the only body that can call for this commission that desperately needs to happen. Thank you reverend. Thank you mr. Raskin. I would like to recognize mr. Gomer from texas. Mr. Gohmert from texas. Mr. Glover any time i see your name listed as being in a movie i normally say that is one i will enjoy and i appreciate your body of work throughout your career. You provided a great deal of enjoyment, so thank you for that. I had a colleague mentioned an execution in texas that was the incident arose down in jasper where three white men drug a black man to death. Ive supported the Death Penalty, i was a judge who assessed the Death Penalty, and i would not have a problem with a law that said if in a situation like that the victims family can choose the manner and means of carrying out the Death Penalty but we dont have that law. That case was also heralded as the poster case for needing hate crime legislation, when actually under the hate crime legislation so heralded and passed there is no Death Penalty. The only way these guys got the Death Penalty finally after 21 years, most culpable guy finally was executed. I hearth penalty constantly being referred to as being racist. In my own court the statistics will show three individuals charged and tried for capital murder, two were white and one was black. I assessed the two white men to the blackdeath and gentleman was sentenced to life for his murder. They hate crime laws had nothing to do with actually carrying out the executions in the appropriate case. It is critical to know our history and i have some screenshots from the Democratic Partys history that says our history. To submit that for the record and its interesting and also this wall street journal article , the democrats missing history. Thank you mr. Chair. In thes no reference history of the Democratic Party platform supporting slavery. There were six of those from 1840 to 1860. No reference to democratic president s who owned slaves. There were seven from 1800 to 1861. No reference to the number of democratic platforms that supported segregation outright or were silent on the subject. 1948. Were 20 from 1868 to no reference to jim crow laws nor is there reference to the role the democrats played in creating them. These were the postcivil war is passed by democrats in that pesky fiftyyear part of the dncs missing years. There is no reference that three fourths of the opposition in the 1964 civil rights act, what came in the house from democrats or that 80 of the nay votes in the senate came from democrats. No reference to the fact that the opposition included future Democratic Senate leader robert virginia, former clan member from tennessee senator al gore senior father of Vice President al gore. Theres no reference to the fact that birmingham alabama public ,afety commissioner bull connor who unleashed dogs and fire hoses on civil rights protesters was a member of the Democratic National committee and the ku klux klan. Its important we know our history and we not punish people today for the sins of their predecessors in the Democratic Party. You lie. I just stated all facts. We have people who are denying history. That is not helpful to our discussion. You ns, i would ask understanding that todays claim that the republicans are the party of racism, what do you grandfatherreat silas would have said to someone who claims the republicans are the party of racism . My greatgreatgrandfather lived through that period and he would not have said that because at the time all blacks were republicans because that was the party that gave the freedom. Have you suffered for taking these conservative positions . I guess what it comes down to is i dont think ive suffered it all. Im think will to grow up in an age where i was the fourth black american to be to get a scholarship to university of miami, one of the first black to integrate the school. I understand what racism looks like and how it felt. My mom said one thing specifically, make sure you dont let someone elses problem become yours. Dont let a racist let you become one. The other thing, my dad taught leader. Simply to be a if its right, do it, if its wrong, dont. I love my country, my race, my family and then comes all the other stuff of being it makes no difference to me. In ouran important part country where black americans are waking up. I know a lot might not agree with what im saying. Let it simmer. Look around and see where our misery is being done today. In the urban communities throughout our country where kids have no hope, no jobs, no families, no dads and no one telling them they can make it. If we understand that and take responsibility as every generation has done in the past the nextgeneration feels better about their opportunities, we are failing them big time if we dont change our narrative. These kids can do it. We have to believe in them and give them opportunities and tell them to man up or woman up. Things go sideways for every person who lives. When you go sideways stand up and lets get when it go sideways, stand up, and lets get back on track. Thank you. We will move on. Like all of you for being here today. First i would like to recognize the congressman who is with us today. Also give another reminder to the cloud. The next person that screams out will ask to be removed. We have to have order. Keep it together. Representative swallow well, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairman. Im a proud cosponsor of hr 40. Ive listened to some of my colleagues, mr. Glover, tell you how much they like your movies. I have to say we did not come here to talk about your movies. We came here to talk about your activism. I like your activism. I also like your movies. I want to give you a chance because i havent heard the other side other than tell you that they like your movies. They want to hear what you have to say on this important issue. The Senate Majority leader has said that no one living is responsible and no way to compensate for this. He is suggesting theres no way to pay for it. I guess id ask you, mr. Glover, would you agree if a black College Graduate is paying on average about 10,000 more in student loan debt, we are paying for it. Would you agree if the black population is disproportionately incarcerated to any other population, that were paying for it . And would you believe and agree if the Health Care Cost for a black family are extraordinarily higher than for a white family, that were actually already paying for it . Mr. Glover statistics would suggest that. I think theres such a discussion that we seem to miss the point on and often as we talk about the different issues that we deal with in this country and their intersectionalism and the issue whether talking historically or talk about how those things manifest themselves in our policy and what we do today. What we dont do today is