Amanda Montañez; Source: “Slaveholder Ancestry and Current Net Worth of Members of the United States Congress,” by Neil K. R. Sehgal and Ashwini R. Sehgal, in PLOS ONE. Published online August 21, 2024
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Democracy, Education, History
U.S. Senators and Representatives whose family had a history of enslaving others have greater present-day wealth.
Members of the U.S. congress whose ancestors enslaved people have had a higher median net worth than those whose ancestors did not, according to a new analysis published on Wednesday in PLOS ONE.
The analysis used genealogical data published last year by an investigative team at Reuters, which found that in 2021, at least 100 members of Congress were descended from enslavers. This included 8 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of Republicans.
This reporting caught the eye of Neil K. R. Sehgal, a Ph.D. student and computational social science researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. He wondered what this unique genealogical data might reveal when combined with other publicly available information about members of Congress—particularly their financial disclosure forms.
“Just the fact that this was available—this detailed genealogical data and these financial disclosures for members of Congress—allowed us to explore this link,” Sehgal says.
The racial wealth gap in the U.S. is staggering. More than one in five white households have a net worth of more than $1 million, whereas more than one in five Black households have zero or negative net worth. This extreme imbalance began with slavery and has been perpetuated by racist policies and practices in housing, education, hiring, voting, and more that prevent many Black Americans from attaining and passing on generational wealth.
Wealthier Members of Congress Have Family Links to Slavery, Allison Parshall, Scientific American
