The Congressional Black Caucus — with the blessing of Speaker Nancy Pelosi — is taking the lead on an aggressive response to the nationwide upheaval over racial injustice and police brutality, intent on seizing the moment as the United States is engulfed by one of the largest mass protests in 50 years.
The House Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on police brutality next week, and the panel is also sifting through more than 40 proposals to mark up for floor consideration by the end of June, according to four Democratic aides. But Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) signaled they weren’t prepared to call the full House back into session yet. The House in recess until June 30 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
resolution drafted by CBC members, including by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), to condemn police brutality and racial profiling. Pressley, as well as fellow progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) both touted the measure in Monday evening’s caucus call.
Ocasio-Cortez, who rarely speaks on the caucuswide calls, implored her colleagues that it was time to do “difficult but right things,” even if they weren’t popular politically, according to multiple Democrats on the call.
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), whose teenage son was
shot and killed in 2012 by a white man in a dispute over loud car music, also grew emotional, crying as she pleaded with her colleagues to take action.
Democrats will hold another caucus call on Thursday focused solely on the issue of race in America.
The CBC is seeking to rally its colleagues — and the nation — behind long-overdue reforms to stop police killings of black men. Bass has tasked senior Democrats in her caucus to draft a broader legislative package with the aim of reaching the House floor.
"The solution to this should not necessarily be on the [Congressional Hispanic Caucus] or the CBC or the Asian-Pacific Caucus. It ought to be on the Congress of the United States," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), a minister who served as the first black mayor of Kansas City, said in an interview Monday.
Cleaver added that many activists he's spoken with in recent days have made clear their patience has run dry for policymakers who want to drag their feet.
"If I have heard it once, I have heard it 100 times over the last four or five days,” Cleaver said. “You were telling people to be calm. ... But it's the message you’ve been giving us for the last 25 or 30 years. And people are tired.”
Beyond legislation, the CBC is also planning messaging tactics to help amplify the message from protestors. Among their ideas is a march from the Capitol to the White House or the Department of Justice, a display of unity that Democrats hope would amplify calls for change from millions of Americans, rather than viral photos of fires and looting by small numbers of demonstrators.
"We have to ask ourselves and we have to ask the country at what point, at what point will be grow tired of seeing people literally executed on video and nothing happens."
Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.)
Members also discussed holding a news conference as early as this week in Washington to honor Floyd by bowing their heads and raising their fists for the eight minutes that Derek Chauvin — the police officer charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter — had his knee on Floyd’s neck.
But Democrats are also facing major logistical hurdles, with members scattered across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic as the nation slowly emerges from more than two months of quarantine. One of their own — Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) — was hit with pepper spray while taking part in the protests in Columbus on Saturday, and other CBC members are demonstrating as well.
In a private email on Sunday, Bass told her members that they needed to confront “what appears to be open season on Black folks.”
“How do we have a very visible response under the conditions we are now experiencing?” Bass said in the email obtained by POLITICO, announcing an emergency caucus call on Monday afternoon. “Regardless we have to figure out how to visibly and forcefully respond.”
On an emergency CBC call on Monday afternoon, Omar — whose district includes parts of Minneapolis roiled by demonstrations — updated members on the situation there and called for charges against all four police officers involved in the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in custody last week.
That prosecution is being led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a former House Democrat and CBC member, whose seat now belongs to Omar.
Omar also invited CBC members to attend public services for Floyd later this week, according to a lawmaker on the call.
In a document sent by Bass to members Monday morning, the California Democrat said the caucus must be “visible IMMEDIATELY” and find ways to go beyond cable TV and social media posts. Proposals in the document included tweet storms, targeting young voters, and urging celebrities to assist in spreading their message.
vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” against protesters and
encouraging police to use overwhelming force.
The majority of the protests across the country have been peaceful, but some supporters fear that viral videos of government buildings or a church aflame — some reportedly set by agitators unaffiliated with the protests — could turn public opinion against the national movement.
The CBC, which has a large roster of senior Democrats who have spent decades in the House, also faces a challenge in finding the right messenger. One of their most powerful voices, Lewis, is largely sidelined as he fights cancer. Clyburn is 80, while two African American senators — Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey — had previously focused their attention on running for the White House.
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