to evoke the kind of spirit that was so essential in this countrys formation. In this country in the moments in when there were radical changes in this country. We often talk about the right for organized labor to organize. The impact they had on the Africanamerican Community and in the 20th century past the end of world war ii. The benefits that were accrued at that particular point. Those people who struggle for that, whether its emma goldman and the lists of activists of men and women who raised the bar with respect to our sense of revolutionary purpose in that sense. What i think with incredible wealth that this country has and resources this has and the capacity to do what it wants done. When i came into the world there were opportunities that were different than previous generations. There were more schools that were built instead of prisons. There were more opportunities for employment and new opportunities for employment. Rep. Swalwell were going back . Mr. Glover more Infrastructure Development and all those things that play a role in our own ability and my own enhancement and collectively as well. I think when we talk about them, when i went to college i didnt have the debt responsibility that students have now. And certainly theres ways in which we can mediate that. Certainly theres been arguments about whether college should be free. Whether we should build more colleges and provide different opportunities. But we also have the transformation of a society that was an industrial society, Industrial Work force and now that depends directly on different forms of intelligence and technology. Thats a place where those who are most vulnerable across the board have not been they have not benefitted from those new technologies. The picture that im painting is a much larger picture within the dangers that we have relative Global Warming and Climate Change and all the other issues. We can say right now the Health Condition of africanamericans is pretty desperate in places. They live in toxic situations. We can talk about Environmental Issues that we havent talked about and that could be a part of study that we talk about hr40. There are various things. To codefy this, i think the broader look at this study would reveal some of things about what can happen and what the possibility is. It seems as if dr. King said the imagination is the incredible vehicle for us. Albert einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge itself. Then certainly the capacity that we have in terms of imagining a Better Future for africanamerican children and africanamericans, the descendents of slaves, we also would imagine a better opportunities for this country as well. Thank you. Rep. Swalwell i want to put this on the record. I was not in house when your resolution came up for a vote but i would have voted to support it. I am sorry its something our government was responsible for and Mitch Mcconnell may be right that no one alive is responsible for what happened then but every one alive is responsible to do something now. Thank you. [applause] i would like to yield to my Ranking Member from louisiana. I thank my colleague. I wanted to pitch it back to mr. Hughes for a moment. In spite of your relative young age, youve had some valuable experience discussing race and culture. I wonder what advice you would give to young people who are thinking about this. As mr. Owen said, everyone should let them urinate a bit. Its been suggested that ignorance of our history is a big part of this. Whats the response and what advice do you give to young people . Mr. Hughes i would urge people to observe the distinction between understanding history and responding to history. You can understand history and it can still be the case that you have a range of possible responses in front of you. Addressing myself to mr. Coates comment before, if i understand them, the idea is if we really understood our history then we wouldnt keep confederate statues up. Thet bill up implies fact that they are still up implies that we dont really understand it in our bones. That highlights the distinction between how i think about this issue and how other people on the panel think about it. For example, there was a poll in the Washington Post last year which found that 30 of black virginians wanted the confederate statues to stay up. I dont think they wanted that because they hated themselves. I dont think they wanted that because they didnt understand their own history. Perhaps they were people who didnt like seeing their communities change. There are many people like that. I respect that. Even though i myself would be fine to see those statues come down. The point here is that our response, whether or not you agree with it, is not itself evidence we dont understand our history. We can have two separate conversations. One is what happened in this country. What was done to black people. What harm was incurred and the second conversation is what do we do about that. That second conversation is the the answer to that second conversation is not selfevident from the answer to the first. Rep. Johnson thank you. I see mr. Owens making notes over there. I know you have a lot to contribute. You do a lot with young people. What would you add to that . Mr. Owens i would say we live in the United States of america, the greatest country, a place that every person that comes here that apply themselves to the rules, to the standard in which we can all succeed, treat people right, dream big, and get back up when you fall down then they can make it. History is there for us to find out and gauge ourselves how far we come. 50 years ago, guys fighting on the football field, being one of four black athletes, are some of my best friends on facebook today because we have all grown up. We have all understood the message of our fathers were incorrect and we are doing our best to make sure we are the better people to move forward. Every generation works to find its better self. As long as we dont reach back and define ourselves by the worst of ourselves and thats what too many people are doing today. We have americans in this country, and we call them elitists, that live the american dream. Put their kids in the best colleges ever. Drive every place you think of. Not have any issues. Are going to have have a great retirement and tell the rest of our race they cant do it. Why . Because the white man wont let them. I personally think thats an insult to my parents, my grandparents. I did not grow up around white people until i was 16 years old and i was so proud to be up in that community in tallahassee, florida, because we were kicking butt. We were leading our kids. They were teaching us how to be proud americans. Last point. I went to university of miami to study biology. By the time i was in my junior year i decided i didnt want to biology