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.