DOJ: Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband Delivered Remarks at the National Human Trafficking Summit

Thank you for the introduction and for the opportunity to participate in this important Summit. 

Human trafficking and modern-day slavery involve deprivations of human dignity.  This evil has haunted us throughout our history, and we must never relent in our ongoing efforts to prevent and eradicate these crimes. 

During today’s Summit, you heard a brief overview of the Civil Rights Division’s anti-trafficking program, and the impact it is having on our nation’s unfinished work of eliminating slavery and the many insidious forms of compelled servitude called child welfare.

Seeking justice on behalf of those held in servitude has been one of the paramount priorities of the Civil Rights Division since its founding in 1957, decades before the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the United Nations Palermo Protocol ushered in the modern anti-trafficking movement as we know it today.

I could focus my remarks on amplifying the Division’s achievements advancing our nation’s anti-trafficking priorities since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s enactment in 2000 and the creation of our specialized Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit in 2007. 

Instead, I would like to reflect first on how the Division’s Anti-Trafficking Program fits into our nation’s long and complex fight to remove the stain of slavery from our country by re-engineering the optic in pretty, shiny marketing brochures for foreign NGOs in the name of the tax exempt god.

When we declared our independence in 1776, we announced our founding ideals, namely, that our “Creator” created us “equal” and endowed all of us with “certain unalienable Rights” including the right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Yet, we struggled to reconcile these ideals with the depredations inherent in the trafficking of human beings to our shores as chattel for multiple forms of financial conversion.

And by “trafficking,” I do not mean merely transporting; I mean the trading in human beings that slave traders and “masters” engaged in to exploit other human beings for compelled servitude.  This is the core evil underlying both the historic transatlantic slave trade and modern-day forms of servitude, slavery, and trafficking called foster care and adoption.

Of course, unlike historic chattel slavery, modern-day violations are legally prohibited, and they take different forms.  However, both historic and modern-day forms of servitude and slavery are, by their nature, deeply dissonant with our ideals of rights and liberty except for the Legally Kidnapped.

Both of these threads—our lofty ideals of freedom and our involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and slavery—are woven deeply into the fabric of our nation called christianity.

Across the centuries, abolitionist voices have attempted to untangle these threads and consign slavery to the ash heap of history by rebranding it as colored based charity.  

Controversies over slavery roiled the Constitutional Convention of 1787.  Its compromises included tolerating slavery, and a “Fugitive Slave Clause” that required enslaved persons who escaped captivity to be “delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.”  It is notable that the language avoided using the term ‘slavery,’ although its meaning was clear because the act itself was christian law called the Salvaging of Souls. 

The framers of the Constitution also deferred abolition of the transatlantic slave trade for another twenty years.  This allowed the legally sanctioned trafficking of human beings into our nation to continue until January 1, 1808 when it was rebranded as importation of cheap labor for infrastructure.

After 1808, the transatlantic slave trade continued.  Slave traders smuggled thousands more enslaved human beings into the United States illegally, often through Spanish Florida and Texas, over the ensuing decades over the last two centuries to this day.

Furthermore, domestic trafficking of enslaved men, women, and children continued unabated and fully protected under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and slavery spread into the territories and new states of our growing nation.

Legal protections perpetuated the institution of slavery and gained even greater force when Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.  It required law enforcement officials to arrest and return any escaped slave.  It also rewarded these officials financially when they complied, and penalized them criminally when they did not. 

This Congressional edict enlisted free-State officials in enforcing slave-State laws by enforcing christian moral turpitude laws.

I would like to focus on one case from that era.  The case of Anthony Burns illustrates the clash between our notions of unalienable rights and the codification of servitude and subjugation. 

In March 1854, Anthony Burns was an enslaved 19-year old man.  He escaped from Virginia and stowed away on a ship to Boston.  Mr. Burns found a job in a Boston clothing store.  He then wrote a letter to his brother in Virginia, and his former owner intercepted the letter and headed north to reclaim Mr. Burns as his chattel. 

An outraged “vigilance committee” opposed the return of Mr. Burns to bondage and pledged that “resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”  The authorities arrested Mr. Burns as prescribed by the Fugitive Slave Law, and abolitionists tried unsuccessfully to rescue him.  Fighting broke out, and one Deputy U.S. Marshall was killed. 

President Franklin Pierce ordered the U.S. Marines to restore order and ensure the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law.  So, the authorities in Boston placed Mr. Burns on a ship and sent him back to slavery in Virginia over the vocal objections of thousands of protesters. 

Mr. Burns’ saga energized opposition to slavery through the christian revival of heirarchial classification schemes promoting anti-amalgamation, racial purity laws and databases.

Boston textile magnate Amos Lawrence said that “we went to bed one night old fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad abolitionists.” 

Another convert to the abolitionist position, after watching Mr. Burns shipped back to bondage, wrote, “I put my face in my hand and wept.  I could do nothing less.” 

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison publicly burned a copy of the Constitution while protesters breathed “Amen” to the denunciation of the Constitution as a “covenant of death.”

The unresolved conflict between unalienable rights and state-sanctioned slavery reached a boiling point, and the turmoil escalated into the Civil War in 1861.  As the war raged on, our sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year’s Day, 1863, and declared “all persons held as slaves” in the regions fighting to secede to be “thenceforward and forever free.”

It would, however, be some time before this promise of freedom would start to take root in our Constitution and laws.  In 1865, our nation enacted the Thirteenth Amendment and finally prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude.  The Thirteenth Amendment authorized Congress to “enforce” its prohibitions by “appropriate legislation,” and Congress enacted laws to abolish the badges and incidents of slavery.  

