New York – New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker testified before a House panel hearing on reparations for slavery. He along with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor Danny Glover brought political issues to the front on Capitol Hill.
After this, the debate on a bill to think of legislation to establish a commission to acknowledge the consequences and impacts of slavery was carried out by the House Judiciary Committee‘s subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. to make recommendations for reparations proposals.
Booker, who introduced a similar bill to the Senate in April conveyed to the committee that it is a historic opportunity to break the silence and make constructive efforts to move the nation forward. There was a huge crowd waiting outside to attend the hearing in the committee room. Along with Booker, many other Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 brought the issue to the forefront.
The slavery reparations issue which failed to enter the mainstream political debate for decades has been brought by Democrats in a bid to unseat President Donald Trump in the upcoming elections. The hearing of the committee fell on the same day when President Donald Trump issued Juneteenth Statement in public. Expressing his frustration about the conversation around reparations, Booker said that this issue has only been reduced to check on a presidential list.
Juneteenth is celebrated every year in America to make the day when slaves were set free by the Union soldiers after advancing to Galveston, Texas in 1865. This day was marked for the complete abolition of slavery in the US.
