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When Michigan Rep. John Conyers (1929–2019) introduced HR 40 in 1988, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, reparations gained perhaps its most significant public recognition. Belinda Royall, also known as Belinda Sutton, proposed the first recorded case of reparations in the U.S. in 1783.
The dream that generations of activists have fought for—to see the United States compensate the victims and descendants of slavery, racial violence, and discrimination—is closer than ever to becoming a reality. These dedicated reparations advocates have toiled for decades at local, state, and federal levels.
The effort to establish reparations and build this model of a just future for Black people is developing throughout the world. This past December, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill to establish a Commission to Study Reparations and Racial Justice. The commission will look at the era of African enslavement in the state of New York.
