Posted on 10/06/2008 3:22:37 AM PDT by NCDragon
Marchers took to the street this week, calling for the state to make reparations for the 1898 Wilmington riots.
About a dozen people marched to the courthouse in Durham on Sunday. It was one of 13 such marches held across the state leading up to the 65th annual conference of the state NAACP, which starts Thursday.
The marchers are asking state legislators to make payments to the descendants of those harmed in an insurrection that led to the deaths of at least 14 black people and perhaps many more.
The riots were brought to the forefront when the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission report was released in 2006 after six years of study by a state-appointed panel.
The panel found that the riots that led to a government overthrow in Wilmington were started by white supremacist leaders in a conspiracy to strip political power from black people and their allies.
State legislators have apologized for the conspiracy, but the state NAACP and other groups in a statewide coalition are calling for the state to make reparations to the families of those who died or lost their livelihoods as a result of the riots.
"You want to apologize, but you don't want to share the wealth with these people," said Fred Foster, head of the Durham branch of the state NAACP. "The only way to bring closure is to set things right."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
Awright, all you 110+ year old perpetrators, get down and grovel and open your wallets to your 110+ year old victims.
Everybody else, born after the event, especially those born somewhere else and just moved to town 109 years ago or less, STFU.
This is just the beginning. No, wait, the bailout bill was the real beginning. Anyway, if President, Obama promises reparations will be all across the board in power and access, not just money. Everything. Wholesale robbery. Of course, if their ancestors had remained in Africa, they’d probably never have been born, never have had the opportunity to go to school, own a business, and live free. Has anyone noticed how absent Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, and company have been? And not a peep when OJ was convicted. They got their marching orders from the big O.
DON'T GIVE THE NAACP SQUAT! Whatever you do will never be good enough.
Here in SC, we are still having to listen to them bitch and moan about the Confederate Battle Flag. They agreed to a solution, and once it was enacted... suddenly it wasn't good enough. Now, we are under a boycott (that no one notices) that comes up in the news from time to time.
The NAACP is a subversive organization whose primary purpose seems to be the promotion of racism among black people.
Don't ever give in to them again. Ever.
White Republicans need reparations, too! Hmmm, I'm a white Republican.....I need reparations!
Never mind that I'm from Oregon, I just want a boost up onto the gravy train.
As usual, NAACP and it media allies ignore the party affiliations of those involved in these long-ago atrocities.
By their logic, I figure that each and every registered Democrat owes the GOP and the rest of us about $3 million for the cost of the Civil War, plus interest, as well as for the premature loss of Abraham Lincoln to a Democrat conspiracy.
Durham should admit wrong doing and give a mule and 10 cartons of Camels to each person complaining
I want reparations. My family was never paid for when we financed the revolutionary war. The first white house burned to the ground and the promissory note with it. We were given a private island off the coast of Massachusetts. In the mid 60’s the govt took it back and Ted Kennedy said he’d help the family regain their rights to it, which of course he did NOT.
I want to be compensated, with interest and adjusted for inflation, for the value of the property taken from my family at the end of the War of Northern Aggression. /sarc
The News & Observer, run by the racist Josephus Daniels, led the charge to overthrow the Wilmington government. Perhaps they could set an example by paying reparations themselves. Except that they are broke and will soon be on the ash heap of history.
In a completely irrelevant sidelight, teetotaler Daniels was Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson administration and banned alcohol from Navy ships leading to the expression “a cup of Joe” for coffee.
So, the Democrats and the mainstream media of the time worked hand in paw to subvert democracy and human rights? Sounds familiar.
(also makes me wonder if the NAACP researched this episode at all before they decided to make an issue of it.)
This pretty much falls into the category of — “okay, everyone that was involved with riot’s — step forward...
This is kind of like this nextel commercial for how easy some of this stuff is;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6DORwBzuA
“all opposed to reparations...say yea”
“a lot of paperwork to tell us just to get over it and move on — how long do you want to be victim for something that didn’t affect you.”
If the race in North Carolina was tight before, the reparations debate should give the McCain campaign some breathing room.
There is precedent in the Clinton Administration:
Pigford v. Glickman (USDA) “the black farmers’ lawsuit”)
In 1996, a group of black farmers assembled outside the White House gates to protest racism within USDA. The national media covered the assemblage and aired the group’s charges. Shortly thereafter, following a quick investigation, Glickman said that the charges were indeed true: the agency he’d looked after for two years was shot through with racism.
