Slavery Reparations Gaining Momentum

AP ^ | July 09, 2006 | ERIN TEXEIRA

[TomServo]

Advocates who say black Americans should be compensated for slavery and its Jim Crow aftermath are quietly chalking up victories and gaining momentum.

Fueled by the work of scholars and lawyers, their campaign has morphed in recent years from a fringe-group rallying cry into sophisticated, mainstream movement. Most recently, a pair of churches apologized for their part in the slave trade, and one is studying ways to repay black church members.

The overall issue is hardly settled, even among black Americans: Some say that focusing on slavery shouldn't be a top priority or that it doesn't make sense to compensate people generations after a historical wrong.

Yet reparations efforts have led a number of cities and states to approve measures that force businesses to publicize their historical ties to slavery. Several reparations court cases are in progress, and international human rights officials are increasingly spotlighting the issue.

"This matter is growing in significance rather than declining," said Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor and a leading reparations activist. "It has more vigor and vitality in the 21st century than it's had in the history of the reparations movement."

The most recent victories for reparations advocates came in June, when the Moravian Church and the Episcopal Church both apologized for owning slaves and promised to battle current racism. The Episcopalians also launched a national, yearslong probe into church slavery links and into whether the church should compensate black members. A white church member, Katrina Browne, also screened a documentary focusing on white culpability at the denomination's national assembly.

The Episcopalians debated slavery and reparations for years before reaching an agreement, said Jayne Oasin, social justice officer for the denomination, who will oversee its work on the issue.

Historically, slavery was an uncomfortable topic for the church. Some Episcopal bishops owned slaves - and the Bible was used to justify the practice, Oasin said.

"Why not (take these steps) 100 years ago?" she said. "Let's talk about the complicity of the Episcopal Church as one of the institutions of this country who, of course, benefited from slavery."

Also in June, a North Carolina commission urged the state government to repay the descendants of victims of a violent 1898 campaign by white supremacists to strip blacks of power in Wilmington, N.C. As many as 60 blacks died, and thousands were driven from the city.

The commission also recommended state-funded programs to support local black businesses and home ownership.

The report came weeks after the Organization of American States requested information from the U.S. government about a 1921 race riot in Tulsa, Okla., in which 1,200 homes were burned and as many as 300 blacks killed. An OAS official said the group might pursue the issue as a violation of international human rights.

The modern reparations movement revived an idea that's been around since emancipation, when black leaders argued that newly freed slaves deserved compensation.

About six years ago, the issue started gaining momentum again. Randall Robinson's "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks," was a best seller; reparations became a central issue at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa; and California legislators passed the nation's first law forcing insurance companies that do business with the state to disclose their slavery ties. Illinois passed a similar insurance law in 2003, and the next year Iowa legislators began requesting - but not forcing - the same disclosures.

Several cities - including Chicago, Detroit and Oakland - have laws requiring that all businesses make such disclosures.

Reparations opponents insist that no living American should have to pay for a practice that ended more than 140 years ago. Plus, programs such as affirmative action and welfare already have compensated for past injustices, said John H. McWhorter, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

"The reparations movement is based on a fallacy that cripples the thinking on race - the fallacy that what ails black America is a cash problem," said McWhorter, who is black. "Giving people money will not solve the problems that we have."

Even so, support is reaching beyond African-Americans and the South.

Katrina Browne, the white Episcopalian filmmaker, is finishing a documentary about her ancestors, the DeWolfs of Bristol, R.I., the biggest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She screened it for Episcopal Church officials at the June convention.

"Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North," details how the economies of the Northeast and the nation as a whole depended on slaves.

"A lot of white people think they know everything there is to know about slavery - we all agree it was wrong and that's enough," Browne said. "But this was the foundation of our country, not some Southern anomaly. We all inherit responsibility."

She says neither whites nor blacks will heal from slavery until formal hearings expose the full history of slavery and its effects - an effort similar to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid collapsed.

[goldstategop]

The Drive By Media's screeds live in a parallel universe. They never allow reality to enter their liberal cocoon. Which is why Erin Teixeira can write such complete Barbara Streisand on the subject of race and reparations. I bet you outside the circles she's acquainted with, she knows nothing about what real Americans think on those issues. Now that's what I call the hallmark of the lazy journalist.

(The Palestinian terrorist regime is the crisis and Israel's fist is the answer.)

[GingisK]

Retributions were paid in full by the soldiers who died and were maimed to get rid of slavery way back in the Civil War. Payment in full has been rendered.

[Anvilhead]

"Let's not tax the average black American with the sins of Jesse and the other race pimps."

Needs to be said again.

[ArrogantBustard]

I would agree that the DNC owes reparations.

Absurd! Please identify the current members of the DNC who own slaves, ever owned slaves, or currently advocate the owership of slaves.

Oh, yes. You can't. There aren't any.

"Group guilt" is wrong even when applied to the enemy.