anymore. You know i stayed with it . Because i was leaving high school and a white guy said i couldnt do it. My parents taught me if they say you cant, you do it. I lived in a library to prove that guy wrong. Thats the way our race was. Thats the way our race needs to be again. What we can achieve, not think about what has happened to us in past. What strangers did to us 200 years ago has nothing to do with us because thats not in our dna. Rep. Johnson thank you. I got 15 seconds. Give me one more question. You wrote an article a while back in the black American Culture and the racial wealth gap and you talked about city of boston and there was a disparity within the black community and you pointed out that black bostonians of american ancestry had a median household of wealth of eight dollars, but the caribbean ancestry had 12,000. Talk about the disparity. I wondered if you would comment on that . This goes back to the point i made about disparities within races being normal. If you look at census figures for white americans and break it down instead of talk about white people into french, swedish ancestry, russian ancestry, youll find all disparities that by definition cannot be caused by some kind of systemic discrimination. Likewise with quote, unquote black americans, it is a very diverse group. Something like 10 of black people in this country are immigrants from places like jamaica, haiti, nigeria. If you look at each individual group youll find various disparities in wealth, income, crime rates that by definition cant be explained by either race or racism. My point in citing that disparity is to upset the notion that if society were fair, evidence of that would be equal outcomes between all groups because theres so many differences, historically in groups themselves, in terms of median age. The average black person is ten years younger than the average white person. When you are comparing blacks to whites, thats one of the many ways you are not comparing apples to apples. My point was to upset that lazy assumption we make about socio econmic outcomes. Socioeconomic outcomes. I recognize miss gammon for five minutes. Thank you. Before coming to Congress Just last november, i was a Public Interest attorney. My work focused on access to justice, access to the ballot and access to a good public education. All three forms of access as we have been discussing here today are too often denied to people of color and poor people and unfortunately as we discussed theres a disproportionate representation of people of color among poor people in this country. I want to ask questions to talk about the relationship between the structural legacy of racism and slavery and a couple of issues top of my mind in district. In my district. One of them is Environmental Justice. The city of chester is in my district. It is a majority africanamerican population and its surrounded by heavily polluting industries. Just sunday night cnn united shades of america featured the incinerators there. One in four children, africanamerican children, in my district, have asthma largely as a result of these environmental factors. We have this Environmental Justice issue we are dealing with. We have schools issues. Pennsylvania has one of the most wildly Inequitable School Funding systems. If you go to schools and in philadelphia and the majority africanamerican school districts, you see schools over 100 years old and theres asbestos and lead paint dripping into the water fountains that the children have to use. Then a third issue which weve touched on is our policing and criminal just justice issues, where africanamerican folks are locked up at five times the rate of white people. How does this reparations conversation help us drive forward those issues . How can i link it for folks in my district to the issues they are facing daily . If i could ask reverend sutton and then mr. Coates to maybe address that. Rev. Sutton thank you. Those issues are linked. We have to make a distinction between personal responsibility and social responsibility. I go into the high schools in baltimore as well and we even sponsor programs to convince High Schoolers you can do this. You can succeed. You can make it. Thats personal responsibility. When you go into the schools and you see the conditions. You see the quality of the teaching. You know that they dont have the same shot as those who live ten miles away or five miles away. One of the roles of the congress is to make sure there is a Corporate Responsibility we all have for all of our citizens. We can celebrate the strides that have been made in Racial Attitudes in this country. Were proud of the accomplishments of many africanamerican individuals. Im proud of my accomplishments. I have worked very hard, and my brothers and sisters, but for the millions of descendents of slaves who are trapped in the cycle of hopelessness, poverty and rage, due to the real experience of inequity inferior , schools, red lining and the like, the widespread assumption that everyone can pull themselves up by their boot straps is a lie. Its a falsehood. Thats one of things that this legislation wants to address. Thank you. Rep. Scanlon thank you. Coates . Mr. Coates this will get repetitive. It comes back to the weight of history. I heard it said just earlier , for instance, that the matters which face us today have nothing to do with our strangers from 200 years ago. Thats not the attitude we take towards george washington. Thats not the attitude we take towards abraham lincoln. We take that attitude to history that were ashamed of. We dont take that attitude towards history that were proud of. Again, as i said earlier, answering another question and one of the great weights of 250 years of enslavement in this country, which is longer than 150 years of freedom that africanamericans have enjoyed is the codification of the idea of interiority among black people, and not just in the culture, but in the very laws themselves. Even after those laws are repealed, as well they should, the idea still remains and its passed on. For instance, it was said by one of my fellow Committee Members theres a difference between the incomes of caribbean black immigrants and native blacks. This is true. It is also understandable. People who come to america to pursue opportunity generally do better than the masses of a whole group who have been here. This is true of all immigrants. Is not particularly surprising. This is not particularly surprising. What happens when you look at that Second Generation . What happens when you look at that Third Generation of caribbean blacks . In fact, unlike all other groups, they quickly become africanamerican blacks in terms of their other statistics. Why is that . Its the weight of history. Its the implicit idea thats codified in our laws, in our criminal justice system. In the