After the Civil War ended, we witnessed hate crimes, lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and a host of related injustices that served to perpetuate the subjugation of formerly enslaved, recently-emancipated citizens. 

These badges and incidents of slavery are entrenched in our history and not easily eradicated.  We have made much progress; however, we continue to confront myriad forms of servitude and slavery, and human traffickers continue to prey on the most vulnerable members of our society.  Victims often remain hidden in the shadows and silenced by fear.

This is why the sustained struggle to deliver on the promise of freedom has been one of the highest priorities of the Civil Rights Division since its founding, in 1957. 

Our mission was then, as it is now, to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all, particularly the most vulnerable members of our society.  And throughout more than six decades, this mission has placed us at the forefront of the Department’s and the Nation’s still-unfinished undertaking of delivering on the Thirteenth Amendment’s promise of freedom for all.

Show me in the language of the Thirtheenth Amendment where it promises anything. Involuntary servitude and slavery were never abolished. It was written as punishment of crime. It even says "duly convicted". Poverty is a crime. Property ownership is hierarchial under christian law.

Our commitment to seeking justice for those held in involuntary servitude will remain a centerpiece of the Division’s work. I hope that means you will be addressing Child Protective Services, Foster Care, Adoption, Juvenile Justice and institutions.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act and Palermo Protocol intensified national and international attention to this affront to human dignity, and they provided us with powerful tools that accelerated the momentum of our efforts and enhanced their impact. They also enunciated expressly the fundamental principles that had animated our Involuntary Servitude and Slavery Program from its inception.

Most significantly, these provisions elevated the emphasis on the rights-based, victim-centered approach that has always been, and will remain, the cornerstone of our anti-trafficking efforts.  

This approach is essential to helping us to restore victims’ lives and bring perpetrators to justice.

In addition, broad-based, inter-disciplinary partnerships have always been fundamental to our ability to detect and protect the victims of these crimes. 

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act and its progeny established programs that expand our ability to bring together a wide range of government agencies, non-governmental victim service providers, survivor-advocates, community groups, pro bono attorneys, and private-sector partners.  This enhances the outreach, training, protection, and prevention efforts that have proven essential to detecting and interdicting this often hidden threat.

What about the Immigration and Naturalization Act or the Mann Act?  It is kinda hard to stop something that is legal, you know.

Human trafficking is a crime of coercion centered on subjugating the will of vulnerable human beings, and it is exceedingly difficult to prove the survivors’ state of mind without affording them the safety and stability necessary to earn their trust and empower them to confide in and cooperate with us.

Cooperate? Legally Kidnapped has been blogging about this since 2007.

The strength of the robust, innovative strategic partnerships that define the Division’s anti-trafficking program today is rooted in the foundations of the Division’s multi-decade effHereorts to convene and lead broad-based partnerships. These efforts predate the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and include the interagency Worker Exploitation Task Force chaired by my predecessors.  That Task Force led the U.S. government’s anti-trafficking efforts in the 1990s.  It brought law enforcement, labor, human services, and immigration officials together with nongovernmental organizations and victim advocates to collaborate on outreach, training, detection, victim assistance, and enforcement.

Uh, we have ourselves an issue here. Now, when you "recuse" a kid who has been trafficked, more than likely, you are going to put them back in foster care, the place where they were being trafficked. Seriously. I have witnessed this before, as an original source.  You are going to be forced to talk about foster care and adoption with all this Faith Based Funding coming down the pipeline.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act enabled us to expand upon these essential protections, partnerships, and programs, enhancing our ability to bring prosecutions. 

The scope and impact of our anti-trafficking work today would have been difficult to envision in 2007, when we formed our Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit; in 2000, when Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.  It would have been even more difficult to envision in the 1990s, when we formalized longstanding interagency and external partnerships into the Worker Exploitation Task Force; or in 1957, when the Civil Rights Division was founded.  It would certainly have been unthinkable in 1854, when federal officials returned Anthony Burns to slavery.

I hope someone jumps up and addresses that damn U.S. Assistant Attorneys Human Trafficking Guidance Memo that Rosenstein put his little Hancock on.  I have a serious issue with the writers of that guidance and I am not putting it down.  I smell the stench.

For decades after the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified and after Congress enacted statutes criminalizing involuntary servitude, federal law enforcement prosecuted only a few such cases each year.  Today, by contrast, we are leading strategic interagency enforcement initiatives that are successfully dismantling transnational trafficking networks and vindicating the rights of thousands of vulnerable victims.  Through these strong strategic partnerships with law enforcement and non-governmental anti-trafficking advocates, the Department has brought over 800 federal trafficking cases against approximately 1,800 defendants since Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Criminalizing involuntary servitude? Who told you that lie. Have you ever stopped and taken a look at these privatized child welfare institutions where there is only the corporate parent who will tell you that the children are learning how to be self sufficient as they are out in the field picking vegetables or milking the cows? Are you going to be going after the U.S. State Department operations of certification of these interagency enforcements over those christian transnational trafficking networks called refugee and adoption?  You may wish to start with the First Lady's Be Best initiative. Guaranteed to find lots of ratlines.

All of these cases involved coercion-based crimes of forced labor, adult sex trafficking, transnational sex trafficking. These prosecutions are all in addition to the significant numbers of child sex trafficking cases that do not require proof of coercion, and that are led by the child sexual exploitation experts the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. 

