Glover supports reparations for African descendants
By Nelson A. King
Renowned actor and activist
Danny Glover has expressed
strong support for reparations
for people of African descent,
calling on the US Congress to
pass the HR-40 legislation that’s
being championed by Texas
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson
Lee.
In a public statement, Glover,
who is also a United Nations
Ambassador for the International
Decade for People of African
Descent, said that reparations
for the enslavement of African
Americans and racially-exclusionary
policies after generations
of “heroic, multigenerational
struggle,” dating from the
1863 Emancipation Proclamation,
has now gained “remarkable
momentum”.
He said that HR-40, the Congressional
Bill first introduced
in 1989 by the late Congressman
John Conyers, Jr. to study
the institution of slavery and
assess restitution, has taken on
new life.
“We are witnessing the unfolding
of the largest social movement
in the history of the country;
a movement which marks
an inflection point, where there
is not only a demand for fundamental
Caribbean L 14 ife, August 21-27, 2020
restructuring of policing
and the criminal justice system,
but a reckoning with an original
sin that gave birth to a racialized
capitalist political-economy in
this nation,” Glover said.
He recalled that, when the
walls of segregation remained
firmly intact throughout the
South and de facto segregation
was the order of the day in the
North, the late civil rights leader,
the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., was convinced that
the “Negro Revolution” would
succeed.
“Why We Can’t Wait” was “a
declaration of King’s determination
to intensify the movement
to finally ensure ‘liberty
and justice for all’ in this
nation,” according to the New
York-based Institute for a Black
World 21 (IBW), a Black advocacy
group.
Glover said he was honored
to join with Congresswoman
Lee and the allied forces working
with her in declaring that
“we cannot wait” in pursuing
HR-40 as “the harbinger of a
new future for people of African
descent, and the marginalized
and oppressed in this nation and
the world.
“Please join with me in
expressing your support and
petitioning your congressional
representatives to support passage
of HR-40,” urged Glover.
“The passage of HR-40 will
be one of the milestone achievements
of the International
Decade for People of African
Descent,” he added. “I pledge to
work side by side with all people
of good will who are committed
to achieve this righteous objective.
Reparations Now!”
Actor Danny Glover speaks at the Apollo Theater. REUTERS / Stephen Chernin, File