FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2026
Media Contact:
National Black Cultural Information Trust, Inc.
Info@nbcit.org
Statement from the Reparation Education Project on the Midterm Elections – Beyond the Blue Tsunami: Electoral Change Must Deliver Justice
Reparation Education Project Executive Director Nkechi Taifa calls on the incoming Congress to make reparations and racial justice central to its agenda
WASHINGTON – Following sweeping Democratic victories in yesterday’s midterm elections, Nkechi Taifa, Esq., Executive Director of the Reparation Education Project, urged the incoming Congress to measure its success not by the shift in party control but by whether it delivers justice.
“The electorate has spoken!” said Taifa. “The sweeping Democratic victories in yesterday’s midterm elections represent a dramatic shift in congressional power. But I am not interested in simply celebrating a change in political parties. I am interested in what that change will mean for justice.”
Taifa, a criminal justice policy expert, attorney, and advocate for systemic reform, has worked through both Democratic and Republican administrations over several decades. “I know all too well that neither party has a monopoly on justice or injustice,” she said. “The struggle for fundamental change has never begun or ended at the ballot box.”
Taifa pointed to the Trump administration’s civil rights record as demanding accountability, citing the Justice Department’s intervention in litigation challenging Evanston, Illinois’s reparations program while the United States stood among just three countries voting against a United Nations resolution recognizing the world’s role in the trafficking and enslavement of Africans.
“At home, the federal government challenges efforts to repair the historic harm. Abroad, it votes against international recognition of the crime against humanity. What kind of justice is that?” said Taifa.
She called on the incoming Congress to confront these contradictions, exercise meaningful oversight, and address the continuing assault on voting rights, the suppression of Black history and literature, mass incarceration, and the erosion of civil and human rights.
“Reparations and racial justice must not be relegated to the margins of the political agenda, regardless of which party holds power,” Taifa said. “And they must not remain promises deferred, endlessly debated while the injuries they seek to remedy continue to compound. They are matters of historical accountability, constitutional principle, and fundamental human rights.”
“A blue tsunami may change the balance of power in Washington,” she concluded. “The real question, however, is whether it will change the balance of justice in America. That is the standard by which political change must be measured.”
About the Reparation Education Project
The Reparation Education Project (REP) is a national non-profit advancing the movement for reparations in the United States through education, advocacy, and strategic collaboration, equipping communities and institutions with the expertise and tools necessary to make reparations a common-sense, actionable reality. REP is a member of the National Black Cultural Information Trust’s Communications Collaborative. For more information visit: www.ReparationEducationProject.org