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Summer Lee: “This country has stolen black labor, black lives and black…”

Featuring: Summer Lee, Democratic | U.S. House Pennsylvania, District 12

'400 Years Of Harm': Summer Lee Demands Reparative Justice | APT

Published June 12, 2026 | Video Starts at 00:48

I recognize that this is the 250th anniversary, but we've been here over 400 years. This country has stolen black labor, black lives and black futures. And at every stage our government has sanctioned it. From slavery to Jim Crow to redlining, to mass incarceration, to environmental racism and to economic disenfranchisement, we're still living through those effects today. (00:48–00:57)

CLAIM

Asserts that the U.S. government has sanctioned the exploitation and oppression of black people.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Summer Lee

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“Congress won't even pass a bill like HR 40 to study reparations for black Americans.”
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“The federal government has time and time again kept its knee on black Americans and then told us that we need to then pull ourselves up by…”
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“From slavery to Jim Crow to redlining, to mass incarceration, to environmental racism and to economic disenfranchisement, we're still living…”
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“Attacks on voting rights and representation and black health and black wealth and so much more are not only a ghost from a long ago past…”
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“The courts are diminishing black political power.”
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“We deserve a government that protects civil rights instead of rolling them back.”
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“We deserve policies that create opportunity instead of deepening inequity.”
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“We deserve technology and labor and housing and economic policies that work for black communities as well as it works for each and every…”
'400 Years Of Harm': Summer Lee Demands Reparative Justice | APT | Uploaded June 12, 2026 | 02:37-02:49
“A country that is that fair enough, affordable enough, and just enough for black families is a country that works better for all working…”
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“We're calling for a country that values itself enough to recognize that success in the black community, that reparation in the black…”
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