Black Reparations Movement:
In Need Of A Bold And Visionary Strategy
The first Reparations Bill for African slaves in the United
States was introduced into the First Session of the Fortieth
Congress by Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania on March 11, 1867.
Section 4 of this Bill stated, in part: "And be it further
enacted. That out of the lands thus seized and confiscated the
slaves who have been liberated by the operation of the war and
the amendment to the constitution or otherwise, who resided
in said ‘confederate states’ on the 4th day of March, AD 1861,
or since, shall have distributed to them as follows, namely:
to each male person who is the head of a family, forty acres
to each adult male, whether the head of a family or not, forty
acres, to each woman who is the head of a family, forty acres
- to be held by them in fee simple, but inalienable for the
next ten years after they become seized thereof. For the purpose
of distributing and allotting said land the Secretary of War
shall appoint as many commissions in each state as he shall
deem necessary, to consist of three members, two of whom at
least shall not be citizens of the State for which he is appointed.
Each said commissioners shall receive a salary of $3,000 annually
and all his necessary expenses.... At the end of ten years the,
absolute title to said homestead shall be conveyed to said owners
or to the heirs of such as are then dead."
Unfortunately, President Johnson vetoed this original African
Reparations Bill under pressure from the Southern confederate
states, which had been in armed rebellion against the United
States.
The present-day Reparations Bill for the descendants of African
Slaves living in the United States was introduced initially
into the United States Congress by Detroit Congressman John
Conyers nearly ten (10) years ago. This Bill, symbolically entitled
HR 40, has never gotten out of House of Representatives’ subcommittee.
The reasons for this are many; one of them being the fact that
the overwhelming majority of African-Americans elected to the
U.S. Congress have been placed their by the Democratic Party
which has not gone on record in support of the payment of reparations
to the descendants of African-Slaves. Many Democratic Party
officials were even upset with President Clinton for his "meek
apology" for the American involvement in the African Slave Trade.
Another reason is very little education among large segments
of Black people, who view reparations as some kind of pie in
the sky or have been misled into believing that the payment
of reparations is some kind of "charity."
Even in its "watered-down" version, HR 40 does represent an
effort to "get our feet into the door" (so to speak). The Preamble
to HR 40 provides that this bill will "acknowledge the fundamental
injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in
the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619
and 1865 and establish a commission to examine the institution
of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic
discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of
these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations
to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes."
Compare this brief legislative history of efforts to obtain
reparations for Blacks to that of the Jewish people who suffered
a Holocaust of their own in the 1930's and 40's, under the Nazi
Regime in Germany during World War II. On April 1, 1998, the
U.S. Senate read the bill twice and it was referred to the Committee
on Banking. On April 29, 1998, the Committee on Banking ordered
a "reparation-like" bill for Jewish Holocaust victims to be
reported out. On May 1, 1998, this Senate Bill was passed by
unanimous consent; and on June 9, 1998, the bill was called
up by the U.S. House of Representatives by unanimous consent.
The bill was signed by President Clinton on June 23, 1998, became
Public Law No. 105-186, and is also called the U.S. Holocaust
Assets Commission Act of 1998.
The purpose of this Act of 1998 is to "conduct a thorough
study and develop a historical record of the collection and
disposition of the assets [gold, gems, bank accounts, financial
instruments, insurance policies and proceeds, real estate in
the U.S., works of art, books, manuscripts, and religious objects]
obtained from victims of the Holocaust" by establishing
a Presidential Commission "to examine issues pertaining to
the disposition of Holocaust-era assets in the United States
before, during, and after World War II, and to make recommendations
to the President on further action, and for other purposes."
This Commission is mandated by the Act to submit a final report
to the President no later than December 31, 1999. What is wrong
with this picture?
The more conscious living descendants of African slaves in
America have been seeking, and are still seeking, reparations
for wrongs committed, including genocide, stolen land and labor,
and centuries of racial discrimination [a "Black Holocaust"
much greater than that experienced by the Jewish People] since
1867; and we cannot even get a "fair hearing," much less an
official Congressional Bill, taking any action on these claims.
It is more than instructive to note that the Jewish People and
their "friends"(including all the elected African American Congressional
representatives) can introduce and obtain passage of a bill
within less than 90 days!
The most recent African-American Reparations Bill introduced
into the U.S. Congress has now been languishing in subcommittee
for the past ten years. Something is very wrong here! Only African-Americans
and their "friends" can make the payment of reparations a reality.
As stated in the New Panther Vanguard Movement’s booklet, Our
Case For African- American Reparations (2nd Edition):
"The call for reparations [our "40 acres and a mule" after
so-called Emancipation] is a just demand that has been consistently
made throughout our long history in America; reparations is
not an individual but a "collective debt." This is a critical
point to make in any strategy, because too often the proposal
for "Black Reparations" has been presented in an "abstract"
manner, and has allowed its detractors to characterize it as
being, politically, unrealistic. The "debt owed to descendants
of African slaves" is not owed by individual white people; to
the contrary, the stolen land and labor of African People can
be directly traced to a handful of multinational corporations,
both financial and industrial, which are owned and controlled
by a small group of families."
Back to Reparations