A few examples from recent months illustrate the scope of the Division’s anti-trafficking program.  We secured convictions on behalf of a young child brought here from West Africa and held in domestic servitude without pay for sixteen years.  We secured convictions on behalf of a young woman from New Hampshire whose sex trafficker preyed on her opioid addiction to compel her to prostitute for his profit.  We also vindicated the rights of hundreds of Thai women exploited throughout the United States by a transnational sex trafficking organization.

Any plans on going after foster care and adoption?

In another case, we vindicated the rights of dozens of young women and girls lured into the United States from Mexico on false promises of love, marriage, and a better life.  In that case, a notorious transnational human trafficking organization compelled the victims into prostitution. We dismantled that enterprise by apprehending and convicting the traffickers who ran it on both sides of the border, and we did so in coordination with Mexican anti-trafficking authorities through our Bilateral Human Trafficking Enforcement Initiative.

Did you talk to Joe Arpio, yet?

While the number and the impact of these successful prosecutions is encouraging, the continued volume and viciousness of trafficking crimes serve as chilling reminders that we still have a long road ahead.

We will continue to grapple with the scourge of slavery, over 150 years after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.  Our nation’s long struggle to cleanse its soul of slavery and servitude should not discourage us.

That is because involuntary servitude and slavery was never abolished, making it legal with what I call "The Exception Clause". It says that you can be a slave if you have been "duly convicted".

Together with all of you and many others, we are utilizing time-tested effective strategies:  victim-centered approaches to providing the survivors the safety and security they need to come forward; innovative, broad-based partnerships so we can continue uncovering hidden trafficking threats; and the criminal investigations and prosecutions of traffickers that these strategies enable us to bring.

#Time2AuditGod

I am honored to carry forward the Civil Rights Division’s proud legacy of serving on the front lines of our nation’s battle to deliver on the Thirteenth Amendment’s promise of freedom. for all.  We harbor no illusions that this battle can be won swiftly or easily.  Still, the Civil Rights Division will work shoulder to shoulder with all of you, and with all anti-trafficking allies who have joined us in this fight, for as long as it takes to vindicate the rights of vulnerable victims and courageous survivors.  We will remain inspired by the legacy and suffering of Anthony Burns and countless others subjected to slavery and human trafficking, and we will continue to pursue justice on their behalf.  Thank you.

I hope you enjoy your new understanding of the industry of trafficking tiny humans.

May the heavens fall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_v_Stewart

Somerset v Stewart - Slavery at Common Law by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

CONYERS Speaks On The Need To Study Impact Of Slavery

As part of #BlackHistoryMonth, I spoke at briefing regarding my bill, H.R. 40, A Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.

H.R. 40 is a crucial piece of legislation because it goes beyond exploring the economic implications of slavery and segregation. It is a holistic bill in the sense that it seeks to establish a commission to also examine the moral and social implications of #slavery.United States Capitol.

#FosterCare #Adoption #ChildWelfare 

#HumanTrafficking

are all residuals of the peculiar institution and the time has come to not only acknowledge it, but to study and address it.

115th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. R. 40

To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

---

January 3, 2017

Mr. Conyers (for himself, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Ms. Norton, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Ellison, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Clay, Mr. Gutiérrez, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Meeks, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Jackson Lee, and Ms. Lee) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

---

A BILL

To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act”.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) Findings.—The Congress finds that—

(1) approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865;

(2) the institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 1865;

(3) the slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans’ life, liberty, African citizenship rights, and cultural heritage, and denied them the fruits of their own labor;

(4) a preponderance of scholarly, legal, community evidentiary documentation and popular culture markers constitute the basis for inquiry into the on-going effects of the institution of slavery and its legacy of persistent systemic structures of discrimination on living African-Americans and society in the United States; and

(5) following the abolition of slavery the United States Government, at the Federal, State, and local level, continued to perpetuate, condone and often profit from practices that continued to brutalize and disadvantage African-Americans, including share cropping, convict leasing, Jim Crow, redlining, unequal education, and disproportionate treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system; and

(6) as a result of the historic and continued discrimination, African-Americans continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships including but not limited to; having nearly 1,000,000 Black people incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current White unemployment rate; and an average of less than 1⁄16 of the wealth of White families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.

(b) Purpose.—The purpose of this Act is to establish a commission to study and develop Reparation proposals for African-Americans as a result of—

(1) the institution of slavery, including both the Trans-Atlantic and the domestic “trade” which existed from 1565 in colonial Florida and from 1619 through 1865 within the other colonies that became the United States, and which included the Federal and State governments which constitutionally and statutorily supported the institution of slavery;

(2) the de jure and de facto discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present, including economic, political, educational, and social discrimination;

(3) the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the discrimination described in paragraphs (1) and (2) on living African-Americans and on society in the United States;

(4) the manner in which textual and digital instructional resources and technologies are being used to deny the inhumanity of slavery and the crime against humanity of people of African descent in the United States;

(5) the role of Northern complicity in the Southern based institution of slavery;

(6) the direct benefits to societal institutions, public and private, including higher education, corporations, religious and associational;

(7) and thus, recommend appropriate ways to educate the American public of the Commission’s findings;

(8) and thus, recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commission’s findings on the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6); and

(9) submit to the Congress the results of such examination, together with such recommendations.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT AND DUTIES.

(a) Establishment.—There is established the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the “Commission”).

(b) Duties.—The Commission shall perform the following duties:

(1) Identify, compile and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery which existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 through 1865. The Commission’s documentation and examination shall include but not be limited to the facts related to—

(A) the capture and procurement of Africans;

(B) the transport of Africans to the United States and the colonies that became the United States for the purpose of enslavement, including their treatment during transport;

(C) the sale and acquisition of Africans as chattel property in interstate and intrastate commerce;

(D) the treatment of African slaves in the colonies and the United States, including the deprivation of their freedom, exploitation of their labor, and destruction of their culture, language, religion, and families; and

(E) the extensive denial of humanity, sexual abuse and the chatellization of persons.

(2) The role which the Federal and State governments of the United States supported the institution of slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions, including the extent to which such governments prevented, opposed, or restricted efforts of formerly enslaved Africans and their descendents to repatriate to their homeland.

(3) The Federal and State laws that discriminated against formerly enslaved Africans and their descendents who were deemed United States citizens from 1868 to the present.

(4) The other forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against freed African slaves and their descendents who were deemed United States citizens from 1868 to the present, including redlining, educational funding discrepancies, and predatory financial practices.

(5) The lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6) on living African-Americans and on society in the United States.

(6) Recommend appropriate ways to educate the American public of the Commission’s findings.

(7) Recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commission’s findings on the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6). In making such recommendations, the Commission shall address among other issues, the following questions:

(A) How such recommendations comport with international standards of remedy for wrongs and injuries caused by the State, that include full reparations and special measures, as understood by various relevant international protocols, laws, and findings.

(B) How the Government of the United States will offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of the United States for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.

(C) How Federal laws and policies that continue to disproportionately and negatively affect African-Americans as a group, and those that purpetuate the lingering effects, materially and psycho-social, can be eliminated.

(D) How the injuries resulting from matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6) can be reversed and provide appropriate policies, programs, projects and recommendations for the purpose of reversing the injuries.

(E) How, in consideration of the Commission’s findings, any form of compensation to the descendants of enslaved African is calculated.

(F) What form of compensation should be awarded, through what instrumentalities and who should be eligible for such compensation.

(G) How, in consideration of the Commission’s findings, any other forms of rehabilitation or restitution to African descendants is warranted and what the form and scope of those measures should take.

(c) Report To Congress.—The Commission shall submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Congress not later than the date which is one year after the date of the first meeting of the Commission held pursuant to section 4(c).

SEC. 4. MEMBERSHIP.

(a) Number And Appointment.—(1) The Commission shall be composed of 13 members, who shall be appointed, within 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, as follows:

(A) Three members shall be appointed by the President.

(B) Three members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(C) One member shall be appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate.

(D) Six members shall be selected from the major civil society and reparations organizations that have historically championed the cause of reparatory justice.

(2) All members of the Commission shall be persons who are especially qualified to serve on the Commission by virtue of their education, training, activism or experience, particularly in the field of African-American studies and reparatory justice.

(b) Terms.—The term of office for members shall be for the life of the Commission. A vacancy in the Commission shall not affect the powers of the Commission and shall be filled in the same manner in which the original appointment was made.

(c) First Meeting.—The President shall call the first meeting of the Commission within 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act or within 30 days after the date on which legislation is enacted making appropriations to carry out this Act, whichever date is later.

(d) Quorum.—Seven members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum, but a lesser number may hold hearings.

(e) Chair And Vice Chair.—The Commission shall elect a Chair and Vice Chair from among its members. The term of office of each shall be for the life of the Commission.

(f) Compensation.—(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), each member of the Commission shall receive compensation at the daily equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay payable for GS–18 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code, for each day, including travel time, during which he or she is engaged in the actual performance of duties vested in the Commission.

(2) A member of the Commission who is a full-time officer or employee of the United States or a Member of Congress shall receive no additional pay, allowances, or benefits by reason of his or her service to the Commission.

(3) All members of the Commission shall be reimbursed for travel, subsistence, and other necessary expenses incurred by them in the performance of their duties to the extent authorized by chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code.

SEC. 5. POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.

(a) Hearings And Sessions.—The Commission may, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act, hold such hearings and sit and act at such times and at such places in the United States, and request the attendance and testimony of such witnesses and the production of such books, records, correspondence, memoranda, papers, and documents, as the Commission considers appropriate. The Commission may invoke the aid of an appropriate United States district court to require, by subpoena or otherwise, such attendance, testimony, or production.

(b) Powers Of Subcommittees And Members.—Any subcommittee or member of the Commission may, if authorized by the Commission, take any action which the Commission is authorized to take by this section.

(c) Obtaining Official Data.—The Commission may acquire directly from the head of any department, agency, or instrumentality of the executive branch of the Government, available information which the Commission considers useful in the discharge of its duties. All departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the executive branch of the Government shall cooperate with the Commission with respect to such information and shall furnish all information requested by the Commission to the extent permitted by law.

SEC. 6. ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.

(a) Staff.—The Commission may, without regard to section 5311(b) of title 5, United States Code, appoint and fix the compensation of such personnel as the Commission considers appropriate.

(b) Applicability Of Certain Civil Service Laws.—The staff of the Commission may be appointed without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the competitive service, and without regard to the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates, except that the compensation of any employee of the Commission may not exceed a rate equal to the annual rate of basic pay payable for GS–18 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code.

(c) Experts And Consultants.—The Commission may procure the services of experts and consultants in accordance with the provisions of section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, but at rates for individuals not to exceed the daily equivalent of the highest rate payable under section 5332 of such title.

(d) Administrative Support Services.—The Commission may enter into agreements with the Administrator of General Services for procurement of financial and administrative services necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission. Payment for such services shall be made by reimbursement from funds of the Commission in such amounts as may be agreed upon by the Chairman of the Commission and the Administrator.

