HR 40 Is Back. And This Time, We’re Ready.
This week, Rep. Ayanna Pressley picked up the torch and reintroduced HR 40 with more than 75 co-sponsors and a clear message: it’s no longer a question of if this country will reckon with its past.
As many of you know, I’ve been in D.C. all week advocating against Trump’s “Big Fugly Bill” with advocates across the country, including the National Parents Union. Also, happening on Capitol Hill was a briefing on H.R. 40.
For more than three decades, Congress has reintroduced H.R. 40—the bill that would create a federal commission to study the legacy of slavery and recommend reparations.
Each time, it’s been called “too soon.”
Each time, it’s been shelved, dismissed, delayed.
But now? The wind is shifting.
— Nehemiah D. Frank,
👉🏾 Become a monthly paid subscriber today. In this political climate, if we disappear, there will be one less Black newsroom reporting for us, by us — and that matters.
This week, Rep. Ayanna Pressley picked up the torch and reintroduced HR 40 with more than 75 co-sponsors and a clear message: it’s no longer a question of if this country will reckon with its past. It’s a matter of when.
The bill doesn’t issue checks tomorrow. It doesn’t rewrite textbooks overnight. What it does is even more powerful—it opens the door for a truth commission, backed by Congress, to formally document the cost of Black pain and stolen labor across generations.
That documentation matters. It lays the foundation for justice that isn’t symbolic—it’s structural.
Because we’ve done “studies.” We’ve written “commemorations.”
But now it’s time for redress.
What this means:
A federal commission would investigate the impact of slavery and systemic racism.
It could recommend reparations in multiple forms: cash payments, land return, education, healthcare access, policy shifts.
It could finally, formally, acknowledge what’s been denied for centuries.
And it couldn’t come at a more urgent moment—because the pushback is coming just as fast. DEI is under attack. History is being whitewashed. Reparations are being mocked by politicians who owe their power to systems built on Black dispossession.
But if you’ve read BWST long enough, you know: the louder they resist, the closer we are.
We’ll be covering this from every angle—just like we always have.
No corporate funding. No political ads. Just journalism rooted in truth, accountability, and legacy.
$8/month — Keep us reporting
$80/year — Invest in the long fight
$250/year — Founding Member (Zoom invites, name on our wall, exclusive drops)
For every ancestor who never got their forty acres.
For every community that rebuilt again and again.
For a future where repair is more than a dream—it’s a demand.
I just upgraded my subscription, and I encouraged my FB friends to subscribe, too.
Big Fugly Bill is amazing 😆