Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 23
Image: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs
JAN 1989
Rep. John Conyers
(D–Michigan) introduces
H.R. 40, the Commission
to Study and Develop
Reparation Proposals
for African Americans
Act. This legislation
calls for the creation of
a commission to study
and submit a formal
report to Congress and
the American people
with its findings and
recommendations on
remedies and reparation
proposals for African
Americans. Conyers
reintroduces the measure
in every congressional
session until his
retirement in 2017.
JUNE 2019
JULY 2019
The House Judiciary
Committee holds a
hearing on H.R. 40 —
now sponsored by Rep.
Sheila Jackson Lee
(D–Texas). Sen. Cory
Booker (D–New Jersey),
then a Democratic
presidential candidate,
had introduced a
Senate companion bill
earlier in the year.
Movement for Black
Lives (M4BL) releases
a reparations toolkit
in 2019 to educate the
public: “We demand
reparations for past
and continuing harms.
The government,
responsible
corporations and other
institutions that have
profited off of the harm
they have inflicted on
Black people — from
colonialism to slavery
through food and
housing redlining, mass
incarceration, and
surveillance — must
repair the harm done.”
#MEDIA2070
NOV 2019
The city council In
Evanston, Illinois,
passes a resolution to
pay reparations to the
city’s Black population
through a sales tax
on cannabis. The city
subsequently creates a
reparations fund for the
$10 million it plans to
collect over the course
of a decade.
Of note: The city’s Black
residents reportedly
made up more than
70% of local marijuana
arrests despite being
less than 17% of the
population.
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