I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 40 
To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of 
slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 
1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider 
a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of 
slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimi-
nation against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on 
living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on 
appropriate remedies, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 3, 2019 
Ms. JACKSON LEE (for herself, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. COHEN, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. 
MEEKS, Ms. MOORE, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. 
PAYNE, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, Mrs. 
BEATTY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. LEE of 
California, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Ms. NORTON, Mr. RUSH, Mr. NADLER, 
Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. RICHMOND, Ms. BASS, 
and Mr. EVANS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and 
inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 
American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to estab-
lish a commission to study and consider a national apol-
ogy and proposal for reparations for the institution of 
slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and 
economic discrimination against African-Americans, and 
the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, 
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to make recommendations to the Congress on appro-
priate remedies, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Commission to Study 
and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that— 
(1) approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their 
descendants were enslaved in the United States and 
colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 
1865; 
(2) the institution of slavery was constitu-
tionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Govern-
ment of the United States from 1789 through 1865; 
(3) the slavery that flourished in the United 
States constituted an immoral and inhumane depri-
vation of Africans’ life, liberty, African citizenship 
rights, and cultural heritage, and denied them the 
fruits of their own labor; 
(4) a preponderance of scholarly, legal, commu-
nity evidentiary documentation and popular culture 
markers constitute the basis for inquiry into the on- 
going effects of the institution of slavery and its leg-
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acy of persistent systemic structures of discrimina-
tion on living African-Americans and society in the 
United States; and 
(5) following the abolition of slavery the United 
States Government, at the Federal, State, and local 
level, continued to perpetuate, condone and often 
profit from practices that continued to brutalize and 
disadvantage African-Americans, including share 
cropping, convict leasing, Jim Crow, redlining, un-
equal education, and disproportionate treatment at 
the hands of the criminal justice system; and 
(6) as a result of the historic and continued dis-
crimination, African-Americans continue to suffer 
debilitating economic, educational, and health hard-
ships including but not limited to having nearly 
1,000,000 black people incarcerated; an unemploy-
ment rate more than twice the current white unem-
ployment rate; and an average of less than 1⁄16 of 
the wealth of white families, a disparity which has 
worsened, not improved over time. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to estab-
lish a commission to study and develop Reparation pro-
posals for African-Americans as a result of— 
(1) the institution of slavery, including both the 
Trans-Atlantic and the domestic ‘‘trade’’ which ex-
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isted from 1565 in colonial Florida and from 1619 
through 1865 within the other colonies that became 
the United States, and which included the Federal 
and State governments which constitutionally and 
statutorily supported the institution of slavery; 
(2) the de jure and de facto discrimination 
against freed slaves and their descendants from the 
end of the Civil War to the present, including eco-
nomic, political, educational, and social discrimina-
tion; 
(3) the lingering negative effects of the institu-
tion of slavery and the discrimination described in 
paragraphs (1) and (2) on living African-Americans 
and on society in the United States; 
(4) the manner in which textual and digital in-
structional resources and technologies are being used 
to deny the inhumanity of slavery and the crime 
against humanity of people of African descent in the 
United States; 
(5) the role of Northern complicity in the 
Southern based institution of slavery; 
(6) the direct benefits to societal institutions, 
public and private, including higher education, cor-
porations, religious and associational; 
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(7) and thus, recommend appropriate ways to 
educate the American public of the Commission’s 
findings; 
(8) and thus, recommend appropriate remedies 
in consideration of the Commission’s findings on the 
matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), 
(5), and (6); and 
(9) submit to the Congress the results of such 
examination, together with such recommendations. 
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT AND DUTIES. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established the Com-
mission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for 
African-Americans (hereinafter in this Act referred to as 
the ‘‘Commission’’). 
(b) DUTIES.—The Commission shall perform the fol-
lowing duties: 
(1) Identify, compile and synthesize the relevant 
corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institu-
tion of slavery which existed within the United 
States and the colonies that became the United 
States from 1619 through 1865. The Commission’s 
documentation and examination shall include but not 
be limited to the facts related to— 
(A) the capture and procurement of Afri-
cans; 
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