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40 Acres and a Mule: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Danny Glover join renewed debate over reparations
ABC News ^ | 06/19/2019 | By BEATRICE PETERSON and MATTHEW VANN

Posted on 06/19/2019 9:55:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Steps away from the U.S. Capitol – a building built by slaves – the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is holding its first hearing in more than a decade on the hot-button topic of reparations for the descendants of Africans brought to America, enslaved and impacted by discriminatory policies including segregation.

The hearing, timed to coincide with "Juneteenth," a date when the last slaves in Texas learned they were free, brings to the forefront the centuries-old debate over what, if anything, is owed.

At the end of the Civil War formerly enslaved families were promised by Union leadership 40 acres and a mule -- an offer never fulfilled. Centuries later, the debate over reparations is playing out on the campaign trail as many 2020 presidential presidential candidates weigh in on the topic and lawmakers press the case with perennial legislative efforts.

The appearance actor Danny Glover and award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose 2014 essay "The Case for Reparations" thrust the divisive topic onto the national stage, are expected to testify, lending celebrity status to an issue that has been wending through Congress for decades.

Glover grew emotional as he spoke about his family's history as sharecroppers and as the descendants of slaves and stressed that America needs to acknowledge the impact of slavery and discrimination.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dannyglover; reparations; slavery; tanehisicoates
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1 posted on 06/19/2019 9:55:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

WHAT IS FORTY ACRES AND A MULE?

DSOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_acres_and_a_mule

Forty acres and a mule is part of Special Field Orders No. 15, a promise made by the United States government for agrarian reform to aid formerly enslaved black farmers.

Approved by President Abraham Lincoln, the field orders were written by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865, and specifically allotted each family a plot of land no larger than 40 acres (16 ha). Sherman later ordered the army to lend mules for the agrarian reform effort. The field orders followed a series of conversations between Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Radical Republican abolitionists Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens following disruptions to the institution of slavery provoked by the American Civil War.

Many freed people believed and were told by various political figures that they had a right to own the land they had long worked as slaves, and were eager to control their own property. Freed people widely expected to legally claim 40 acres of land (a quarter-quarter section) and a mule after the end of the war, long after proclamations such as Special Field Orders No. 15 and the Freedmen’s Bureau Act were explicitly reversed by Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson.

Some land redistribution occurred under military jurisdiction during the war and for a brief period thereafter. However, federal and state policy during the Reconstruction era emphasized wage labor, not land ownership, for blacks. Almost all land allocated during the war was restored to its pre-war white owners. Several black communities did maintain control of their land, and some families obtained new land by homesteading.

Black land ownership increased markedly in Mississippi during the 19th century, particularly. The state had much undeveloped bottomland behind riverfront areas that had been cultivated before the war. Most blacks acquired land through private transactions, with ownership peaking at 15,000,000 acres (6,100,000 ha) in 1910, before an extended financial recession caused problems that resulted in the loss of property for many.


2 posted on 06/19/2019 9:56:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

Blacks need to pay first since they started slavery in the new colonies.

Since the colonies only took in 5% is all African slaves that blacks in Africa sold, the other 95% recipients need to participate and that includes South America and the entire central Americas.


3 posted on 06/19/2019 9:57:20 AM PDT by CodeToad ( Hating on Trump is hating on me and Americans!)
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To: SeekAndFind

One million dollars, tax free, per individual, an economy class airplane ticket to any country that’ll have you and you give up your citizenship. Deal?


4 posted on 06/19/2019 9:58:11 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can't invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Danny Glover owes me money for all the movies during which I’ve had to endure his one-note Step-n-Fetchet repertoire.


5 posted on 06/19/2019 9:59:20 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: SeekAndFind
Yo, Danny - I never owned any slaves and you never picked cotton.
However, if you're short of cash I will send you ten dollars on one condition: Change your name to Toby.
6 posted on 06/19/2019 10:01:30 AM PDT by dainbramaged (My dog can drive a stick shift.)
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To: SeekAndFind

South Africa and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.....There’s your 40 acres and a mule


7 posted on 06/19/2019 10:02:02 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s about time white people were paid for freeing slaves.


8 posted on 06/19/2019 10:02:23 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: SeekAndFind

9 posted on 06/19/2019 10:02:57 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Danny Glover Net Worth

$40 Million

Danny Glover Net Worth: Danny Glover is an American actor who has a net worth of $40 million dollars.

https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/actors/danny-glover-net-worth/


10 posted on 06/19/2019 10:02:58 AM PDT by gubamyster
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To: CodeToad

If you were a slave PRIOR to......January 16th 1865 your welcome to your 40 acres and a mule. Otherwise the current crop of grifters can eat sh*t and bark at the moon for all I care.


11 posted on 06/19/2019 10:04:50 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet ...)
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To: SeekAndFind
"...Steps away from the U.S. Capitol – a building built by slaves..."

Yeah, I can easily see the similarities in design...


12 posted on 06/19/2019 10:05:22 AM PDT by skimbell
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I agree but they MUST give up citizenship and be returned to their country of origin


13 posted on 06/19/2019 10:05:58 AM PDT by McGavin999 (Border security without a wall is like having a Ring doorbell without a doorw)
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To: SeekAndFind

You want reparations?

Fine.

One way ticket to your sub-Saharan turd world nation of your choice.


14 posted on 06/19/2019 10:06:30 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: gubamyster

His life is an example of what someone can achieve.

Son of sharecroppers becomes famous and wealthy. He and his ilk do not see the irony, of wealthy successful people, who have achieved the American dream, talking about how racist and discriminatory this country allegedly is.


15 posted on 06/19/2019 10:07:30 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: CodeToad

I’m Asian. I view this slavery thing as cancer of this nation. The country was on wrong footing at the start. There is no such a thing as equality. Either govern or governed. Two mistakes by Americans: 1) dragged blacks into their living space for better cotton trade. 2) emancipation without solving this issue

The first was amendable. The second was likely fatal


16 posted on 06/19/2019 10:09:38 AM PDT by Lee25
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To: CodeToad

Blacks need to pay first since ....

____________________________________

And what about the MILLIONS of blacks here who are not descendants of slaves? They surely must pay just as whites who are not descendants of slave-owners.


17 posted on 06/19/2019 10:09:47 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: SeekAndFind
The hearing, timed to coincide with "Juneteenth," a date when the last slaves in Texas learned they were free

Except the last slaves weren't freed until the Indian wars had just about ended and Indians could no longer own slaves.

18 posted on 06/19/2019 10:10:25 AM PDT by fso301
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
One million dollars, tax free, per individual, an economy class airplane ticket to any country that’ll have you and you give up your citizenship. Deal?

I'd counter with $5 each, taxed, and a steerage class ticket on a freighter headed to Somalia.

19 posted on 06/19/2019 10:11:14 AM PDT by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: SeekAndFind

Give them a two years pay of local money when they step off the boat or plane into the foreign nation they wish to go to with no possible return to the USA.

Only those who leave the USA will get money.


20 posted on 06/19/2019 10:11:40 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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