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The first congressional hearing in a decade to discuss compensation for the descendants of US slaves has seen heated arguments from both sides.
Some witnesses said reparations would damage the relationship between white and black Americans, while others said it was imperative to achieve justice.
Several Democratic White House hopefuls have taken up the idea of reparations.
But Republican leader Mitch McConnell has made it clear no reparations bill will pass while he controls the Senate.
The House of Representatives judiciary subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and civil liberties said the Wednesday hearing would examine “the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its continuing impact on the community and the path to restorative justice”.
Hundreds of people lined up outside the hearing room and filled the overflow room to watch.
What are the arguments against reparations?
Republican witness Coleman Hughes, an African-American writer and New York student, argued during the hearing that reparations “would insult many black Americans by putting a price on the suffering of their ancestors”.
“If we were to pay reparations today, we would only divide the country further, making it harder to build the political coalitions required to solve the problems facing black people today.”
The second Republican witness, African-American former NFL player Burgess Owens, also rejected the idea, saying: “What strangers did to other strangers 200 years ago has nothing to do with us because that has nothing to do with our DNA.”
“History is there for us to find out and gauge for ourselves how far we’ve come,” he added. “As long as we don’t reach back and define ourselves by the worst of ourselves – and that’s what too many people are doing today.”
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Actor Danny Glover, whose great-grandmother was a slave, testified in favour of reparations
What is the case in favour?
Witnesses who testified in favour of reparations included actor Danny Glover, who told the panel that such restitution would cure “the damages inflicted by enslavement and forced racial exclusionary policies”.
“A national reparations policy is a moral, democratic and economic imperative,” Mr Glover said.
Economist Julianne Malveaux also emphasised that she wanted lawmakers to address structural issues and inequalities affecting black Americans.
“When zipcode [postal code] determines what kind of school that you go to, when zipcode determines what kind of food you eat – these are the vestiges of enslavement that a lot of people don’t want to deal with.”
Lawmakers also heard from writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose 15,000-word cover story for the Atlantic magazine in 2014, The Case for Reparations, reignited the whole debate.
Responding to Mr McConnell’s comments on Tuesday that those alive now were not responsible, Mr Coates said: “For a century after the civil war, black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror, a campaign that extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell.”
He added: “Enslavement reigned for 250 years on these shores. When it ended, this country could have extended its hollow principles of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness to all. But America had other things in mind.”
A conundrum for Democrats
Back in June 2014, Atlantic magazine author Ta-Nehisi Coates made what has been widely considered the most comprehensive case for reparations for black Americans. In his piece, he argued that compensation was due not just for the historic injustice of slavery, but for the discrimination and depredation, official and unwritten, the community had been subjected to in the time after emancipation.
The consequences, in housing, employment and education policies, are felt even to this day.
His arguments resonate with many on the left, who believe the US as a nation has a responsibility to right these wrongs. There has been an ongoing debate, within the Democratic presidential field and now the halls of Congress, over the way forward.
It is also a debate that is likely to fall on deaf ears for much of the country, who view the horrors of slavery as the stuff of history books. It’s an issue that is easy for political opponents to dismiss, stoking the fires of racial resentment that have smouldered in America during the Trump era.
This presents a conundrum for Democratic policymakers that is more than familiar by now. Should they try to do what many in their party believe is right – or follow the least resistant path to political success?
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposes reparations
Would reparations pass Congress?
As long as Republicans hold the majority in the Senate, it is unlikely any bill will make it to the president’s desk, as Mr McConnell has made clear.
Asked about the issue on Tuesday, Mr McConnell told reporters: “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none us currently living are responsible is a good idea.”
He said that “it would be hard to figure out to who to compensate”.
“We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation,” he added. “We elected an African-American president.
“I think we’re always a work in progress in this country, but no-one currently alive was responsible for that.”
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Activists stand in line waiting to enter the hearing
What’s the context?
The issue – which has been debated since the US Civil War – has bubbled up in the race for next year’s presidential election.
Democratic candidates such as Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke and Bernie Sanders have said that as president they would form a commission to study the matter.
Reparations have often been interpreted as direct financial payments to black Americans.
But one economist, William Darity, has suggested a “portfolio of reparations” beyond remittances.
He has said this could combine funding of black education and healthcare, as well as ensuring that public schools properly teach the full impact of slavery.
The hearing is being held on Juneteenth, which commemorates 19 June 1865 when Texan slaves finally learned they were free, two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.