Democratic National Committee passes resolution in Support of Reparations

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Saturday passed a resolution affirming its commitment to establishing a reparations study commission for Black Americans.

The proposal, entitled Resolution Pertaining to Commission to Study US Reparations, passed during the DNC Winter Meeting in Washington DC.

The move signaled another step forward in the national fight for HR 40, or the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, first introduced in Congress in 1989.

The DNC resolution was raised by Democrats Abroad (DA), the foreign arm of the Democratic Party representing US citizens living outside the country. DA has its own Reparations Task Force to advocate for reparative justice legislation stateside.

DA International Chair Candice Kerestan, a Pennsylvania voter in Germany, introduced the proposal at Thursday's Resolutions Committee meeting.

Adrianne George, a DC voter in Sweden and DA DNC member, defended the proposal by citing National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA) Legislative Committee Chair Kenniss Henry, who was also in attendance during the DNC meeting.

"This country is complicit in the pernicious treatment of People of African Descent without so much as any true acknowledgement or an apology for such heinous crimes as the brutality of 256 years of forced free labor that began with a journey so hideous that the stains forever remain not just in this American soil but with the unknown number of ancestors who have joined together to become an aqua graveyard at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean," Henry said in a statement, as read by George.

The resolution advanced out of committee with enthusiastic support before proceeding to a full DNC vote on Saturday, where it also went through without a hitch.

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