Just one day after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against reparations for slavery, author Ta-Nehisi Coates passionately argued in favor of them at a Wednesday House hearing on the topic — rebutting McConnell’s argument that they are not a “good idea.”

The Kentucky Senator spoke to reporters Tuesday on the eve of the House Judiciary hearing, saying he didn’t think “reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea.” He added that the U.S. has tried to deal with its “original sin” of slavery by fighting the Civil War, passing civil rights legislation and electing its first African American President, Barack Obama.

“We’re always a work in progress in this country, but no one currently alive was responsible for that,” McConnell said.

Coates, a former national correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of the 2014 cover article “A Case for Reparations,” used his five-minute opening statement at the House hearing to strongly disagree.

“This rebuttal proffers a strange theory of governance, that American accounts are somehow bound by the lifetime of its generations,” he said. “But well into this century, the United States was still paying out pensions to the heirs of Civil War soldiers. We honor treaties that date back some 200 years, despite no one being alive who signed those treaties.”

Coates, now a writer-in-residence at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, also said that half of the country’s economic activity was derived directly or indirectly by about a million enslaved African Americans. He added that “by the time the enslaved were emancipated, they comprised the largest single asset in America.”

He also noted that although slavery ended long ago, racism is far from over.

“We grant that Mr. McConnell was not alive for Appomattox. But he was alive for the electrocution of George Stinney. He was alive for the blinding of Isaac Woodard,” Coates said. “Majority Leader McConnell cited civil rights legislation yesterday, as well he should, because he was alive to witness the harassment, jailing, and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them.”

He added that “while emancipation dead bolted the door against the bandits of America, Jim Crow wedged the windows wide open. And that is the thing about Senator McConnell’s “something”: It was 150 years ago. And it was right now.”

New Jersey senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker also testified before the House, saying “we as a nation must address these persistent inequalities,” and calling for an open discussion on how best to compensate Black Americans.

Wednesday’s hearing took place on Juneteenth, the day enslaved people in Texas were freed in 1865, after the news of emancipation finally arrived in the state.

Read Coates’ full opening remarks here, as transcribed by The Atlantic:

Yesterday, when asked about reparations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a familiar reply: America should not be held liable for something that happened 150 years ago, since none of us currently alive are responsible. This rebuttal proffers a strange theory of governance, that American accounts are somehow bound by the lifetime of its generations. But well into this century, the United States was still paying out pensions to the heirs of Civil War soldiers. We honor treaties that date back some 200 years, despite no one being alive who signed those treaties. Many of us would love to be taxed for the things we are solely and individually responsible for. But we are American citizens, and thus bound to a collective enterprise that extends beyond our individual and personal reach. It would seem ridiculous to dispute invocations of the founders, or the greatest generation, on the basis of a lack of membership in either group. We recognize our lineage as a generational trust, as inheritance, and the real dilemma posed by reparations is just that: a dilemma of inheritance. It is impossible to imagine America without the inheritance of slavery.

As historian Ed Baptist has written, enslavement “shaped every crucial aspect of the economy and politics” of America, so that by 1836 more than $600 million, almost half of the economic activity in the United States, derived directly or indirectly from the cotton produced by the million-odd slaves. By the time the enslaved were emancipated, they comprised the largest single asset in America. Three billion in 1860 dollars, more than all the other assets in the country combined. The method of cultivating this asset was neither gentle cajoling nor persuasion, but torture, rape, and child trafficking. Enslavement reigned for 250 years on these shores. When it ended, this country could have extended its hallowed principles—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—to all, regardless of color. But America had other principles in mind. And so for a century after the Civil War, black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror, a campaign that extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell. It is tempting to divorce this modern campaign of terror, of plunder, from enslavement, but the logic of enslavement, of white supremacy, respects no such borders and the guard of bondage was lustful and begat many heirs. Coup d-états and convict leasing. Vagrancy laws and debt peonage. Redlining and racist G.I. bills. Poll taxes and state-sponsored terrorism. We grant that Mr. McConnell was not alive for Appomattox. But he was alive for the electrocution of George Stinney. He was alive for the blinding of Isaac Woodard. He was alive to witness kleptocracy in his native Alabama and a regime premised on electoral theft. Majority Leader McConnell cited civil-rights legislation yesterday, as well he should, because he was alive to witness the harassment, jailing, and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them. He was alive for the redlining of Chicago and the looting of black homeowners of some $4 billion. Victims of that plunder are very much alive today. I am sure they’d love a word with the majority leader. What they know, what this committee must know, is that while emancipation deadbolted the door against the bandits of America, Jim Crow wedged the windows wide open. And that is the thing about Senator McConnell’s “something”: It was 150 years ago. And it was right now. The typical black family in this country has one tenth the wealth of the typical white family. Black women die in childbirth at four times the rate of white women. And there is, of course, the shame of this land of the free boasting the largest prison population on the planet, of which the descendants of the enslaved make up the largest share. The matter of reparations is one of making amends and direct redress, but it is also a question of citizenship. In H.R. 40, this body has a chance to both make good on its 2009 apology for enslavement, and reject fair-weather patriotism, to say that this nation is both its credits and debits. That if Thomas Jefferson matters, so does Sally Hemings. That if D-Day matters, so does Black Wall Street. That if Valley Forge matters, so does Fort Pillow. Because the question really is not whether we’ll be tied to the somethings of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them. Thank you.

Correction, June 19

The original version of this story misstated the state that Senator Mitch McConnell represents. He’s a Senator from Kentucky, not Alabama.

Write to Jasmine Aguilera at jasmine.aguilera@time.com.