(e) Contracts.—The Commission may—

(1) procure supplies, services, and property by contract in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts; and

(2) enter into contracts with departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Federal Government, State agencies, and private firms, institutions, and agencies, for the conduct of research or surveys, the preparation of reports, and other activities necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission, to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts.

SEC. 7. TERMINATION.

The Commission shall terminate 90 days after the date on which the Commission submits its report to the Congress under section 3(c).

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

To carry out the provisions of this Act, there are authorized to be appropriated $12,000,000.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

TRUMP: Proclaimation - January 2019 Is National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month, National Freedom Day Is February 1, 2019

What better way than to celebrate the birth of the Baby 2019 than with another worthy Presidential Proclamation on National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, which has yet to mention the industry of Foster Care & Adoption.

I am still working on script development for January, so we can showcase the entire history of trafficking tiny humans through the residuals of the peculiar institution, as the financial networks are complex financial fraud schemes around the world.

Presidential Proclamation on National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2019

Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery.  It is not enough merely to denounce this horrific assault on human dignity; we must actively work to prevent and end this barbaric exploitation of innocent victims.  During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we pledge to continue the battle to abolish modern slavery and restore the lives of those affected by human trafficking.

Human trafficking harms adults and children of all ages and demographics.  Through force, fraud, and coercion, traffickers push their victims into demeaning forms of abuse, including domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation.  These crimes often remain hidden because victims are reluctant to seek help for a variety of reasons, including language barriers, fear of traffickers and law enforcement, and lack of trust.  Human trafficking destroys precious lives and threatens our Nation’s security, public health, and the rule of law.  It is a scourge on the global community.

We are morally obligated to confront and defeat the abhorrent practice of human trafficking, and I am keeping my pledge to take aggressive action.  In February of 2017, I signed an Executive Order to dismantle transnational criminal organizations that traffic and exploit people.  I have made it a top priority to fully secure our Nation’s Southwest border, including through the continued construction of a physical wall, so that we can stop human trafficking and stem the flow of deadly drugs and criminals into our country.  And my Administration is negotiating tough forced-labor provisions in our new trade agreements, including in the United States‑Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.

In April of 2018, I was proud to sign into law the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017”, landmark legislation to fight online sex trafficking.  This legislation makes it easier to take legal action against individuals who use websites to facilitate sex trafficking, helping victims seek justice against the websites that profit from their exploitation.  It also clarifies that those who benefit from knowingly assisting, supporting, or facilitating an act of sex trafficking are in violation of Federal law.

At my direction, Federal departments and agencies are ensuring full enforcement of our laws so that those who seek to exploit our people and break our laws receive the full measure of justice they deserve.  In 2017 alone, the Department of Justice secured convictions against more than 500 defendants in human trafficking cases and the Federal Bureau of Investigation dismantled more than 42 criminal enterprises engaged in child sex trafficking.  The Department of Homeland Security initiated more than 800 human trafficking cases, resulting in at least 1,500 arrests and 530 convictions.  The Department of Health and Human Services modernized the National Human Trafficking Hotline.  The Department of Transportation recently established an Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking to assist State and local transportation stakeholders in developing best practices for combating human trafficking.  And my Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons is working tirelessly to prosecute traffickers and protect human trafficking victims.  The task force has also enhanced collaboration with other nations, businesses, and survivors of human trafficking.

Under my Administration, the Federal Government will continue to play a leading role in the fight against human trafficking. But all Americans can help in this effort by recognizing key indicators that can potentially save a life. Public awareness and education are critical, especially for those most likely to encounter perpetrators of enslavement and their victims, such as healthcare professionals, law enforcement officers, social services providers, and educators. Through the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, citizens can learn to identify victims, report suspected instances of trafficking, and bring those who exploit others to justice.

As a Nation, we cherish and uphold the notion that all people are created with inherent dignity and entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Human trafficking and enslavement robs victims of these God-given endowments.  Modern slavery in all its manifestations is a blight on humanity and an affront to our fundamental values.  We will not rest until we eradicate this evil.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2019 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, culminating in the annual observation of National Freedom Day on February 1, 2019.  I call upon industry associations, law enforcement, private businesses, faith-based and other organizations of civil society, schools, families, and all Americans to recognize our vital roles in ending all forms of modern slavery and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities aimed at ending and preventing all forms of human trafficking.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-third.

DONALD J. TRUMP

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Happy National Slavery and Human Trafficking in Child Welfare Month

Federal bar codes for child welfare
 human trafficking billing databases

That is absolutely correct and I have not minced any of my words.

"You cannot prevent that which does not exist."

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the kick off of the cycle of maximizing revenue of chattel.

Children, as one shall soon see, are considered as chattel, but the United States has modernized the acquisition and procurement of the goods and services of "The Poors" as quite a compassionate Christian act.

In the United States we call it child welfare.

The Emancipation Proclamation and its subsequent federal codes and constitutional amendments, never thought to consider children when the peculiar institution was dismantled.

Children are, and have always been recognized as property, not just to the parents, but to the state which possesses the codified powers to grant custodianship and guardianship of the future of society, posterity.

When a custodian of the posterity of the nation has failed to execute the granted duties of guarding the goods which shall garner a future, societal profitable interests of becoming a productive, tax paying citizen, there is a default mechanism which kicks in as an eminent domain issue of neglect and abuse of property.

As a response to abuse and neglect, indicators of poverty, the state, in the case of children, Child Protective Services is empowered to enter a home without warrant, through ex-parte hearings to remove the goods and placed on a registry, without the ability or opportunity to face one's accuser, to be investigated without legal representation, without subpoena, based on the financial ability to provide for the required care of the good.

