[concerned about politics]

They chose not to take the initiative? Please. I'm against reparations but not historical ignorance.

What would they be doing today if after being freed they were moved back to Africa? America had everything to offer considering the alternative.
I feel no guilt. My ancestors didn't own slaves. There's no scar on my conscience.
How many other nationalities came here with nothing but a dime in their pocket? How many slaved just to stay here? There were other slaves that built this country, not just African Americans. Let's be honest here.

[cyborg]

I don't feel any guilt either, but your post suggests that black enjoyed the same freedoms as whites right after slavery when you know that's just not true. My family came here with nothing and made some thing because they worked hard that's true but you can't deny the level of racial discrimination that black people had to face in this country.

[LWalk18]

What would they be doing today if after being freed they were moved back to Africa? At the time of emancipation in Maryland, my mother's slave ancestors had been in the state for almost 200 years. Talking about them going "back" to Africa as if they had been born there is silly. Witness the tensions created when a group of freed slaves were sent to found Liberia. They weren't Africans any more than you are a European.