House Judiciary schedules hearing on reparations

The House Judiciary Committee next week will hold a hearing focused on the prospect of making amends to black Americans for more than two centuries of slavery — the first time the proposal has seen legislation consideration.

The public session, hosted by the panel’s Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, is scheduled to take place on June 19 and will look at a bill re-introduced in January by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, which proposes a commission to study possibilities for reparations. Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor Danny Glover are set to be among the hearing’s star witnesses.