Biden Tells Lawmakers to Lower Expectations on Race Reparations Legislation
Joe Biden was more blunt about racism than perhaps any president before him — and than many in the crowd expected — in his remarks commemorating 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre Tuesday.
“He called out how through the years there have been members in elected office who were very public about their association or membership with [the] KKK,” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said in the parking lot of the Greenwood Cultural Center. “He set up the scene in his speech to take us into what was happening at that time. And that was really powerful. I was so glad to hear it.”
But some attendees noted what they considered a glaring omission: any mention of reparations for the survivors of the massacre and their descendants, some of whom have sued the city and state for compensation, and a full-throated endorsement of H.R. 40, which would create a commission to study reparations. The bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in April for the first time since it was first introduced in 1989.
