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    A bill to study reparations for slavery had momentum in Congress, but still no vote

    Legislation to create a commission to study reparations faces steep odds in the evenly divided Congress. Advocates say they want the House take up the bill, or for President Biden to act on his own.
    by Juana Summers Nov 12, 2021 4 minutes
    The chained hand of Archer Alexander, who was the last slave captured under the fugitive slave law, is depicted in a statue commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation. A bill to study reparations for slavery advanced through a House committee this year but hasn't gotten a floor vote.

    Seven months ago, a House committee advanced a bill to study reparations for slavery, after more than three decades of efforts to build support for the idea.

    But the bill has not been taken up for consideration by the full House of Representatives even though it has the backing of some of the country's most prominent Democrats.

    "Since April there has been very little movement on the bill by the leadership in Congress," said Kamm Howard, a national co-chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America.

    Advocates for reparations are frustrated despite the fact that the proposal faces steep odds of fully passing the closely divided Congress even if the House did take it up.

    The bill is, and it gets its name from the unmet promise that former slaves would be given "" as the Civil War drew to a close. It would establish a 13-person commission to study the effects of slavery and racial discrimination in the United States, from before the country's finding to present day.

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