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.
Which government? The culpability in this matter of the State of South Carolina (for example) and that of the US Federal government are quite different.
Every year or so they bring up this same BS. It gets tiring and it isnt going anywhere. Dont we have enough trouble with hispanics invading us without blacks constantly trying to get another freebie?
Most blakcs in this country are doing damned well now and the ones that arent doint well are siting on their duffs.
Every year or so they bring up this same BS. It gets tiring and it isnt going anywhere. Dont we have enough trouble with hispanics invading us without blacks constantly trying to get another freebie?
Most blacks in this country are doing damned well now and the ones that arent doing well are sitting on their duffs.
I would support reparations as part of a package deal that includes a Constitutional amendment that makes all laws and organizations dedicated to promoting African Americans and equal opportunity unconstitutional. After all, if America pays them back for past ills, they, by definition, have no further cause for complaint.
Short of that, they'll just get right back on the "you owe us" bus. (And by "they" I mean the idiots pimping this idea, not all American blacks.)
I read somewhere that tribes raided tribes and sold to slave ships. Are they going to go after the blacks in Africa too?
Get over it, move on and quit whining and revising history to satisfy your own doings and misfortunes.
The Jesse Jacksons of the world will be feasting on this finding. By the way, OAS going back to nearly 100 years to "sue the USA" for crimes against humanity?
They better be careful what they wish for, they don't have a leg to stand on if they expect to call the kettle black
I think decendents of slaves should be compensated by pimps and dope dealers.
No that would be too logical.
How many of the growing Latino population will want to help with reparations for the blacks who may or not be descendants of slaves? How many of the Africans who sold blacks into slavery will pay?
This is a joke?
The culpability in this matter of the State of South Carolina (for example) and that of the US Federal government are quite different.
I doesn't matter if it's a state government or the Federal government. I said reparations should be paid to all living people who were slaves in 1863. How many people (free or slave) who were alive then are still alive.?
Moot? Hardly. I think you found the solution. Simply have every black American registered as a Dem write himself a check. Problem solved.
I'll make my own reparations. I've taken all the money out of my wallet and distributed it among my various pockets.
My soul is now at rest.
Ain't
gonna
happen
period
According to an article posted last week , everybody is related to everybody . So we are all black,yellow,red etc. and we ALL should get a piece of the rep pie .
That and my 4th grade teacher was an Italian B!tch (no connection there, for those of you of Italian heritage). I still struggle with long division and issues of self-esteem because of her. I'm sure she's dead by now (I had nothing to do with it, although in retrospect it wasn't a bad idea), so I want reparations from her children and grand-children.
"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."
OK, in North Carolina since 1898, how many whites have been killed, raped or burglarized by blacks?
Where's my $$$$$!?!?
Hehehe.......
Black Americans have their history so skewed it beggars description. It was MUSLIMS folks, the Black Man’s religion, that glorious religion of hate that Louis Farrakhan’s House of Islam represents that mostly created and profited by Slavery from the beginning and still profit by it today.
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