Most oppose cash reparations for slavery: poll

The majority of respondents in a new poll said the federal government should not provide reparations in the form of cash payments to the descendants of slaves.

Sixty-seven percent said the government should not make such payments while 29 percent of respondents — including 73 percent of black respondents — said they were in favor of the push, according to the Gallup survey.

Race relations and economic inequality have become central topics of debate ahead of the 2020 election.{mosads}

Presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) sponsored legislation in April that would set up a commission to explore reparations for African Americans whose ancestors suffered economically as a result of slavery and decades of Jim Crow-era laws.

Other White House contenders including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), have co-sponsored Booker’s bill.

While many Democratic presidential contenders have publicly supported the move, Democrats in the Gallup poll were split on the question of cash-based payments.

In the survey, 49 percent of Democrats were in favor of cash reparations and 47 percent were not.

An overwhelming majority of Republicans — 92 percent — said the government should not make cash payments to black Americans who are descendants of slaves. Only 5 percent said the government should.

The Gallup poll was conducted June 19 through July 12 among a random sample of 2,543 adults. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.