Members of Congress and a coalition of social justice and civil rights groups are calling on President Joe Biden to use his executive powers to address a host of racial justice issues ahead of the 2024 election.
In a letter sent to the White House on President’s Day, U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., urged Biden to use his executive powers to advance the movement for reparations, safeguard Black history, and protect voting rights, among other requests.
The progressive House members were joined in solidarity with 200 organizations, led by the National Black Justice Coalition, United by Equity, and Black Music Action Coalition.
“For far too long, the scars and trauma of racial inequity have marred the United States and hindered our nation’s progress,” read the letter. “Our collective history necessitates rectifying the wrongs of the past and present, forging a future where equity and justice are lived realities for all.”
The correspondence includes a list of legislation and resolutions introduced by Democrats in Congress that Republican lawmakers have stalled. The bills include H.R. 40, which would create a reparations commission to study the impacts of U.S. slavery and a companion resolution that would establish a U.S. Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation. It includes other bills like a resolution recognizing “Banned Books Week,” the “African American History Act” to preserve Black history and culture, and comprehensive voting rights legislation named after the late civil rights leader U.S. Rep. John R. Lewis.
Reps. Lee, Jackson Lee, Bush, and Bowman, along with the hundreds of social and civil rights organizations, said the array of legislation was “historic” and required “robust support and decisive executive action to move from potential to reality.”
“We call upon the White House to lend its considerable…
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