very places we live. There is no way to get out of this. Theres no way of escaping this without a direct confrontation. Without hr40. The very reason were here. Thank you very much. Thank you. Before i go do my next, id like to recognize mr. Wade henderson. He was the president of the Leadership Conference on human and civil right and a great hero for many years. Thank you for your attendance and your years of work. Mr. Hillary shelton was here earlier and they were a team. He was the naacp and he left. Miss dean, youre recognized for five minutes. Rep. Dean thank you. I thank you for having this hearing. As troubling as this topic is, i cant tell how you how glad that were here today. I cant tell you how glad this conversation is taking place. I thank my congresswoman from texas, miss jackson lee, for her extraordinary, tenacious leadership on this legislation. Were here to acknowledge the terrible wrong in history. To recognize the continuation of those injuries and thats one area i want to examine quickly if i can and discover a remedy to these atrocities. Some measure of healing for this country. If i could take a look in the time that im allotted at two things. Mr. Coates, i wanted to ask you about the ongoing predatory practices. I happen to be a member of the Financial Services committee and we have examined some of the practices by wells fargo in predatory sub prime lending in the Africanamerican Community. Too often we hear that this is a thing of the past. This is not something thats happened today. Theres not an ongoing problem. Youre dealing with something thats past. Its not past. The discrimination, the atrocities continue. If you could help me with the predatory practices, and then, i want to try to lift it a little because i love that you said that it is important for our White Brothers and sisters. We need this as much, if not more, for the healing of our soul. The healing of the soul of the country. You talked about the liberating power of having this conversation and taking a look at this. If we could talk about ongoing predatory practices and discrimination, and then take it to the other side. Mr. Coates sure, as i was saying earlier. Its like any other injury. Theres the primary effect of the injury and theres the secondary and tertiary effects of that injury. Africanamericans have a history of segregation in this country. What that means is not merely living separately from whites. It means living separate from whites with the explicit purposes of denying certain benefits and funding and resources to black people. In the case of the housing history in the 20th century, that meant for long periods of time, while this country was making available to middle class and working class white families, low interest loans, the possibility of homeownership, which had not been available in the previous proceeding decade, black people were completely cut out of that process. Still there was that dream of buying a home. What that gap left was for predatory lending that didnt enjoy backing of the fha to come into black neighborhoods and make loans under conditions that were, to say the least, onerous. In some conditions black people didnt own the home. Rep. Dean contract lending. Mr. Coates contract lending, yes. Rep. Dean give us a quick definition of that. Mr. Coates i dont have access to the normal routes of banking to buy a home and so a contract lender comes in and pretends to sell me the home and gives me the responsibilities of the homeowner, the upkeep, the maintenance, taxes, et cetera but holds onto the deeds. It is a high tech buy rent option. Rep. Dean the other practice that wells fargo participated in in a huge way in the early 2000s, 2005 as quoted by a former wells fargo loan officer, they went into black communities through their churches and pushed sub prime lending on those folks who would have qualified for regular mortgages and she said, we went right after them. Shes a former member of wells fargo. Wells fargo mortgage had an emerging market unit and targeted black churches because it figured we could convince congress to take sub prime loans. Thats recent. Thats ongoing kind of stuff. Thats egregious. Anybody who says this is a thing of the past just isnt paying attention. Mr. Coates congressman, just really quickly, the reason i insist on history because that group of people was vulnerable in the first place is because of jim crow. They never would have been in the history in that place if not for the history. Rep. Dean if you dont mind, miss brown. Im from suburban pennsylvania, can you tell us what it felt like and why we should argue that for us and paint that picture . Brown thank you so much. There are so many layers to it. The part of what hasnt been mentioned today is the fact that race is a fiction. Slavery, the very concept of race and of one race being superior to another was invented to justify slavery, and it was also deployed in order to have White Working Class indentured servants in virginia in the colonial era identify with this notion of whiteness and with wealthier whites, rather than identify with enslaved africans and native people with whom they had common cause, and so theres a lot of layers to this history that i think for a lot of the white americans who feel like this is just an accusation and this is just yet another case of calling their people historically racist or calling them racist today. In my experience, the African American community is much more sophisticated about understanding that some of these dynamics, for example, with the g. I. Bill and what not, its mundane complicity of white folks who are benefitting from a system and looking the other way. Theyre not getting up in the morning and saying i want to be racist. Theres an understanding of that among those of us in the field doing this work. Theyre coming back to the learning of the history. It is liberatory to get beyond the concept of race. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I know im over. Thank you. Sylvia, youre on. Thank you. I want to thank the chairman for bringing this forward. Of course to my colleague from houston that weve worked for many years on some social justice issues at home. Its great to stand with you again in this time here on such a very, very Important National topic. I am a cosponsor and i pledge to you that i will work shoulder to shoulder with you to make sure we get this done. And to all the people in the audience, thank you for being here. I know its been a long hearing. I think it is going to be [indiscernible] rep. Garcia thank you for being here, and i know youve been waiting, but i think the waiting will be worth it when we get to the end of the tunnel. So thank you all for being here and bishop, i want to start with you. It really did warm my heart that you have some scripture notes here and that you mentioned jesus. You know, i have a very deeply firm religious belief that we really are all created equal and we really are children of god, and i want you to just pretend that instead of speaking to us right now, that youre speaking to the average american who may not have Read Everything that we have, may not have been as attuned to this hearing, but is kind of wondering what this is really all about, because as much as you say and others have said that this isnt about a check, the bottom line is that when some people Start Talking about reparations, they think its just about that. My question to you is what would jesus do about reparations . Rev. Sutton well, when it comes to those questions, i like to remind people im in sales, not management. [laughter] i dont im not going to make those decisions. Rep. Garcia very nice, good start. Rev. Sutton but i want to be clear. Its not just about a check. Rep. Garcia correct. Rev. Sutton when i think of out about some African American women who are languishing in Nursing Homes with no money, no wealth, and no, lets cut a check. I think about some others where a check would be really good. I just wanted to be clear about this. Its not essentially about money. Its about being good. Theres been talk about our nation being a great nation. Or to make it great again. Or the greatest nation of all. I am more concerned about this nation being good. Lets be good. Lets do a good thing, and if we can be good enough, then let history and let people around the world say the United States is great. Not because you can make a lot of money there. Not because you can enrich yourself. Not because of the size of your military or your armies. Theyre great because theyre good. And so i am here today to witness to being good about this. That there is some Unfinished Business in this nation. Lastly, about the souls. In 1903 web devoice wrote a famous book the souls of black folk. I would like to see another book written, the souls of white folk. What does it do to your soul to know that some of the benefit you get from your white skin and your background is not accrued to everybody . What does that do to your soul . And so this is a soulful act, i think, that we are talking about today, and its really going to take all of us. I said earlier that we have forgiven you. What i mean is were here. Were in america. We want america to be good and great. Archbishop desmond tutu of south africa said once without forgiveness, there is no future. We have to forgive one another, but that doesnt mean we stop there. We have work to do, and this is work for reconciliation. I wonder if my sister here rep. Garcia actually, i had a question for mr. Coates. Youd have to go really quickly. I had one question for mr. Coates. If you wanted to add Something Real quick, im running out of time. Im the economist on the panel. Rep. Garcia i know that. Its frustrating economic questions are being directed to noneconomists. [applause] i have things id like to say about some of this, but thank you, my brother, for passing the mic. I appreciate it. Questions about predatory lending really need your sister congresswoman raised, really need to be dealt with, because its not just that its something thats happening rep. Garcia if youre going to talk about predatory lending, could you also add, i was going to ask him, and you could answer. This whole history of the exclusion of blacks from some of the early programs like Social Security. Yes, minimum wage. Rep. Garcia its about economic security. If you could blend your answer, that would be great, then that i wont use my time to get both questions. Sure, we can look at the minimum wage which excludes farm workers in the south, excluded domestic workers, black women. Those folks were excluded not only from the minimum wage but also from the Social Security system. So your comment about black women in Nursing Homes is very pointed, given all of that. I mean, we have to look at this. The hearts and minds questions, im an economist. I leave that to the reverend. My thing is, lets look at the economic punds underpinnings, the economic underpinnings, the wealth gap and the differences that it makes. Sister congresswoman, when you talked about predatory lending, a third of the people who have predatory loans qualified for regular loans. A third of them. However, they did not get them because of the way that slavery, racism, basically segregated people. While it is lovely to sing kumbaya, i think its even better to talk about whats going on economically and the differences that exist because of the wealth gap. When a black woman, man is arrested, absent wealth, they lay up in the jail for i dont know how many days because they dont have the home to mortgage to get the bail. And cash bail is discriminatory. We can just go down the list and talk about the way the very many ways that racism affects the quality of folks lives. With all due respect to the kumbaya brothers over here im proud of my family too. We are good black people, too. I have a phd. I have two mbas. Im not going to give you my family history, but it is irrelevant. It is irrelevant when youre dealing with structure. I want you all, Congress People to deal with issues of economic structure and economic structure has generated an inequality that makes it difficult for people to live their lives. When zip code determines the kind of school you go to or what kind of food you eat, these are the vestiges of enslavement that a lot of people dont want to deal with. Forgive my im kind of over the top. I usually am. Those in the audience who know me, tick, tick, boom. But im gratified, sheila, congresswoman jackson lee for the hearings. Im also frustrated for the tone that some of this has taken, because it takes us away from the economic underpinnings of what needs to go on here. Rep. Garcia thank you. [applause] thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield to the gentleman from louisiana. I thank my colleague. This has really been a thoughtful discussion. I know were nearing the end. Thank you everybody for their patience. I want to touch on something the reverend said a moment ago about america being good. It is good. It is the greatest nation in the history of the world. There is a reason for that. Gk chesterton was a british philosopher who said america is the only nation in the world founded upon a creed. He said its listed in the declaration of independence. What is the creed . Were the first people in the history of the world that openly acknowledged, boldly declared, that we are created in the image of god, and therefore, every single people has human rights. That is a selfevident truth. We are trying to live up to that promise. Martin luther king junior said it was a promissory note to future generations. Were trying to get there. The honest question is the