WASHINGTON — The Japanese American Citizens League recently took part in two major African American reparations events in the nation’s capital.
After Rep. Summer L. Lee (D–Pa.) reintroduced the Reparations Now resolution on May 15, JACL praised her work and that of Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), both of whom have continually championed reparations, through this bill that JACL and more than 75 organization support.
Lee’s Reparations Now resolution again called on Congress to act on furthering reparations for descendants of slavery. The bill supports other similar bills like HR 40, in addition to finding ways to support local and state reparations efforts.
JACL Executive Director David Inoue said, “Over 35 years ago, our country provided reparations to Japanese Americans who had been unjustly incarcerated during WWII.
“We are long overdue in fully coming to terms with our government’s complicity in the institution of chattel slavery and continued state-sanctioned and enforced racial discrimination against Black people. The Japanese American Citizens League continues the call for our nation to once again correct a historic injustice as it did for Japanese Americans, and seek to truly respond to the harms that our government has inflicted upon the Black community in the form of reparations to bring healing for all Americans.”
On May 17, JACL, in collaboration with the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition, participated in a National Reparations Rally in commemorate the 100th birthday of the late Malcolm X. Community members and several civil rights organizations engaged in a protest at Lansburgh Park through the National Reparations Network to mark his centennial and to fight for reparations.
The rally demonstrated cross-cultural and cross-organizational unity to celebrate and move the fight for reparations forward. More than 100 organizations endorsed the rally, with representatives from many of them speaking and sharing their support in person.
