Reparations

The Stages of the Reparations Discourse

Many people are unaware that the discussion of reparations for African people has a long history in the United States, with four distinct stages. In Stage I, from 1865 to 1920, the U.S. government attempted to compensate the 3 million Africans who had just been [Page 415]released from bondage by granting funds and thus some relief to destitute Africans who could not find work. This period also saw Callie House's heroic establishment of the Ex-slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association, through which she organized hundreds of thousands of ex-slaves for payment from the government. In Stage II, from 1920 to 1968, Marcus Garvey, Queen Mother Audley Moore, and numerous black nationalists pressed for reparations by educating thousands of black people about the unpaid debt owed to Africans in America. This was the period in which the reparations movement was seen as a black nationalist endeavor, and civil rights organizations saw its goals as being unrealistic and extreme.

Stage III began in 1968 and continues today. The founding of several black nationalist groups—including the Republic of New Afrika in 1968 and the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America in 1987—and James Forman's 1969 Black Manifesto, which demanded $5 billion from churches and synagogues, served as catalysts for launching what some have called the “modern reparations movement.” Randall Robinson's 2000 book The Debt has aided in moving the discussion into even wider circles, as have the continuing attempts since 1989 by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D–MI) to appoint a committee to study the effects of slavery on the United States. Stage IV of the movement is the legal stage, which began in earnest in the 21st century, having been temporarily discouraged by the 1995 Cato decision in which a liberal federal court in California ruled that the suit for reparations was not valid because it was brought “too long” after the incident (i.e., slavery) had happened. In 2002, several lawsuits were filed first against corporations and ultimately against the U.S. government.

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