No evidence of the found racism was offered. Instead, several things took place. First, Glickman created a Civil Rights Action Team (CRAT). In January 1997, an 11-stop, coast-to-coast jaunt (termed a “listening tour”) was scheduled. According to reports, the tour was well-attended, and the 11-member CRAT did plenty of note-taking. Glickman accepted the findings and recommendations of the team. First, the 900-plus discrimination complaints were quickly reviewed (at a cost of millions of dollars).
Only a handful were found to hold discrimination-proving potential. In 1998 lawsuits filed by Timothy Pigford and Cecil Brewingto from N. Carolina, were combined into a class action lawsuit.
There were still hurdles, however. One potential problem was dispatched by the Congressional Black Caucus. The federal statute of limitations for discrimination claims is two years. The black caucus pushed legislation through Congress that opened the window of discrimination complaints to include anything between Jan. 1, 1981, and Dec. 31, 1996. The waiver was passed as an amendment to the (fiscal year) 1999 agriculture appropriations bill.
Cowed by mounting criticism from black politicians and a well-executed public relations push by class counsel and black farmer organizations, USDA folded and agreed to a consent decree. USDA had agreed to a terribly flawed settlement
Class-counsel held meetings in which attorneys promised “easy money quick. They wanted as many names on the signup sheet as possible. They did a great job selling this thing. $50,000 and debts getting forgiven ain’t nothing to sneeze at. A group of claimants originally estimated to number some 2,500 when the decree came down swelled to around 22,000 alsong with an additional 50,000 people clamoring for a piece of the USDA settlement pie.
To become a claimant (other than skin color, obviously) three criteria must be met. First, you have to have been discriminated against during the “window” outlined above. Second, you must claim to have applied for a loan or payment and been turned down for discriminatory reasons. Third, you must have filed a discrimination complaint prior to July 1997.
Taken at face value these criteria would seem to do a good job of weeding out fraud attempts. But there are caveats. For example, the key word in the second criteria is “claim.” A claimant doesn’t need a shred of evidence beyond a spoken sentence or two.
The third criteria is hardly an impediment to fraud. In fact, it’s practically an invitation to it. If no record exists of a complaint being filed, a claimant need only have one of three things:
A statement from a non-family member stating the claimant filed such a complaint.
A statement from a non-family member that they were in earshot when USDA personnel were told of a complaint by the claimant.
Copies of a letter to a government official (state or federal) stating the claimant has been discriminated against.
Obviously, any bogus claimant can find an accomplice to corroborate his story or back-date a letter or two. To become a claimant (other than skin color, obviously) three criteria must be met. First, you have to have been discriminated against during the “window” outlined above. Second, you must claim to have applied for a loan or payment and been turned down for discriminatory reasons. Third, you must have filed a discrimination complaint prior to July 1997.
Taken at face value these criteria would seem to do a good job of weeding out fraud attempts. But there are caveats. For example, the key word in the second criteria is “claim.” A claimant doesn’t need a shred of evidence beyond a spoken sentence or two.
The third criteria is hardly an impediment to fraud. In fact, it’s practically an invitation to it. If no record exists of a complaint being filed, a claimant need only have one of three things:
A statement from a non-family member stating the claimant filed such a complaint.
A statement from a non-family member that they were in earshot when USDA personnel were told of a complaint by the claimant.
Copies of a letter to a government official (state or federal) stating the claimant has been discriminated against.
Obviously, any bogus claimant can find an accomplice to corroborate his story or back-date a letter or two. The agency keeps records on unsuccessful loans for only three years. As Pigford was open to complaints from 1981 to 1997, FSA had no records prior to 1994 to combat discrimination claims. This, apparently, never occurred to Mr. Glickman or his colleagues.
Total government payments of $6.55 billion were
distributed to 707,596 farmers nationwide in 2002.
Payments totaling $18.5 million (or three-tenths of
one percent of all) were made to 5,344 black farmers.
Congress reopened the government’s discrimination settlement with black farmers, lawmakers budgeted just $100 million for damages. They probably should have handed over a blank check.
With more than 70,000 potential claimants, the liability could exceed $3 billion — three times what was paid out in the original 1999 agreement which settled a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of thousands of black farmers
http://deltafarmpress.com/mag/farming_usdas_settlement_black/
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RS20430.pdf
http://www.ewg.org/node/8481
They’ve spent it all on carbon credits, climate change, or some other fairy tail. Whoopee, SHAZAM
Are there a dozen people in that picture?
I’m sure my English ancestors were slighted in some way back in 1607. I’m also sure my Indian ancestors were in turn slighted. I also didn’t get a Katrina check even though I wasn’t there. Whaaaaa!!!! I want reparations because I’m being disinfranchised by the NAACP.
Now, we all - white, black, yellow, brown, red - will pay for it. I hope our freedom survives.
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