On June 19, also known as Juneteenth, Senator Cory Booker published an op-ed article with Essence. In the article, after talking about the holiday's meaning, he discussed the need for granting reparations to descendants of former slaves. According to Senator Booker's piece, Former President Abraham Lincoln had already signed the Emancipation Proclamation into active status. After two and a half years, Black slaves in Galveston, Texas had no idea they were freed, nor did their owners.

Cory Booker calls Juneteenth a day to remember the end of slavery — the day word finally reached the last enslaved community in the South.

It was a "brutal and dehumanizing system that still has far-reaching consequences," Booker mentions in his message. He continues by stating that, as true patriots, America has to look at its past and find meaningful ways to stop the injustices which continue as the result of that particular system.

Even though Black ancestors were freed after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, there were still several barriers facing former slaves. The following years pushed specified policies and systems meant to keep Blacks hindered and stagnant for future generations, according to Cory Booker. This was especially the case, financially. "From Social Security to federal housing policy, to the GI Bill," Booker says it was all initially crafted against Black Americans.

So, Cory Booker proposes the following plan for reparations

Blacks are the only people who were forced to the United States, as well as all other locations in the African diaspora.

Yet also, Blacks are the only people who haven't received any kind of financial apology for the ills of war, injustice, and tyranny against an entire race of people. Japan received reparations. The Jewish community has received theirs from Germany. Native Americans constantly receive income, seemingly without question. But Blacks are supposed to "forgive and forget" 400 years of oppression?

According to Senator Cory Booker, his reparations plan is called the 'Baby Bond.' He states that, once a child is born, a $1,000 savings account will be started. Each year, the account would grow by approximately $2,000, depending on the family's income. By 18 years of age, "the average Black account holder would have access to more than $29,000," which could be used for a great start at adult life — a similar-but-fractional head-start that was made off the backs of free slave labor for, again, 400 of the United States' infant years.

Booker notes that, by a study at Columbia University, his reparations proposal would ideally close the racial wealth gap among young adults.
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