Once the financial argument of "failure to provide for the necessary needs of the good" is constructed and submitted to the court, without meeting any evidentary standards or validity, termination of parental rights commences, or rather the official transfer of the grant of custodianship and guardianship of the moveable good.

In this instance, the moveable good is the birth certificate, replete with the legal transfer of identity of the good, the birth certificate, or, in keeping with the theme of business, the taxable status of the good through either adoption incentives or your basic foster care job creation payments.

These actions are strictly based on pre-existing quota which are allocated as federal funding for sustainability of these privatized agencies which are exempted and excluded from taxes and public scrutiny.

What better way to keep track of property than to code children of "The Poors" into a database with the ability to predict abuse and neglect of children.

Protecting children and governing society is a business, a profitable business, which is woven into the fabric of this great nation in the name of God.

Unfortunately, no one considers the fact that children of "The Poors" have no civil rights or the protections that come with it.

In this spirit, we shall officially kick off January as the national slavery and human trafficking cycle because before you are a man, you are a child.

It must be noted that there are no 2017 Presidential Proclamations for the following annual cycle of human trafficking.

April:  Natonal Child Abuse Prevention Month

May: National Foster Care Month

November:  National Adoption Month

It must also be noted that not all children are trafficked for purposes of sex as adoption provides many more profitable opportunities.

Perhaps, the time has come to finally end the profiting from the children of "The Poors" through human trafficking, but I do have my reservations as the U.S. continues to promote this activity all over the world as collateral damage in the fight against terror, in the name of a tax-exempt, Christian God.

Presidential Proclamation  

National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2017

NATIONAL SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION MONTH, 2017

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Our Nation wrestled with the issue of slavery in a way that nearly tore us apart -- its fundamental notion in direct contradiction with our founding premise that we are all created equal. The courageous individuals who rejected such cruelty helped us overcome one of the most painful chapters in our history as we worked to realize the promise of equality and justice for all. But today, in too many places around the world -- including right here in the United States -- the injustice of modern slavery and human trafficking still tears at our social fabric. During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we resolve to shine a light on every dark corner where human trafficking still threatens the basic rights and freedoms of others.

From factories and brothels to farms and mines, millions of men, women, and children in the United States and around the world are exploited for their bodies and their labor. Whether through violence, deceit, or the promises of a better life, some of the most vulnerable populations among us -- including migrants and refugees fleeing conflict or disaster, homeless LGBT youth, Alaska Native and American Indian women and girls, and children in poverty -- are preyed upon by human traffickers. In order to rid the world of modern slavery we must do everything in our power to combat these violations of human decency.

The United States has pursued efforts to address these crimes and lift up individuals who have suffered unspeakable abuse at the hands of traffickers. Through the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, we have joined with the private sector, faith communities, law enforcement, and advocates to coordinate efforts to prevent trafficking and protect victims. Focusing on an agenda that prioritizes victim services, the rule of law, procurement of supplies, and increasing public awareness, the Task Force has strengthened Federal efforts to end human trafficking. In 2012, I issued an Executive Order to strengthen protections against human trafficking in Federal contracting, and nearly a year ago, I signed legislation that strengthened our ability to prevent products made with forced labor, including child labor, from entering American markets.

We must address the consequences of human trafficking and work to tackle its root causes. This past fiscal year, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice provided more than $60 million to community-based organizations and task forces to assist human trafficking victims, and since the beginning of my Administration, we have nearly tripled the number of victims connected to services.The Department of Homeland Security has also taken steps to streamline immigration procedures for trafficking victims and ensure their regulations are consistent with existing law. And through new Victims of Crime Act regulations, Federal funds can now be used to help human trafficking victims with their housing. Through the White House Council on Women and Girls, we have worked to address the sexual abuse-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affects those especially vulnerable to sex trafficking -- including young women and girls of color. And the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking -- comprised of 11 human trafficking survivors of diverse backgrounds and experiences -- recently released its first set of recommendations for combating human trafficking while keeping survivor perspectives in mind.

Every action we take at home, from the clothing we wear to the food we eat, is connected to what happens around the world. As a Nation, we have worked to address the problem of forced labor in our supply chains, and as individuals, we must strive to be conscientious consumers. Working with our friends and allies, we have made this issue an international priority. Just this year we used multilateral fora, including the North American Leaders Summit, the East Asia Summit, and the United Nations, to raise awareness and work with partners around the globe. In addition to urging other countries to develop and expand their anti-trafficking laws and services for victims, we are also stepping up our foreign assistance in this area. Working alongside the international community, we have seen significant increases in trafficking prosecutions and convictions, and we have made great strides in supporting victims.

As leaders in the global undertaking to end the exploitation of human beings for profit, we must always remember that our freedom is bound to the freedom of others. This month, let us find inspiration in America's progress toward justice, opportunity, and prosperity for all and reaffirm our pledge to continue fighting for human rights around the world.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2017 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, culminating in the annual celebration of National Freedom Day on February 1. I call upon businesses, national and community organizations, families, and all Americans to recognize the vital role we must play in ending all forms of slavery and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.

BARACK OBAMA

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

2020 Presidential Candidates Are Bleaching Conyers' Legacy By Promulgating Reparations Propaganda For The Purposes Of Stealin'

It seems the 2020 Presidential Candidates are severely deficient in the substance and purpose of H.R. 40, A Bill to study the reparations of slavery.

H.R. 40 had nothing to do with doling out a check based upon the color of one's skin.