[SmoothTalker]

I think reparations are well deserved. Anyone who was enslaved should be paid reparations collected from their masters. So if we can find some 160 year old black former slaves, we should make sure their 180 year old former masters pay them what they are due for their labor. That is fine with me.

[SmoothTalker]

I really don't get the line of thinking that says someone should be paid for something that didn't happen to them by someone who didn't do it to them. Heck nobody alive's parents even owned slaves and the vast majority of those alive didn't have great grand parents who owned slaves. Holding people responsable for the sins of 150 years ago is beyond stupid and would set a really dangerous precident. Go back far enough and everyone is from a group that has either done something bad, or had something bad done to them. Most of us have blood from both types in us.

[SmoothTalker]

"The Episcopalians also launched a national, yearslong probe into church slavery links and into whether the church should compensate black members."

Of course they should. Every living black the church has held as a slave should get a tremendous amount of compensation.

[Eagles Talon IV]

Geez, ya think he meant it that way? NAH!!

[Continental Soldier]

What will reparations do for those who receive it? Will it turn them into first class citizens? Will it infuse them with a work ethic? Will it make them civic minded? Will it reduce crime in their neighborhoods and in the country? Will it stimulate initiative toward hard work and prosperity? Will it foster a deeper patriotism and committment to America? If so, count me in; I'm for it!

[Danette]

Notice how this comes out before elections?

It's demorats giving false hope for votes to keep blacks on the plantation....then after they're voted in, the story goes away until the next elections.

[sourcery]

How many people (free or slave) who were alive then are still alive.?

Almost certainly none. I got that point the first time. And I realize that was your point.

However, my point is that even if such slaves were still living, the Federal government would owe them nothing--unlike some of the State governments, who would likely be bankrupted, were they forced to pay what they owed to a large population of living persons whose condition of slavery was institutionalized, enforced and mandated by State laws (and not by Federal laws--as evidencded by the fact that whether or not slavery was practiced differed among the several States.)

[Pravious]

"My ancestors came from Italy and Germany. We bombed them in World War II, and I'm sure that made my ancestors feel bad. Do I get anything?
No you don't, but you can compensate everyone here of British and French descent for the slavery imposed on them by the Romans.....:-)"

On my mother's side I'm Welsh and Scottish - does that mean I can pay myself reparations? -- what a relief! :-)

[popdonnelly]

Time for the MSM to dust off an old idea?

[NCC-1701]

And don't forget that slavery started in Africa. Stronger tribes raided and enslaved weaker tribes. Somewhere along the line, the smell of cash came wafting into their lnad and they started selling their slaves. It got to be a very lucrative and those tribes needed more merchandise until they themselves became slaves. Of course, that was a looooooong time before we got into the game.

If the blacks of today want reperations, let them go after the decendents of those original enslavers. Let Je$$e Skaedown and the good Rev Al go after them. Then come and see us. See how far they get.

[oldcomputerguy]

"Slavery Reparations Gaining Momentum"

Bwhahahahahhahahahahah!!!

[livius]

If the blacks of today want reperations, let them go after the decendents of those original enslavers.

Most of them were Arab Muslim slave raiders who then sold them to Europeans (as they had captured and sold Europeans to Middle Easterners only a century before). I don't think Rev Al has even the faintest chance of getting a dime out of the Arabs.

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

=== The penalty for slavery has been paid in full by the blood of two hundred and fifty thousand men on battlefields such as Gettysburg, Pea Ridge, Shiloh and others ===

Civil War nearly 500,000

--BATTLE OF ANTIETAM--September 17, 1862--Dead in one day

2,108 (Union)

2,700 (Confederate)

Hey, while we are at it, let's take this to its logical extension, with a sense of fairness. By DNA linkage or documentation, reparations will be funded by the Descendants of:

Tribes selling slaves in Africa.

Arab governments/slave traders in the business over many hundreds of years, including present day.

Black slave owners here.

White slave owners.

Those serving in the Confederate Army.

Any company, newspaper and group aiding Confederate causes.

Any known Democrat since the start of the Civil War.

Any known present and future Democrat since they continue to abide by the Marxist plot of 'Divide and Conquer, and the scheme to keep blacks on the 'Democrat Plantation' for votes.

All Klan and Skinheads.

Any company, group, newspaper that supports the Left.

Illegal aliens.

Exemptions:

Those serving in the Union Army.

Any company, newspaper group supporting the Union cause.

Individuals operating the Underground Railroad.

Known Republicans.

Legal aliens entering the U.S. after the Civil Way.

American Indians.

Now that this absurdity is sorted out, we should be able to clear this up in about, oh say, 300-400 years.

Once eligibility is determined, "victims" will be issued this card for lifetime entitlements (example shown below):

\SARCASM

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

Left out: Income tax deducted.

Illegal Alien Entitlement Tax assessment.

[Nowhere Man]

I'm part Russian Jew, I demand reparations against the Russians for the two villages that were burned out from under my great grandmother by the cossacks. /sarc>

Seriously, if we start here, where will it end?

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

Nice concept, but is doomed from the start.

As before, they will be brow-beaten for "acting too white."