Analysis into reparations for black People is “vital,” says the NAACP president

NAACP CEO and President Derrick Johnson told CNBC that his organization supports Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) reintroduced legislation to form a formal commission to investigate reparation options for black Americans.

“This is the initiation process that members of Congress, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have been pushing for since the bill was initiated by John Conyers in the 1970s,” Johnson said during a Monday evening interview on The News with Shepard Smith . “” At the NAACP, we have supported these efforts, and we continue to support them. It is something that is necessary and necessary for many, many people who have been harmed as a result of severe structural barriers to become full. ”

HR40 has 147 Democratic co-sponsors in house and was originally launched in January 2019. The Republicans, however, have spoken out strongly against the law. Senate Minority Chairman Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in 2019 that it was a bad idea to make redress “for something that happened 150 years ago and for which neither of us is currently responsible.”

Johnson told host Shepard Smith that black Americans have been “injured” by the US government and that you do not have to return to slavery to witness clear injustice by the US government against black Americans.

“You can get back to public policy, which is about housing, and public policy, which is about education,” said Johnson. “Even today, high-quality education is not available to all children, and African Americans have been given special priority.”

Johnson added that he would like the Biden administration to remove these barriers “created by public order” and that “equality is fine, but justice is the measure for us at this time”.

One of President Biden’s first executive measures was the Order to Promote Racial Justice. He ordered the government to reallocate resources to “move forward”[e] Justice for all, including people of color and others historically underserved, marginalized, and marred by persistent poverty and inequality. “

The Biden administration also announced it will revive the push to make Harriet Tubman the face of a new $ 20 bill, an effort held back during former President Donald Trump’s tenure. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that it was important that the US currency “reflect the history and diversity of our country, and Harriet Tubman’s image on the new $ 20 bill would certainly reflect that So we’re looking for ways to speed up this effort. ” . “