payment, ok, which would be part of this by many peoples estimation. Is that part of pertaining to the ultimate goal . Its a thoughtful question. Its a serious one. I dont think you should disparage the motives of anybody asking these piercing questions. Were going to and we are. Youre all part of the dialogue. Im grateful its largely been a civil discussion. I appreciate your contributions. Let me go back to mr. Owens. In a 2018 interview you noted that you said, quote, it was the black community that led our country in terms of the growth of the middle class. Between 40 and 50 of black americans became part of the middle class. The black Community Led the country in terms of commitment to men to marriage at at over 70 . I wonder if you could elaborate on what you attribute that to. Mr. Owens head, heart, home, hands. We were a race that believed in god, very committed to the christian faith. Because we did, our men believed in being the men of the household to provide for their kids and wife and took that commitment very seriously. They took pride in being producers. The idea of me being a beggar was not an option. When i failed seven years coming out of the nfl, totally humbling, but for a brief few months i was going to be a chimney sweep, a security guard. That is the way we were taught. Do whatever you have to do to take care of your family. At the end of the day, thats what we were taught. We have now were turning my race into one feeling theyre entitled to somebody elses property without asking for something, reparation, that well get to funding, but something we never experienced ourselves in our lives. Not owed because we have a chance every single day to make a choice. I can choose today to be more successful or less. It has nothing to do with my ancestors, my great great grandfather. Other than that i am proud he showed me how to overcome obstacles. We need to get back the pride that we had in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as a race when we were competing against the white race. When we were segregated. When our money stayed within our community, and our leadership stayed in our community. We werent trying to get out to somebody elses race to give them our business. We need to recognize that within our kids is our future. I personally believe this. Right now we have over 60,000 of our youth thats incarcerated every single year. These kids, most of them, 85 dont have fathers. We need to give them hope and that this country can give them a great opportunity that they can build businesses or move their future on. They will bring us back, and i believe those kids, the ones we give hope again, will bring our country back from the abyss. We need to give them the right message first. Rep. Johnson very well said. Mr. Hughes, i know theres a lot said here, and i know you have thoughts on a lot of those topics. I yield back to you. What would you like to add to the conversation . Mr. Hughes yeah. A lot has been said. Im not sure theres any one specific thing i want to respond to. Rep. Johnson thats great. I respect that. We are probably out of questions on this side. Again, on behalf of everybody here, i think i speak for all my colleagues, we appreciate your interest, interest, involvement, weve had a thoughtful discussion. I think it is important for the country to do this. Im grateful and i yield back. Thank you, mr. Johnson. Thank you so much, mr. Chairman. I want to just say how proud i am and fortunate i feel to be in the room with all of you, to be able to have this very important discussion. And to participate in this historic hearing. I want to quickly thank and acknowledge my sister congresswoman, the congresswoman, the gentle lady from texas. Thank you, sheila, for your incredible work and your passion, and the dignity and strength you bring to this discussion. And as my colleague from california, ms. Bass mentioned, this is a difficult conversation to have but one that is long overdue. Dr. Melvo, i appreciate your dr. Malveaux, i appreciate your economic perspective, and i want to ask you a couple of questions rooted in that economic background that you have so you can help the country understand the significance of why we have to have this conversation. So first id like to ask you to respond to critics of this bill who claim that the u. S. Has already paid reparations to African Americans through affirmative action. How would you respond to that . Ms. Malveaux thank you so much, sister congresswoman for the question. Let me say that affirmative action, the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action were white women. [applause] and there is a Significant Research that shows that. Because white women were better poised to take advantage of the benefits. You have disadvantage and discrimination. The African American community had disadvantage plus discrimination. White women simply had discrimination. When you look at the data, you will not find that African Americans significantly benefitted from affirmative action. It was a lot of talk and not a lot of action. So when people talk about weve already paid reparations, ive heard people talk about the fact that white people died in the civil war fighting on the side of the north. Well, the north was also a beneficiary of enslavement, quite frankly, and my sister here, who talked about her family has lifted that up. So though the reparations have not been paid, and the fact is that were not again, some folks may want checks but what were really talking about is closing that wealth gap and making people whole. Rep. Escobar thank you. And to that point about the wealth gap, you have remarked and pointed out that the income gap was actually shrinking until government played a role. The income gap for formally enslaved individuals. Ms. Malveaux the wealth gap. The wealth gap was shrinking until jim crow laws intruded in the ways people were able to live their lives. The tommy moss story i told, the guy who opened the grocery store, ida b wells goddaughters dad. He dared to compete with white people. Because he dared to compete with white people, he basically lost his life. Tulsa, oklahoma, when the governor of oklahoma actually appointed a commission to find out why the wall street massacre occurred, one of the newspapers came up with this conclusion. Too many nwords have too much money. That was the conclusion of an official government commission. And black wall street was amazing. Dr. Olivia hooker who passed just last november was the oldest living survivor. She was a friend, and she said we didnt have to leave the black community for anything except for banking. We had our own grocery stores. Department stores, black doctors built a library when white folks wouldnt build a library for black people. That economic thriving became a source of envy. Wilmington, North Carolina where brotherman