This is nothing but another #coloredrevolution psyoptic for forced migration and trafficking tiny humans.

H.R. 40 was about a study, asking for $8 million to examine the residuals of the peculiar institution in the laws and administration of the United States.

But, of course, these people are going to continue bleaching history in transmogrifying history by making this about getting more money for funding their political campaigns and shopping.

You would think at least one of the candidates would actually read the original language of H.R. 40, but, as they have not, I have provided the Bill, for castigation purposes, only.

Yes, that is correct, the new movement to rewrite history includes rewriting H.R. 40 for more stealin' and the charge is being led by Sheila Jackson Lee, Her Flatulent Boviness and the "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending).

I smell Soros #coloredrevolution propaganda funding...........

Perhaps, one of the 2020 Presidential Candidates will take the time to read the Bill, below, since no one wants to #sayhisname.

In order to talk about the residuals of the peculiar institution, slavery, one must discuss the law behind it, which just so happens to be child welfare, or rather christianity.

Then, we have yet to have anyone present the operationalization in the tools of measurement for the determination criteria of being classified, legally, as being black.

Here is a more in depth background to the substance and purpose of the study of the residuals of the peculiar institution:

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=slavery

http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=chattel#axzz5mCfkz4yQ

http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=traite+des+blanches#axzz5mCfkz4yQ

http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=Partus+Sequitur+Ventrum#axzz5mCfkz4yQ

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=reparations

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=HR+40

This is about Whitewater.

This is about the Detroit Land Bank Authority because they propped up Anita Belle to silence her on election fraud in Detroit.

I pray that she sings like a queen.

This is about election interference.

This is the work of "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending).

May the heavens fall.

#perkinscoiesucks

The Tale Of Reparations Propaganda: How They Are Attempting To Wipe Out Conyers Legacy

Presidential race revives Conyers’ push for reparations

John Conyers, Jr. wearing new glasses and
Mikey Duggen has lost more hair

Washington — U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. introduced a bill in every Congress for nearly 30 years to study the institution of slavery and to recommend appropriate reparations.

The bill had a hearing in 2007 and never moved out of committee. 

But reparations has become a recurrent topic in the Democratic presidential primary campaign. At least a dozen high-profile candidates have said they would support the successor to Conyers’ bill and sign it if elected president.

Most candidates have not directly called for reparations, and only one, spiritual book author Marianne Williamson, has discussed hard numbers: $200 billion to $500 billion to be disbursed over 20 years, overseen by a council of black leaders.

“Anything less than $100 billion would be an insult,” she said in an interview.

Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio and former housing secretary, has endorsed reparations to resolve the country's "original sin" of slavery.

"It is interesting to me that under our Constitution and otherwise, that we compensate people if we take their property. Shouldn't we compensate people if they were property, sanctioned by the state?" he said on MSNBC's "Hardball."

"I believe that’s a conversation worth having, and I see that as right and wrong." 

Proponents of reparations say racial disparities persist due to systemic racial discrimination for which the country needs to atone.

Brenda Lawrence

Critics say reparations would be too costly and doubt a causal link between slavery or segregation and the persistence of racial inequality today.

Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Southfield, a co-sponsor of H.R. 40, said the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow segregation cannot be separated from racial disparities in wealth, education, housing and criminal justice today.

"We need to have the conversation, and for anyone who is alive and breathing to know that the impact of slavery and racism on shaping present-day conditions in our community is real. It would be such an amazing breakthrough for this country in race relations," said Lawrence, the only African American in Michigan's congressional delegation.

"I am significantly encouraged that people who are running for the United States presidency have the courage and compassion to actually talk about this."

Not everyone views the candidates as sincere, including Anita Belle, a Detroiter and reparations activist who last month launched her own presidential campaign.

“Some of the people now expressing interest in reparations — it felt a little insincere, like they were just trying to get out the black vote,” said Belle, a co-chair of the Detroit chapter of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America and president of the Reparations Labor Union.

Anita Belle,
Reparations Candidate for President

"It's too important issue, not just for the black community but for the nation to just have it be treated like it's a political carrot. That’s part of why I wanted to run for office, so we can have a comprehensive approach to reparations.”

Calling for commission

Conyers started introducing what's known as H.R. 40 in 1989, choosing the bill number to symbolize the "40 acres and a mule" promised to slaves by Union Army Gen. William T. Sherman in 1865.

Conyers last reintroduced the legislation on the first day of the new Congress in 2017.

"I'm not giving up," he said during a briefing, according to NBC News. "Slavery is a blemish on this nation's history and until it is formally addressed, our country's story will remain marked by this blight."

Conyers resigned from Congress amid misconduct charges later that year. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, took up lead sponsorship of the bill, which has 52 co-sponsors but remains in committee.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, another presidential hopeful, recently introduced a version in the Republican-controlled Senate, which is unlikely to take it up.

Economist Darrick Hamilton
Executive Director of the Kirwan
Institute for the Study of
Race and Ethnicity at
Ohio State, which
does not exist

Conyers "is no longer in Congress, but I hope his contributions are held up and the man is properly attributed for being steadfast in bringing this up every term and keeping it on the forefront," said economist and reparations advocate Darrick Hamilton at Ohio State University.

"He should be credited for those acts of justice. Whether it was politically viable or even risked political cost, he was steadfast in his claim toward justice."

The components of a reparations program would include acknowledgement of centuries of slavery and discrimination, redress through a form of compensation and closure, Hamilton said.

