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WASHINGTON - The debate over whether to pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people will take a step forward Wednesday when a House committee votes on legislation to create a commission to study the issue, which has been fiercely debated over the past year on the campaign trail and in several communities across the country.
The bill was first proposed in 1989 by former congressman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., but has never received a committee vote as it drew little interest from congressional leaders. But advocates of reparations pushed it to the forefront last year as racial justice protests were held across the country following more police killings of Black Americans, including George Floyd in Minneapolis.