Black Reparations: It is Time for America to Fulfill the Promise

"While the moral horrors of slavery and the human indignities visited upon our people by racial discrimination can never really be compensated for – and certainly never with money alone – we must not rest until American society has recognized our valid, historic right to reparations . . .."
(Bittker 79)

The Founding Fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal." However, due to the treatment meted out to blacks during the lifetime of the Founding Fathers, it appears obvious that the authors of the Declaration of Independence could not have believed that this statement was true for black men – or women and children either. Notwithstanding the intention of the Founding Fathers or their successors, blacks began to insist on establishing their right as equals. And, in addition to asserting equal status with whites, they began to demand compensation for the crimes committed against them during slavery as well as at present. This call for black reparations has resulted in many discussions and debates and is still unresolved. Surely it is time for the American Government to begin taking steps to compensate blacks for the crimes committed against them – not only during slavery, but in recent history as well.

The discussion on black reparations first emerged around 1865, following the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. The United States Congress voted to create a "Freedman's Bureau" which was charged with the task of compensating freed slaves in the form of forty acres of land, and Major General William T. Sherman subsequently gave the order to issue the land. Very few ex-slaves ever took possession of the Promised Land, however, as the order was overturned by Andrew Johnson, who took office in the wake of Lincoln's assassination (Winbush 15). It is believed that Johnson felt that the slave owners – not the slaves – were the ones who should be compensated for the loss of the labour previously provided by the slaves. This action by the American Government has caused blacks much insecurity throughout the ensuing years--perpetuated by the Jim Crow laws that followed the slaves' so-called emancipation, and blacks are still continuing to experience the impact of the broken promise.

A number of precedents have been established for reparations in recent history. In Should America Pay? Congressman John Conyers lists various groups, which have been compensated for injustices committed against them. For example, Austria and Germany provided financial compensation to victims of the Holocaust; Canada compensated its Japanese citizens for unfair internment during World War II. The United States Government also provided compensation to a number of groups: to the indigenous tribes for the unjust seizure of their land, as well as to its Japanese citizens for unjustified relocation and detention during World War II. The latter compensation included a presidential apology (18). Yet, the American government has so far not offered any compensation for the crimes it has allowed to be perpetrated against its black citizens. (Randall Robinson argues that black enslavement was actually a "holocaust" which was "far and away the most heinous human rights crime visited upon any group of people in the world over the last 500 years" (216).) This lack of recognition is symbolic of the discrimination and hypocrisy of the American administration as it relates to blacks.

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