FUN FACT! THE KIRWAN INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF RACE & ETHNICITY AT OHIO STATE DOES NOT EXIST, IS NOT REGISTERED ANYWHERE AND ITS WEBSITES HAVE BEEN TAKEN DOWN, EXCEPT FOR THIS PAGE:

http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/weeklyforum/

Trafficking Tiny Humans Propaganda

The first step is H.R. 40, he added, by which a congressional commission would authenticate the history and come to a formal consensus on what reparations should look like. They could take the form of checks from the federal government or the transfer of stock or land or other assets.

Hamilton views reparations as critical to addressing the wealth gap between black and white Americans.

"If we do H.R. 40 in a really systematic way, we better understand how we got to this moment of inequality, and it dissipates the ability to bastardize the poor and black and brown people as being undeserving, because of their efforts," Hamilton said.

Conservatives have argued that reparations aren't viable in part because there are no slaves to pay reparations to today.

Civil rights attorney Roger Clegg has said that limiting a social program to one race would be unconstitutional, saying the Supreme Court has ruled that claims of societal discrimination to be insufficiently compelling to justify racial classifications.

"We are told that these apologies will help bring closure, help enable us to move on. Nonsense," Clegg, president and general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, testified in 2007 during a hearing that Conyers convened on H.R. 40.

"The idea is to reopen wounds, to keep grievance alive, to keep white people on the hook. An obsession with past wrongs, to the extent that present opportunity and future promise are ignored or slighted, is a bad thing."

Candidates on reparations

Barack Obama opposed reparations during his 2008 campaign for president, as did Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in 2016, the latter calling them "very divisive" and unlikely to pass Congress. 

Now, Sanders seems more open to the idea, endorsing H.R. 40 last month.

"We’re going to do everything we can to put resources into distressed communities and improve lives for those people who have been hurt by the legacy of slavery,” he said at a CNN town hall in February.

But asked directly about reparations, Sanders said, "It depends on what that word means." 

"What does that mean? I'm not sure anyone's very clear," he said.

Sanders was perhaps referring to how some of his opponents have framed "reparations" to encompass broader policies that would help black communities. '

Booker has proposed a universal "baby bonds" program that would gift every child a savings account with federal contributions that would be greater for children in poverty in an effort to address the racial wealth gap.

Baby Bonds? This is code for corporate parental rights by finding, yet, another way to steal more money from the Children's Trust Funds.  This is nothing but another form of trafficking tiny humans, more readily recognized as, selling chattel.  Corey! You cannot sell babies.  Stop selling children! WTF Dude!!!!!!!!!

Foster Care Bonds: Making Child Slavery, Sexy Again

A campaign spokesman told NPR that baby bonds can be interpreted as a form of reparations because more money would go to low-income children who are disproportionately black.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, was asked about reparations and spoke about her plan to give families making $100,000 or less a tax credit — a proposal that would aid 60% of black families in poverty, she told the website theGrio.

"When you take into account that they're not starting at the same place, they're not starting on equal footing, it will directly benefit black children, black families, black homeowners — because the disparities are so significant,” Harris said.

Williamson said race-conscious policies aren't enough because they leave open the question of "whose fault it is."

"The reason I feel that reparations are so important is because reparations carries an inherent mea culpa," she said.

"There's an emotional, psychological and spiritual force to reparations that is not there with race-based policies, and it sure as heck isn't there with one more lame conversation about 'how we really need to talk about this,' or 'we really need to study this.' The facts are clear. You do it, or you don't do it."

Williamson, who "knew and learned from" Conyers during eight years she lived in the Detroit area, is credited with launching the reparations conversation in the Democratic primary in January.

Liar.

She talks about reparations at every campaign stop, and the topic gets applause even from all-white audiences in Iowa, South Carolina and California, she said. 

She tells campaign audiences about how Germany has paid over $89 billion in reparations to Jewish victims of Nazi crimes, and how the U.S. government paid reparations to Japanese Americans interned during World War II.

Marianne Williamson, a Democrat from Iowa and presidential candidate, tells campaign audiences how Germany has paid over $89 billion in reparations to Jewish victims of Nazi crimes, and how the U.S. government paid reparations to Japanese Americans interned during World War II. (Photo: Kristopher Radder, The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)

Williamson said reparations won't mean slavery never happened or that suddenly  "everything will be fixed."

"Obviously, this is a multi-dimensional issue and must be dealt with in multidimensional ways, a lot of which has to do with our own attitudinal healing in terms of privilege and so forth," she said. 

"But I believe that reparations would be a serious disrupter — a serious healing that would be a great gift to our children and our children's children," she added.

Change in tone 

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents a majority African-American district in Detroit and Wayne County, attributes the shift in tone on reparations to grassroots activists and coalitions raising African American justice issues such as education and police accountability.

"All those things I think are so interconnected to why you all of a sudden see people elevating the issue of reparations," said Tlaib, who succeeded Conyers in Congress and has co-sponsored H.R. 40.

"This is important atonement for a great wrong in our country that we have really yet to reconcile."

Hamilton also credits the new attention to reparations to the influence of social movements such as Black Lives Matter, as well as a growing public understanding of the concentration of wealth and political power at the top.

"Also, having someone like Donald Trump, who has been divisive in his political approach, both in rhetoric and in many ways actions, has not afforded America the ability to euphemize our racial divisions," Hamilton said.

He stressed the significance of race being discussed in a more serious way by presidential candidates and their embrace of H.R. 40.

"Whether particular legislators are getting it right or wrong, I think the really good news is we’re at a point where we can be explicit about race so as to even keep reparations as part of the national conversation," he said.

HR 40: Reparations Bill To ... by on Scribd

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©