GUEST EDITORIAL: Congress should hold hearings on slave reparations
July 15, 2005
On July 7, a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit brought against corporations, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Loews, that profited from slave labor, saying Congress or the president should decide the ‘political’ issue. While the judge’s decision dealt a disappointing blow to the reparations movement, his insistence that this is a topic the executive and legislative branches should explore is justifiable. From the 1450 to 1865, over 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States; this free labor allowed the United States to build its wealth and position itself as the most prosperous nation in the free world. To begin to heal the deep racial wounds that continue to persist in this country, the U.S. government must first officially acknowledge that, without slavery, America - and many wealthy whites - would not be in the position they are in today.
While the U.S. economy flourished during the slave era, African culture and communities did not; languages and customs were lost and families were destroyed. The ‘studding’ of Black males caused a breakdown in the Black family. Most of our people were denied education - to learn to read was to die. And, as slave women began to bear the master’s children, color issues, introduced by whites to separate us, further divided an already weakened society. Unfortunately, when slavery ended, the suffering continued. To this day, millions of African-Americans continue to feel the effects of slavery, in what is clinically known as Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder. Psychologists point to the disparate numbers of Blacks in prison, addicted to drugs and living in broken homes as evidence of the damage slavery has caused in our communities.
In January 1989, Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.) first presented H.R. 40, Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, to Congress. Conyers has re-introduced H.R. 40 every year since and says he will continue to do so until it becomes law. The bill would require the American government to establish a commission to study slavery and the discrimination Blacks faced once freed and examine the impact slavery and American apartheid has on modern-day African Americans. The commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate solutions to addressing these issues. Additionally, the commission would look into the way slaves were captured, transported and sold, as well as explore how they were treated once they reached the United States. The extent to which federal and state laws supported the institution of slavery and years of racial and economic oppression would also be studied.
With a few notable exceptions, this bill, and the reparations movement in general, has been met with resistance from the powers that be. As a community, we should continue to press this issue until the government begins serious deliberations on the topic.
As a result of discussions about the Holocaust, Japanese interment camps and the devastation colonists inflicted upon Native Americans, Jews and the Japanese have received reparations and Native Americans have received land. A good start for African-Americans would be congressional hearings to determine what modern day corporations directly benefited from the slave trade and how they can begin to repay for the sins of slavery.
Judge Greg Mathis is chairman of the Rainbow PUSH-Excel board and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
July 15, 2005
On July 7, a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit brought against corporations, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Loews, that profited from slave labor, saying Congress or the president should decide the ‘political’ issue. While the judge’s decision dealt a disappointing blow to the reparations movement, his insistence that this is a topic the executive and legislative branches should explore is justifiable. From the 1450 to 1865, over 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States; this free labor allowed the United States to build its wealth and position itself as the most prosperous nation in the free world. To begin to heal the deep racial wounds that continue to persist in this country, the U.S. government must first officially acknowledge that, without slavery, America - and many wealthy whites - would not be in the position they are in today.
While the U.S. economy flourished during the slave era, African culture and communities did not; languages and customs were lost and families were destroyed. The ‘studding’ of Black males caused a breakdown in the Black family. Most of our people were denied education - to learn to read was to die. And, as slave women began to bear the master’s children, color issues, introduced by whites to separate us, further divided an already weakened society. Unfortunately, when slavery ended, the suffering continued. To this day, millions of African-Americans continue to feel the effects of slavery, in what is clinically known as Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder. Psychologists point to the disparate numbers of Blacks in prison, addicted to drugs and living in broken homes as evidence of the damage slavery has caused in our communities.
In January 1989, Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.) first presented H.R. 40, Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, to Congress. Conyers has re-introduced H.R. 40 every year since and says he will continue to do so until it becomes law. The bill would require the American government to establish a commission to study slavery and the discrimination Blacks faced once freed and examine the impact slavery and American apartheid has on modern-day African Americans. The commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate solutions to addressing these issues. Additionally, the commission would look into the way slaves were captured, transported and sold, as well as explore how they were treated once they reached the United States. The extent to which federal and state laws supported the institution of slavery and years of racial and economic oppression would also be studied.
With a few notable exceptions, this bill, and the reparations movement in general, has been met with resistance from the powers that be. As a community, we should continue to press this issue until the government begins serious deliberations on the topic.
As a result of discussions about the Holocaust, Japanese interment camps and the devastation colonists inflicted upon Native Americans, Jews and the Japanese have received reparations and Native Americans have received land. A good start for African-Americans would be congressional hearings to determine what modern day corporations directly benefited from the slave trade and how they can begin to repay for the sins of slavery.
Judge Greg Mathis is chairman of the Rainbow PUSH-Excel board and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.