Reparations Proposals Advance in Cities but Fail at Federal Level

Rep. John Conyers reintroduced H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans, every congressional session throughout the 2000s, drawing co-sponsors but never reaching a floor vote. Chicago passed a local reparations resolution for survivors of police torture under Commander Jon Burge. Evanston, Illinois began a feasibility study. No federal hearings were held, but the decade saw the most sustained legislative engagement with reparations since Reconstruction.