Reparations activists are pushing back on blue-state lawmakers, arguing slavery remedies should go specifically to descendants of people enslaved in America, not broader groups. The U.S. Freedmen Project says politicians are invoking slavery, Jim Crow and redlining while pursuing programs that could benefit immigrants and other marginalized communities. Spokesperson Annette Wilcox argues the approach uses one group’s history to provide remedies to a much wider population. The group is calling for reparations to remain strictly lineage-based. The fight is unfolding as New Jersey lawmakers pursue a reparations framework and similar debates play out in New York and Illinois. Read how activists say the debate is shifting and why they believe lineage could become a major legal issue: