Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution
Publication Date
2023
Volume
38:3
First Page
303
Abstract
(Excerpt)
In the United States, the argument for using transitional justice as a mechanism for reckoning with the country's racial injustices—past and present—has gained a broader platform since 2020. While the call for truth, redress, and reform is not new, the mass movement towards it has gained momentum at both the local and national level. At the national level, a House Committee revived a bill first proposed in 1989 to create a commission to study reparations for slavery in the United States and advanced it; though the House has not taken H.R. 40 up for consideration. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), who sponsored the bill said: "I think that there is a sentiment not of blaming our fellow Americans, but our fellow Americans being sympathetic and empathetic that reparations, restoration, and repair will help all of us and that the present-day incidents that are occurring evidences that something needs to be done." Reparations in various forms, including monetary and restitution, were at issue in the 2020 Democratic primary. At the state and local level, there are dozens of initiatives being proposed and launched aimed at reparations, truth, and reform for racial injustices. As of fall 2021, twelve states in the United States have either existing or proposed truth commissions; seven states have created investigative bodies on the impact of racism and have proposed reforms; several cities have instituted commissions to study the potential of reparations; and at least one city, Evanston, Illinois, is already initiating a reparations program to address the city's history of redlining.