Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., appealed to members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to push forward with a measure that would create a commission to explore ways to make amends to black Americans for more than two centuries of slavery.
“This bill, which I am now leading on the Senate side, is the beginning of an important process, not just to examine and study this history that has not been addressed, the silence that persists, but also to find practical ideas to address the enduring injustices in our nation,” Booker told the panel’s Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, referring to H.R. 40. “The categorizations of such an effort that I hear from others is wrong and undermines our collective purpose and common ground. This idea that it’s just about writing a check to one American to another falls far short of the importance of this conversation and what I believe we will truly talk about.”