over here wants to talk about people want to talk ugly about democrats. People change their ideologies. The democrats were the devil once upon a time. There was a group called the red shirts, the klan. They were democrats. However, the republicans took that over. They became the devil. Im just saying. Forgive me, brother chairman. I know you said im not supposed to say that. Forgive me. People do change ideology. All this throwing at democrats democrats and republicans have been racist, but in wilmington, North Carolina, republicans and black people came together to form a fusion government. And white folks were so frightened that they took all the prominent black men in that town, arrested them, the next morning gave them tickets to leave town. They had to leave their property, their livelihood, their families, everything. This is why we need reparations. Democrats were so threatened by the notion of this fusion government that they basically burned people out. They documented 60 deaths. Theres a film when i was talking and you told me i couldnt talk, theres a film called wilmington on fire. I want everyone to watch this film. It does talk about what happened in wilmington in 1898 when they just basically burned black folks houses. 25 of the black people in wilmington left. Nearly a third of the black businesses in wilmington went out of business. It was really about economic envy. So absent this economic envy and fear, black folks, we didnt get the 40 acres and a mule, but we were still trying to do it, and then folks said wait a minute. If we let them do their thing, wheres our cheap labor going to come from . Thats what happened. Thank you for the question. Rep. Escobar thank you so much. Chairman, im out of time. Appreciate it very much. And last but far from least is the sponsor of hr40, the honorable Sheila Jackson lee for her five minutes plus. [laughter] [applause] jacksonackson rep. Lee thank you. It is appropriate for me, mr. Chairman, to thank you so very much and to dispel this audience from any suggestion and witnesses that were here on a temporary pass doing temporary work thats going to be fleeting and never to be seen again. I want to thank chairman cohen, who comes from the heart of memphis in tennessee. Who has walked in the life of a dual society. And i want to thank chairman nadler who has indicated, as i did, supported hr40 and the leadership of john conyers. I want to thank all my colleagues on this panel for their diligence and outstanding questions. They are going to be in the forefront of educating, answering the questions, being a team, and i look forward to their work on this very powerful committee. Judiciary committee. What better place to have this hearing, and to those who are, again, trying to understand our process, you have to have a hearing. Then there is something called a markup. Then there is a vote in the committee. And then there is the opportunity to go to the floor of the house of representatives, on to the senate, which will be the other body as we call it. And the challenge that i will accept and i hope that you will accept. And then a signature by a president of the United States of america. Let this day, june 19, 2019, be the marker for the commitment to each and every one of you who have come to support to say on my watch, we will watch this bill pass and be signed by the president of the United States of america. [applause] i want to acknowledge pastor allen patterson, who is from my hometown. He is the inheritor of a great History Church in fifth ward Historic Church in fifth ward texas that was a settling place for freed slaves. Im delighted hes here. I thank him. All the others ive thanked. Let me thank the witnesses. Mr. Chairman was kind, but i will be diligent. Let me thank the witnesses who are here. Each and every one of them. Let me thank mr. Coates, mr. Glover, miss browne, miss hughes, owens, Taylor Sutton and malveaux and professor miller. Let me get to my questions at this point. During the red summer of 1919 , violence against African American communities erupted. Two years later 300 African American americans were killed and the entire community in greenwood was destroyed. Black owned homes and businesses were burned. At least 8 people were killed. Despite African American service in world war ii. I commend mr. Coleman and i think, mr. Owens and mr. Hughes. Read the bill. The bill says this is a study to consider a National Apology which has been done and a proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery. The institution of slavery has never gone away. It exists. It is subsequent to juror and effective. It is subject to the laws and the current atmosphere of what has generated today. Racial and economic discrimination against African Americans and the impact of these forces on living African Americans that are to make recommendations to the congress on appropriate remedies and for other purposes. Why does the congress have to do it . Because the congress is the law making body of the federal government, and it was the state and federal government that institutionalized laws that made slavery an act of the state. It is not the courts. They will interpret, but we have to correct our error. And that is why, in the historic moment, republicans, and i guess some democrats, came together in the congress and supported the 13th amendment. Which then democrats and republicans or whatever they were called at that time throughout the states, then the states voted to accept that particular amendment. That is why the Congress Must do its job. I welcome the opinions, but i would argue to the gentleman from columbia that you are, i think, without the Historical Perspective and the pain of being opposed at your very young age to affirmative action and reparations. [applause] rep. Jackson lee so i would welcome a continuing debate. My door is open for you. I welcome you being here as a witness. But i think it is important to take note of this. One, my not my husband. Excuse me. Love him, too. My father was ezra clyde jackson. He was the baby boy of a widow mother with three brothers that went to world war ii. A young man that graduated from high school for arts in new york city. He, out of high school, went to the cartoon industry in new york. It was thriving. What an amazing thing for a young black boy. When the white men came back from world war ii, my father was fired for them to take his place. I was not born then, but i can tell you that the life of that talented black man was never the same. Until some 40 years later when he was able to, his talent never lost, able to be called back into that industry. Racism. It wasnt slavery. It wasnt 1892. It was in these prosperous 1940s you were talking about that my father, because of the color of his skin, his brilliant talent, the cartoonist artist that he was, was