This portion of the syllabus details models and proposals for reparative justice in the United States. This includes legislation proposed to the U.S. Congress, political manifestos calling for programs of reparative justice, historical studies of reparations activists, and contemporary organizations and movements for reparations. This section should serve as a reminder of the long history of activism around reparations. As Mary Frances Berry writes, “Today, some people argue against reparations because those who experienced slavery are no longer among the living. It is worth remembering that thousands of ex-slaves devoted years to pressing the reparations cause. They organized support networks and helped each other through very difficult times. That they bore the marks of bondage, as living ex-slaves, did not help them. Whites and elite African Americans ridiculed their please for redress, and the government disrespected their claims.” By learning about models and proposals for restorative justice in the past, we keep alive the history of struggle for reparations in the United States.
Philip Randolph Institute. A “Freedom Budget” For All Americans. January 1967.
This policy document, written by a group of black and socialist activists, proposed a budget to the United States government with the goal of eliminating poverty in America. Specifically, it proposed universal health care, a universal basic income, and a strong federal jobs program that resonate with progressive programs today.
Aiyetoro, Adjoa and Adrienne D. Davis. “Historic and Modern Social Movements for Reparations: The National Coalition for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) and its Antecedents.” Texas Wesleyan Law Review, 2010.
Araujo, Ana Lucia. Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History. Bloomsbury Publishing: 2017.
In this book, Ana Lucia Araujo presents a narrative history of reparations claims for slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. Examining personal and public documents on reparations and slave narratives in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, Araujo presents a transnational view of the intergenerational struggle for reparations.
Bassett, C. Jeanne. “House Bill 591: Florida Compensates Rosewood Victims and Their Families for a Seventy-One-Year-Old Injury.” Florida State Law Review 22.2 (1994): 503-523.
This article details the history of the Rosewood massacre, a series of violent crimes in 1923 against the African-American community in Rosewood, Florida, and the process through which House Bill 591 was researched and passed–a bill that paid reparations to the families of victims of the violence.
Berry, Mary Frances. My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations. New York: Vintage, 2005.
Berry’s biography of Callie House details her struggle to establish a pension for ex-slaves in the 1890s. By establishing mutual relief societies throughout the South, House hoped to both provide a space from which to organize black communities as well as a political base from which to lobby for reparations. The book concludes by noting the US Government’s repression and prosecution of her efforts.
Berry, Mary Frances. “Reparations for Freedmen, 1980-1916: Fraudulent Practices or Justice Deferred?” The Journal of Negro History, 57.3 (1972): 219-230.
Black Panther Party. “The Ten-Point Program.” 1966.
Issued in October 1966, this ten point program lays out a broad vision for black reparations that engages with systemic and institutional racism in the United States.
Brophy, Alfred. Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
In this book, Alfred Brophy revisits the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 in which the black community of Greenwood, Oklahoma was destroyed and almost 150 people were killed. Brophy documents how the government failed to stop the looting and rioting, ultimately enabling violence against the black community. The book finishes with a discussion of reparations claims made by victims of the riots and the implications they have for the reparations movement more broadly.
CARICOM Reparations Commission. “CARICOM Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice.”
This ten point plan was developed as a part of the commission on reparations established by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
De Greiff, Pablo (ed). The Handbook of Reparations. Oxford University Press, 2006.
This book is a study of reparations proposals from an international perspective, cataloguing and analyzing the successes and limitations of these programs. The final part of the book contains an extensive archive of primary sources on reparations, including legislation and government reports.
Finkenbine, Roy E. “Belinda’s Petition: Reparations for Slavery in Revolutionary Massachusetts.” The William and Mary Quarterly 64.1 (2007): 95-104.
Through careful archival research, Roy Finkenbine recovers the history of reparations and freedom claims made by slaves in Massachusetts around the Revolutionary War. In particular, he highlights Belinda’s petition, a successful suit for reparations against her royalist slaveholder who fled from the United States after the war.
Forman, James. “Black Manifesto.” The Black Economic Development Conference. April 1969.
James Forman delivered this demand for reparations at Riverside Church in Chicago in 1969. The document, prepared by the National Black Economic Development Conference, demanded 500 million dollars from white churches and synagogues to address their role in constructing and maintaining racial capitalism in the United States. The document ends with a list of ten ways the money would be spent to support black communities.
King, Desmond S. and Jennifer Page. “Towards transitional justice? Black Reparations and the End of Mass Incarceration.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 41.4 (2018): 739-758.
Kornweibel, Theodore, Jr. “Railroads, Race and Reparations.” Souls 5 (Summer 2003): 23-32.
This article examines the role of slave labor in building railroads throughout the United States, using this history as the basis for contemporary reparations lawsuits against corporations.
Kunichoff, Yana and Sarah Macaraeg. “How to Win Reparations.” Belt Magazine. Pub. June 1, 2017.
Article on reparations in Chicago for racist police violence.
Lecky, Robert S. (ed). Black Manifesto: Religion, Racism and Reparations. Sheed and Ward, 1969.
Lumumba, Chokwe, Imari Abubakari Obadele, and Nkechi Taifa. Reparations Yes!: The Legal and Political Reasons Why New Afrikans, Black People in the United States, Should Be Paid Now for the Enslavement of Our Ancestors and for War Against Us After Slavery. Baton Rouge, LA : House of Songhay, Commission and the Malcolm Generation, Inc., 1995.
Mogul, Joey. “Reparations: A Blueprint to Address Systemic Police Violence.” People’s Law Office.
Article on reparations in Chicago for racist police violence.
Mosley, Albert. “Affirmative Action As a Form of Reparation.” The University of Memphis Law Review, volume 33, number 2 (Winter 2003): 353-365.
Ogletree, Charles J. “Litigating the Legacy of Slavery.” The New York Times. March 31, 2002.
In this article for The New York Times, Ogletree details the lawsuit filed by the Reparations Coordinating Committee against companies in the United States that profited from slave labor and the slave trade and offers some arguments for group-based reparations for African Americans.
Posner, Eric A. and Adrian Vermuele. “Reparations for Slavery and Other Historical Injustices.” Columbia Law Review 103.3 (2003): 689-748.
In this article, Posner and Vermuele categorize and analyze various models for reparations claims and proposals while evaluating their legality and morality.
Republic of New Africa. Anti-Depression Program of the Republic of New Africa: To End Poverty, Dependence, Cultural Malnutrition, and Crime Among Black People In The United States And Promote Interracial Peace. March 1972.
This legislative proposal, drafted by Republic of New Africa president Imari Abubakari Obadele, lays out a program for reparations from the United States government that includes ceding Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina to the RNA along with a payment of 300 billion dollars to be used to end black poverty in America. The document begins by laying out the history of slavery and discrimination in the United States, followed by an argument for reparations, and concludes with a detailed breakdown of how a reparations payment would be put to work for the benefit of black people in the newly formed RNA.
Simon, Julian and Larry Neal. “A Calculation of the Black Reparations Bill.” Review of Black Political Economy 4 (Winter 1974): 75+.
Turner, James. “Callie House: The Pursuit of Reparations as a Means for Social Justice.” Journal of African American History 91 (Summer 2006): 305-310.
Vaughn, Walter. Freedom’s Pension Bill. H.R. 40, introduced in House
Walter Vaughn, a Nebraska Democrat, argues that emancipated slaves should be paid a pension from the national government on the model of those paid to veterans from the Civil War. Vaughn believed that such an infusion of money into the South would help restart the economy and encourage recovery after the devastation of the war.