Coates and the actor Danny Glover, who has long voiced support for reparations, are poised to testify at the House hearing. Although Coates’s essay sparked waves of adulation in the media, less than two years later, during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary race, the issue was completely absent from debates. Marianne Williamson has mentioned a $100bn fund to pay slaves’ descendants directly. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in Congress, said in February that she favors a reparations study. Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a congressional representative of New York, supported reparations in a discussion with Coates this year.

Source: The Guardian June 19, 2019 06:00 UTC