Rep. Summer Lee Joins Rep. Pressley, Congressional Black Caucus Members, Advocates to Demand Reparative Justice Ahead of America’s 250th Anniversary

June 12, 2026 Press Release VIDEO WASHINGTON, D.C. – JUNE 12, 2026 — Yesterday, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) joined Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and advocates for an Equity Week press conference calling on Congress to advance a comprehensive reparative justice legislative agenda ahead of America’s 250th anniversary. At the press conference, lawmakers and advocates uplifted legislation to repair the lasting harms of institutional social, racial, and economic inequities, including bills focused on reparations, economic justice, voting rights, healthcare, education equity, public safety, hate crime prevention, ending violence against Black women, and protecting the accurate teaching of American history. “As this country prepares to mark 250 years, we must recognize the government-sanctioned harm our communities have endured for centuries and the ongoing fight for justice,” said Rep. Lee. “At a time when the Trump Administration is rolling back civil rights protections, attacking equity, whitewashing our history, and making it harder for our communities to access the care, housing, education, and economic security we deserve, reparative justice could not be more urgent. This moment demands so much more than remembrance. It demands repair, accountability, and the courage to build a country that works for us all.” “As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, the next 250 years cannot look like the last. The next 250 years must be about repair,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley. “The inequities we face today are not accidental. They are the direct result of this nation’s original systems designed to exclude, exploit, and harm communities of color. That’s why I’m proud to join colleagues and advocates in calling on Congress to act and advance our reparative justice agenda. To meet this moment with the urgency it demands. And help build a future grounded not in denial, but in repair.” “I commend Congresswoman Pressley for her leadership on H.R. 40 and her commitment to advancing reparative justice,” said Rep. Al Green. “The vestiges of slavery and generations of invidious discrimination continue to deny too many Americans equal access to opportunity and justice. The proposals that would result from H.R.40 are a necessary step toward addressing historic injustices, and my resolution to establish a Department of Reconciliation would ensure these proposals are implemented so that we can begin to eliminate the systemic discrimination that persists today. As Slavery Remembrance Day reminds us, if we are to honor those who endured slavery and fulfill this Nation’s promise of liberty and justice for all, we must do more than remember; there can be no reconciliation without restoration; there can be no restoration without reparations.” "The Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act has been introduced and stalled every Congress dating back to 1989,” said Rep. Watson Coleman. "As we approach Juneteenth and the 250th anniversary of our nation, I think about how long Black Americans have had to endure the legacy of slavery and the pain inflicted on our community since then— including from the Trump administration. We have been told to wait for far too long. No more. It is well-past time for Black people to realize the full promise of the American dream." "We find ourselves once again at an inflection point. This administration is actively dismantling the infrastructure of repair while the debt to Black America continues to accumulate,” said Dreisen Heath, Founder and Executive Director of the Why We Can’t Wait Reparations Network. “Every other administration before this one refused to act on reparations. Congress cannot call itself a body of justice and continue to defer H.R. 40 and our full reparative justice agenda. The next 250 years will be defined by what we do right now — and right now means passing reparations legislation without delay, without equivocation, and without excuse." Joining the lawmakers were members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Why We Can’t Wait Reparations Network was Richard Brookshire, co-founder and co-CEO of the Black Veterans Project, LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Chief Strategy Office and Vice President of the Children’s Defense Fund, Rev. Mark Thompson, National Legislative Commission Male co-chair of N’COBRA, and Ebonie Riley, Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategic Partnerships at the National Action Network. “Today, we have an opportunity to restore the pillars of Reconstruction. As April Albright of Black Voters Matter has said, all of the Civil Rights Acts and the VRA, “are floors and not ceilings. Let’s continue the unfinished work for which Abraham Lincoln was martyred, said. “I commend these Members of Congress, especially Congresswoman Pressley, for their courage and their commitment and their progressive principles. I look forward to us all being joined in this battle to once and for all realize repair and democracy in America.” – Rev. Mark Thompson, National Legislative Commission Male Co-Chair of N’COBRA “Nearly a century ago, Black veterans sought victory over the dual evils of fascism and racism. Their war has still not been won. We stand on the front lines of a nadir on our nation’s Semiquincentennial— a deconstruction of our very democracy that aims to drag us backward and render our wounds invisible. We must draw on ancestral wisdom, strength and courage to defend against the forces that would rob us of the liberty, justice and inheritance that is owed. Reparations can bring forward a great re-imagining and renew our nation’s sacred promise. A double victory is our North Star.” – Richard Brookshire, Cofounder & Co-CEO, Black Veterans Project “The economic violence that started in slavery, did not end with slavery. It compounds. It shows up in the neighborhood that is unsafe, in the health outcome that comes too early, in the school that doesn't have enough. Generation after generation, it robs black children of their health, their safety, their education, their future, and their joy. Children’s Defense Fund supports Congresswoman Pressley’s bill, House Resolution 40, because it says it’s time to study this wound so we can finally heal it. Reparations is how a nation finally pays a debt. It is how we can ensure every child in America grows up with dignity, hope and joy." – Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Children's Defense Fund Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer "This administration has again made harming Black communities federal policy, from gutting civil rights enforcement to erasing our history. That is exactly why this agenda matters. As we mark Equity Week, Congresswoman Pressley's Reparative Justice Legislative Agenda stands out as serious legislation, deliberately constructed, with remedy matched to wound across wealth, voting rights, healthcare, education, and the safety of Black women. For more than three decades, Rev. Al Sharpton and National Action Network chapters nationwide have stood with serious efforts to make justice law. We stand with this one, alongside the advocates and scholars who have carried the case for repair across generations. We endorse this agenda without reservation, and we will work alongside Congresswoman Pressley and our communities until repair is enacted." – Ebonie Riley, Senior Vice President of National Action Network Rep. Lee highlighted her Reparations Now Resolution , legislation calling on the federal government to provide reparations to descendants of enslaved Black families, support existing reparatory justice efforts, and strengthen reparations movements at the federal, state, and local levels. As the first Black woman elected to represent Pennsylvania in Congress, Rep. Lee has made reparative justice central to her work, fighting to confront the generations of government-sanctioned harm, exclusion, and disinvestment that continue to shape Black communities in Pennsylvania and across the country. To watch the full video, please click here . Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Judiciary and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.7 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs.  Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 4,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.