ABA Supports Commission to Study Racial Disparities in U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 18, 2007 – Racial disparities still plague America and its legal system, and the federal government should study the lingering affects of slavery and institutional racism, an American Bar Association leader told Congress today.

ABA President-elect H. Thomas Wells Jr. cited substantial gaps in earning potential, health care, unemployment and incarceration rates, saying they are reminders that America still has work to do to eradicate racism and racial bias.

“In the early part of the 20th century, there came to be two Americas, one that could rely on the rule of law and one that could not. Concerns remain regarding slavery and post-slavery discrimination and its effect on present-day social and political and economic conditions for African Americans,” Wells said.

Wells, a Birmingham, Ala., lawyer who will become ABA president in August 2008, testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee. He spoke in support of H.R. 40, which would authorize a federally funded commission to study the impact of slavery on the social, political and economic life of the United States.

In 2006, the ABA endorsed a study of the lingering consequences of slavery, and of the subsequent denial of equal justice under law for African Americans.

In his testimony, Wells quoted a 2005 speech delivered by President Bush in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina. In that speech, Bush said that poverty in the Deep South was tied to long-standing racial discrimination, and that “bold action” was needed to confront that poverty. “Passage of H.R. 40 would be the bold action that President Bush describes,” Wells said.

The field of criminal justice, in particular, is a prime example of why the United States needs to research racial disparities in its justice system, Wells said. He noted that a report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that a black male had a 1-in-3 chance of being imprisoned during his lifetime, compared to a 1-in-6 chance for a Latino male and a 1-in-17 chance for a white male.

“The question is not whether we need a commission, like the one proposed in H.R. 40. The questions is: why have we waited so long to establish one?” Wells said.