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WASHINGTON — “Institutional harm was done to Black people through deliberate laws.” That was the message on Capitol Hill yesterday, as U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley held a briefing on her push for HR 40, the long-fought legislation to explore reparations for Black Americans.
“This is about policy correcting what policy caused,” she emphasized during the packed congressional briefing.
Before Black congressional staffers, Pressley and advocates urged swift federal action to advance reparations. HR 40, co-sponsored by Pressley and Sen. Cory Booker, would create a national commission to develop reparations proposals. The bill’s name evokes the unfulfilled post-Civil War promise of “40 acres and a mule.”
The event drew leading voices in the reparations movement, including Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, founder and Executive Director of the Terence Crutcher Foundation; Dreisen Heath, founder of Why We Can’t Wait Reparations Network; Dr. Don Daniels, president of the National African-American Reparations Commission; and Krystal Williams, Esq., former Chief Counsel and Legislative Director for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, a distinguished figure in sociology and African American studies, served as a moderator of the brief.
“In my hometown of Boston and in cities across this country, reparative justice efforts inspired by HR 40 are advancing and gaining momentum, and that’s the other reason why we reintroduced hr 40, because we cannot allow that momentum to wane,” Rep. Pressley stated.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley underscored that the deep inequities Black Americans face—in education, healthcare, jobs, and wealth—are not accidental. These disparities, she said, stem from deliberate, legislated harm, built into policies and budgets across generations. Pressley framed this systemic injustice as policy violence that demands intentional repair.
Reparations Can’t Stop at Tulsa: HR 40 Is the Next Fight
Dr. Crutcher highlighted the progress in Tulsa. This year, Mayor Monroe Nichols announced a $105 million Greenwood reparations plan. But she emphasized that the fight for justice must go beyond Tulsa.
“HR 40 is our opportunity to do just that. If we can reckon in Tulsa, why can’t we reckon as a nation?” she emphasized.
“The federal government has repaired harm before—Japanese internment. Holocaust survivors. But never for slavery. Never for the Black communities destroyed by institutional slavery, a failed Reconstruction era, Jim Crow, the Red Summer, redlining, mass incarceration, and police violence.”
She called for tangible reparations—cash, land, scholarships, and memorials—and urged lawmakers to honor Black history.
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Reparations Must Confront All Forms of Policy Violence
Heath stressed that reparations must address all forms of policy violence impacting Black communities today. “Black people are multifaceted,” she said, “and reparations must reflect that.”
Heath called for an expansive coalition that includes environmental justice advocates, reproductive justice organizations, labor unions, educators, archivists, and faith leaders—groups documenting and fighting harms such as pollution, health disparities, and economic exclusion.
“These are vestiges of enslavement and post-emancipation harms,” Heath said, urging the movement to honor past pathways while building a broader, more inclusive fight for reparations.
As advocates reminded the packed room, the fight for reparations isn’t theoretical—it’s urgent. From Tulsa to Boston to Washington, communities are demanding not just symbolic gestures but concrete repair. “HR 40 is the floor, not the ceiling,” Dr. Tiffany Crutcher said. The question now is whether Congress will finally act.