Ta-Nehisi Coates Calls Out Mitch McConnell At House Hearing On Slavery Reparations

Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates delivers remarks before a House panel on Wednesday.

Coates delivered his remarks Wednesday before a House Judiciary subcommittee in a hearing on H.R. 40, a bill that would create a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans. It was the first hearing held on slavery reparations in over a decade.

“The Case For Reparations,” Coates’ 2014 essay for The Atlantic, is largely credited with bringing the issue back into the national spotlight.

“Enslavement reigned for 250 years on this shore,” Coates said in his remarks. “For a century after the Civil War black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror — a terror that extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell.”

He spoke to the continued impact of slavery that occurred during McConnell’s lifetime: the execution of 14-year-old George Stinney in 1944; the blinding of Isaac Woodard by police in 1946; “a regime premised on electoral theft” in McConnell’s birth state of Alabama; the harassment and jailing of those who pushed for civil rights legislation.

Many 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have expressed support for the implementation or consideration of some form of slavery reparations, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated support for the bill.