Senate Sponsors

  • Senator Richard Blumenthal

    “The Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act will help restore the unrealized promise of an economy in which all Americans have full, equal opportunity, free from racial discrimination. In the wake of the Civil War, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to guarantee that all Americans had the same rights to enter into contracts – but decades of bad court decisions have blocked Black Americans and other racial minorities from relying on this law to hold companies accountable for violations of their civil rights.”

  • Senator Ron Wyden (D OR)

    “America should be strengthening laws that protect the civil rights of Black Americans and people of color and support economic justice. Yet, the Supreme Court has chipped away at Section 1981, a pillar in the fight against racial discrimination and expanding economic opportunities. Congress must right this wrong and do more to address the serious economic inequities that persist in America and make sure that every American has equal opportunity.”

  • Senator Cory Booker

    “Over 155 years ago, Congress enacted Section 1981 to guarantee equal treatment for Black Americans and other communities of color in our economy. However, the Supreme Court’s decades-long pattern of systemically striking down its critical protections has left the law’s promise unfulfilled today. The Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act would be an important step toward restoring these protections and addressing the systemic racial discrimination in our nation’s economy. We must ensure that all Americans are afforded the same opportunities to thrive.”

  • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D MA)

  • Senator Mazie Hirono (D HI)

  • Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D RI)

  • Senator Bernie Sanders (D VT)

  • Senator Ed Markey (D MA)

House Sponsors

  • Representative Jamie Raskin (D MD-8)

    “The Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act is a crucial step toward ending racial discrimination and forging a democratic society that acts in service to the needs of our people. De Tocqueville taught us that a democracy is either always growing or shrinking, and for decades we’ve witnessed attempts by an increasingly authoritarian Supreme Court to shrink the scope of the Civil Rights Act and circumscribe the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s time to get our democracy back on the growth track and provide firm protections against discriminatory practices in economic life, ensuring that people of color live free from economic discrimination. I’m grateful to Congressman Ivey, Senator Blumenthal and Senator Booker for their support of this critical legislation.”

  • Representative Glenn Ivey (D MD-4)

    “I am proud to support the reintroduction of the Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act. Economic empowerment and opportunity for historically underserved communities is vital to generational wealth. Economic inclusion is a civil right. I commend the leadership of Rep. Raskin, Senators Blumenthal, Wyden, Booker and others to bring this measure the extra yard towards our ultimate goal of equity, fairness and justice in business and all walks of life.”

  • Representative Jamaal Bowman (D NY-17)

  • Representative Al Green (D TX-09)

  • Representative Jonathan Jackson (D IL-01)

  • Representative Barbara Lee (D CA-12)

  • Representative Jared Moskowitz (D FL-23)

  • Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D MS-2)

  • Representative Rashida Tlaib (D MI-12)

  • Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D NJ-12)

Endorsements

  • “This bill will help African Americans achieve true economic inclusion and allow us all to live up to the very first civil rights statute in America. It would push back on decades – generations – of courts undermining the original intent of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to bring African Americans into the economic mainstream.”

    Byron Allen, CEO and Founder, Allen Media Group

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  • “Today, the statute is a weak imitation of what it was then, given intervening Supreme Court and lower court rulings. Updating the statute and repudiating the erosion of it are critical, particularly in this period of growing (and record) economic inequalities that track race. Section 1981, our nation’s oldest federal civil rights law, can and should provide a tool to combat discrimination and inequalities in the economy. But it can’t and won’t unless it’s modernized."

    Retired U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon (Chief Judge N.D. Alabama), Of Counsel, Mehri & Skalet

  • “The Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act would be the most important legislative advance for civil rights in over a quarter century. It would restore the law to what it was before unfortunate Supreme Court decisions that very restrictively interpreted landmark civil rights statutes. The new Act would be a vital protection against discrimination and achieving economic justice.”

    Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law.

  • “The proposed legislation would revitalize the statute, helping make it a better match for structural racism and a stronger tool for addressing racial economic inequality. To fix the economy, we must create equal opportunity; and to create equal opportunity we must talk about race.”

    Joshua Karsh, Partner, Mehri & Skalet

  • “This bill would go a long way toward fixing Section 1981—and, by doing so, significantly address the problem of persistent race discrimination in the marketplace.”

    Cyrus Mehri, Founder and Partner, Mehri & Skalet

  • “The Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act will provide a necessary safeguard for Black people and other people of color to vindicate their rights in federal court when they have been subjected to racial discrimination. It is important that Congress prioritizes legislation that seeks to dismantle racial discrimination in this country. This bill will accomplish that by creating a pathway to secure justice for America's most vulnerable communities when their civil rights and liberties are violated."

    Zha’Mari Hurley, Associate Policy Counsel, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

  • “For far too long, the burden of proving the intent behind racial discrimination in a contract action has been placed on the person or company being discriminated against. The Economic Inclusion Civil Rights Act of 2023 is a step in the right direction towards the promise of equal protection that the constitution guarantees and will help to ensure that all racial discrimination in the making and enforcing of private and public contracts be prohibited. Black-owned businesses have seen far too many cases where violations of the terms in a contract or contract enforcement have resulted in creating or perpetuating racial discrimination. The “reasonable person standard” is applied in cases where a defendant owes a duty to others and may have breached that duty. This important legislation would establish that any proof of conduct that a reasonable person would find racially hostile would establish a violation and is consistent with other applications of the use of the “reasonable person standard.”

    Ron Busby, President and CEO of US Black Chambers, Inc.

  • "For the past 150 years, there have been attempts to weaken the intent of Section 1981 for all Americans to achieve the economic freedom that they deserve. I am proud to endorse this bill that promises to restore Section 1981 to its full strength and help Black people achieve economic parity and opportunity without fear of discrimination and further injustices.”

    Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League