A Republican state senator from Florida introduced a constitutional amendment on Monday, Nov. 27, aimed at prohibiting the state and all local level governments from paying reparations to Black residents for slavery.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia of Spring Hill, who is the former chairman of the state Republican Party, proposed the amendment, which will come up for consideration during the next legislative session in January, with the goal of putting the issue on the ballot in November.
The amendment would “prohibit the state, a county, a municipality, and any other political subdivision from paying compensation in the form of reparations to an individual who is a descendant of an enslaved individual who lived in the United States before December 6, 1865.”
However, both the Florida Senate and House would have to approve the measure by a 60 percent majority vote before state residents would get their say at the ballot box.
A similar resolution was expected to be filed in the House.
Reparations have remained a controversial subject among lawmakers who have struggled for decades to find a comprehensive resolution following the end of slavery after the Civil War.
The issue has reignited debate in Washington as progressive Democrats recently criticized President Joe Biden for not taking any meaningful actions on reparations since he took office nearly three years ago.
“People of color have been turned off for a while because of … no conversation at all about reparations if you’re talking about the Black community,” Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner during an interview. “But we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year on weapons in war, but we can’t even have a conversation about reparations? Those are the things that are happening right now.”
In response, White House spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued a statement Monday, Nov. 27, saying: “President Biden believes that the legacy of slavery is a stain on our nation’s conscience and that we must root out the systemic racism that continues to plague our laws, policies, and our culture. In line with that goal, the President has supported Congress’ efforts to study reparations and the continued impacts of slavery.”
She added that the administration was continuing to advance racial equity by investing in disadvantaged communities across the country while emphasizing tremendous gains for Black people in various economic sectors, including home and business ownership.
“The president’s agenda has secured record-low Black unemployment, a 60 percent increase in Black net worth since the pandemic, achieved the fastest creation rate of Black-owned small businesses in over 25 years, and expanded access to homeownership and protections against housing discrimination,” Applewhaite said while pointing to no tangible actions by the White House that would move the needle specifically on reparations.
Many forms of reparations have been proposed in recent years, including the possibility of individual payments, settlements, fee waivers and a host of other initiatives to offset systemic injustices that continue to impact the Black community hundreds of years after slavery.
Since Biden took office, progressives on Capitol Hill have called out the president for avoiding a serious dialogue on compensating generations of Black Americans who, due to the stain of slavery, continue to experience social injustices and discriminatory practices in everyday life.
This past summer, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced criticism for skirting the reparations issue the day after the White House hosted a celebration for Juneteenth, which was declared a federal holiday under Biden in 2021.
At the time, Jean-Pierre acknowledged the administration had not yet reviewed the reparations resolution proposed in May by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who introduced the bill after decades of unfruitful efforts by late U.S. Rep. John James Conyers to study and develop a serious reparations plan for Black Americans.
Bush’s legislation calls on the federal government to “provide reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent” and to “formally apologize for the state-sanctioned institution of chattel slavery and subsequent anti-Black institutions, laws and practices.”
