Posted on 07/09/2006 11:16:25 AM PDT by 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.
Perhaps the symbolic name I chose to make my point was not specific enough. I had no intention of impugning Christian Arabs, or for that matter Arabs, per se. I did intend to impugn the patriotism of Muslims. Their dogma renders political (as well as all other) fealty to Allah, and Allah alone. There is no room for secular law, and no serious Muslim could pledge his/her allegiance to any secular government, including that of the U.S. I do not impugn their patriotism, their dogma does. So if Dashawn happens to be a Muslim and Ali a Christian, perhaps I will have erred in my choice. But I'm going with the odds in the absence of further information.
Yeah, but the slaves were Creeks.
Whoa, just a minute there. Getting out my calculator.
.Born on what was previously Mexican land = I owe Mexico the space I took up as a 6lb infant and 2 years thereafter.
.Parents of English-Native American lineage on one side; German-Scotch/Irish on the other. Whew. Revolutionary War patriots should also be exempt from paying, unless, of course, it's all their fault for creating America to begin with. I've got 6-8 or more of those. Native Americans already exempt. German family had Union soldiers in That War in the 1860s. Scotch-Irish had Confederate, as did English and Indian. Oops, that's 3:1. Being DAR should cancel those out. = $0.00
.Breathed the air and played in the grass of what was previously Osage Orange's forefather's land after they turned down Kansas. Did not drill on his minerals allotment - at that time. = Osage Orange owes me a refund of my deposit for keeping Green Country green. = Wash.
.Came back to previous Mexico and breathed more air and frolicked in more grass = I owe Mexico about $3.86
.Went back to OO's old land and used more resources, but still did not drill on OO's minerals allotment, even though OO wanted me to. Kept Green Country reasonably Green, for a teenager. May have littered at Circle Mountain, however. But did patronize OO's Indian brother's liquor store. = Wash.
.Intermarried White ggfather had all his considerable holdings taken away by Dawes Commission. But received small parcel of land elsewhere in Indian Territory in return. Traded part of that for land in town, built subdivision, sold homes; oil found on other allotment. = Reparations received.
.Two more residencies in previous Mexico, one more in previous Indian land, not OO's. Gave back much more in all places than received, through shopping, including Mexican mercados. = Wash.
I *will* go in on the class-action against the Romans, however - I'd like a villa in Tuscany like The Maestro's.
Sioux suing
Not one DAMN dime more should be paid. In fact I think victims of the descendant of slaves should file civil suits against any future reparations payments, for crimes committed against society, such as the wholesale destruction of big cities, school systems, the burden on the criminal justice system, the devailuation of property, focing of people to engage in White Flight... these are crimes being committed TODAY. There will be blood in the streets, and a new Civil War, if taxpayers have to start financing these street criminals more so than what we pay today.
Yes, Hillary, every one of us who held a slave should apologize to those who actually were held as slaves. Beyond that, we are done speaking here.
The Sioux owned the whole country?
"A school administrator once told me that they could not question whatever race the student chose to categorize themself. This is THE solution!!! Spread the word."
When asked, I check the box marked 'Native American' because I was born here. It really gets their attention.
I thought the War on Poverty was reparations? It sure didn't solve anything else.
Has anyone in Africa apologized yet for their part in selling their brothers into slavery?
bttt
I am definitely for this. I and every other living Jew is owed, with interest, $4,300,000,000 from Egypt. I'll take mine in small bills, thanks. What? The UN is not demanding that Egypt pay up?? Where's the outrage??
And, there was compensation by blood that happened a few years back as well.
Ok, ok, so just ask for the upper mid west back.
From the Ojibwa?
That would be France you should send the bill to, not England..:-)
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