What the 2024 Democratic Party Platform says – and doesn't say – about reparations
Chicago, Illinois - Heading into the 2024 election, the Democratic Party has once again expressed support for a federal reparations study – but failed to call for executive action to get there.
"We have a long way to go to realize the full promise of America, but we are committed as a party to continuing the work to build a nation where all people are not only created equal, but treated equally throughout their lives. To determine how best to right historical wrongs, Democrats support Congress executing a study of reparations and the continuing impacts of slavery," page 55 of the 2024 Democratic Party Platform reads.
While the statement affirms Democratic Party support for a reparations study, it also makes a striking omission.
Throughout the Biden-Harris administration, reparations advocates have demanded the president enact a federal reparations commission by executive order. The body – to be established according to guidelines laid out in the HR 40 bill – would be tasked with developing a policy plan to address ongoing harms to Black communities stemming from enslavement, Jim Crow apartheid, and present-day racism.
Shifting responsibility for authorizing a commission solely to Congress has sparked outrage among some movement leaders.
"The Democratic Party is no stranger to executive orders, with presidents recognizing their importance and having issued countless over the years. To have not done so with respect to a simple federal reparations study is not only repugnant but a slap in the face to Black people," Nkechi Taifa, executive director of the Reparation Education Project, told TAG24 NEWS.
"Signing an executive order immediately bringing HR 40 into existence during the upcoming [Joe] Biden lame duck or [Kamala] Harris presidency is critical," she said.
Reparations executive order demand boosted by United Nations
Reparative justice is not new to the Democratic Party Platform. The 2020 text endorsed a federal study, a position the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reaffirmed in a resolution in March 2022.
Dreisen Heath, founder of the national Why We Can't Wait Coalition, attributed the inclusion of reparations in the party's latest policy program to the sustained efforts of grassroots organizers.
"It is no surprise to see a reference to the need to study and develop proposals for reparations, once again in the DNC platform, given the tireless work of reparations organizers and advocates and given what the Democratic Party says are their values and intended outcomes regarding better life outcomes for Black Americans and improving the overall well-being of this country," Heath shared in a statement.
The leading reparations advocate noted that while language in support of executive action had been excluded from the 2024 platform, such efforts have seen marked success at the international level.
In 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) urged the US government to pass HR 40 and "take the appropriate measures towards the establishment of such a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for people of African Descent, including issuing an executive order."
CERD special rapporteur Pansy Tlakula told TAG24 NEWS at the time that the committee expects the US government to report on its concrete progress toward reparations at the next review session in 2026.
Calls for reparations resound at Democratic National Convention
Reparations advocates have insisted there is no reason for President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the 2024 Democratic nominee, to defer action on reparations.
"On the heels of the Biden administration issuing monetary and resource relief to Black and other minoritized farmers and President Biden using his executive powers to designate Springfield, Illinois, as a national monument in recognition of the 1908 race massacre, we are reassured that the Biden administration has the tools, resources, and infrastructure to establish a federal reparations commission today and certainly before the November election," Heath explained.
"White resentment and backlash will always be here; if we really don't want to 'go back,' we must implement Reparations Now," she added, echoing a top Harris-Walz campaign slogan.
The convening of Democratic Party leaders in Chicago this week – just two months after Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order to create a local reparations commission – could not be more symbolic. Illinois is also home to the African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission, which is holding public hearings across the state, and Evanston, the first US municipality to extend reparations to Black residents.
Calls for reparations resounded during the Democratic National Convention, including from the family of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black teen murdered in a 1955 lynching, as well as from representatives of the last two living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
A common thread across those conversations has been the need for the federal government to step in without further delay.
"Time is of the essence, and Democrats must not waste any more time righting this most egregious historical wrong," Taifa urged.
Cover photo: REUTERS