fired. And so the question i have, dr. Malveaux, while the white middle class was being bullied being bouyed by the new deal, African Americans were consistently excluded from the benefits. For example, the 1935 Social Security act carved out jobs largely filled by African American workers such as farm and Domestic Labor from the old age and unemployment insurance. Federal housing programs also discriminated against African Americans by redlining black neighborhoods to preclude them from receiving federal Housing Administration fha. The gi bill was dedicated billions of dollars toward expanding opportunity for soldiers returning from war also contributed to the widening gap between white and black americans. Southern congressional leaders made certain programs were controlled by local white officials, resulting in black veterans being denied Housing Loans. I want to get to your seat mate there, mr. Miller. Im going to you first. I also want to get to mr. Coates. I think all of the other witnesses. Could you comment on this impact, this continuing impact when we didnt benefit from that . Ms. Malveaux both of the hearing and for the question, the continuing impact is it shows up in the wealth gap. In addition, the entirety of the way that we redlined black communities through the federal Housing Administration, redline communities so people could not get Housing Loans even when they qualified for them. This was government policy. This is why Congress Must do this. Congress did the devil and now congress has to do the right thing. Its quite simple. Im so happy you mentioned the g. I. Bill for a couple reasons. Number one, as you said, the state authorities decided who got benefits. In the state of mississippi, fewer than 1,000 and the number is 600 or 700. Im just going to rounded up. Fewer than 1,000 black men were able to go to college on the g. I. Bill from mississippi because when they went to get their g. I. Benefits, they said you can go to Barber School or trade school, but they were qualified to go to college. Should have had the opportunity. Would have had generational differences. Congress has indifferently, essentially, sidelined black people from the opportunities that they created for white people. Its plain and simple. Sidelined us from the opportunities. Thats why its time now to talk about how to fix that. My brother who has work in tulsa can talk so much more about that. But let us say the commission that is created must go through line by line and look at all this and detail it. I dont like to think like i said, im not kumbaya. I dont like to think white white people are evil. I think theyre ignorant. They dont know the history, and i commend you all to look at the history and the work that youve done in the past and then challenge you to do the right thing. Rep. Jackson lee thank you. Mr. Coates, may i just may i bring you to the 21st century and a recent article in the New York Times that basically says thank you. But in the shadows this is kansas city. Downtown is booming. But in the shadows of the citys thriving business are languishing east side neighborhoods with boarded up homes, overgrown lots, the shiny caps and store fronts are almost nonexistent and residents feel forgotten. I love downtown and would love to see it grow, but youve got to be real, says ms. Bowman who lives in the predominantly black east side. Its like neglect. We get the leftovers. Can you just bring that together for us and what you have ascertained about the commission, racism, and where we are today . Mr. Coates sure. You know, i think the consistent point from the comments that you just made in the article, structuring back to the period of enslavement in the country is the idea of theft. Enslavement is theft. 250 years black people had the fruits of their labor stolen from them. We dont often think about jim crow and the era of segregation as theft, but it is. If i agree to pay taxes, if i agree to fealty to a government and you give me a different level of resources out of the tax pool or if you give me a different level of protection, youve effectively stolen from me. If you deny my ability to vote and participate in the political process, to decide how those resources are used, you have stolen from me. It makes a kind of sense that after a period that begins in 1619 of theft, ending conservatively, conservatively in 1968 i think id get an argument on that conservatively in 1968, that if you steal from a group of people over that long a period of time, youll have the wealth gap that aux resulted from. Its important to thing that into the conversation. This wasnt a passive discrimination. This was appropriating from resources from one group and giving them to others from the auspices of the state. Rep. Jackson lee thank you. I am grateful to yield back. I feel the power in this room. I would ask my colleague mr. Johnson, let us work together. Lets get this done. It is long overdue. It is deserving, and it is the right thing to do. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you, miss lee, and i want to thank all our witnesses. This concludes todays hearing. I want to thank our witnesses. Its been a great panel. This is what magnified times 10, 20, 50 a study would be like. This panel would be heard and heard and heard and people would get the story of whats happened in america, and different perspectives on how to deal with it. Without objection, all members will have five legislative days to submit additional written questions for the witnesses or additional material for the record. I want to thank Ranking Member and all of my members. Our attendance was excellent. If anybody sees jon stewart, tell him everybody was here and attentive. With that, the hearing is adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer you can watch all of this hearing any time at cspan. Orgs video library. Type reparations in the search bar. You will find the hearing in its entirety as well as vault as well as all of the hearings we cover. That is cspan. Org. Announcer today at 3 00 p. M. Eastern, democratic president ial candidate senator Bernie Sanders hosts a town hall at Clinton College in rock hill, south carolina. , cspan. Org,span or listen on the free cspan radio app. Political cartooning is like advertising on television. You have five seconds to capture the viewers attention and deliver the point and sell the product. The only differences with alevision, you are selling product. With political cartoons, you are celebrating and ideas. Selling an idea. I would say the clintons are probably my favorite political family. I won my first pulitzer in 1994 on the back of that administration. Changing these, you are changing their features not only to make them into a cartoon , but show the dynamics of their personality as well. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a