On Wednesday, Democrats leading the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on H.R. 40, a bill that has been introduced routinely over the past 30 years to authorize a study on potential reparations for Black Americans impacted by slavery. The hearing, titled Exploring the Pathway to Reparative Justice in America, was timely, as its fundamental question about the value of Black life in America is more fraught now than during any period in modern history.

Last month, violent rioters several of them pictured with Confederate flags and others who erected a gallows on the National Mall carried out a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of Electoral College votes, a number of which hinged on voters in predominantly Black districts. Days after the Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump for his role in inciting that violence, the Houses hearing on reparations for Black American suffering felt like a rebuttal.

H.R. 40 was introduced by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), who became the bills sponsor after the late Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) resigned in 2017. The bill authorizes Congress to establish a commission that shall examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. More than 170 representatives have signed on as co-sponsors.

Rep. Jackson Lee, who has supported H.R. 40 in the past, said the Jan. 6 insurrection proves America still needs to reckon with its oppressive past. The rioters who stormed the Capitol brandished symbols of division and intolerance that echo back to the darkest periods of our nations history, she said. Clearly, we require a reckoning to restore national balance and unity.