HISTORY OF THE REPARATIONS MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
Belinda Royall presented a petition to the Massachusetts General Assembly requesting pension from the proceeds of her master’s estate because it was the product of her own uncompensated labor in 1783.
Special Field Order No. 15 (1865) military order issued during the Civil War on January 16, 1865 by General William Tecumseh Sherman issuing 40 acres of land to freed people. [See Here]
Henrietta Wood, a free Black woman, successfully sued for reparations from her kidnapper who had sold her into slavery illegally in 1870.
Callie House and Isiah Dickerson organized the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association with the goal of providing compensation to formally enslaved Africans, mutual aid, and burial costs in 1898.
Bishop Henry Turner attended the Chicago Congress on Africa in 1893 which was the starting point for the historic Pan African Congresses. A Pan African Repatriation plan was initiated two years later in 1895 by black businessman William Ellis, who helped Bishop Turner organize the Congress on Africa in Atlanta at the end of 1895. Bishop Alexander Walters would, five years later, chair the London Pan African Congress in 1900. That Congress declared that the problem of the new century is “the problem of the color-line, the question as to how far differences of race… will hereafter be made the basis of denying over half of the world the right of sharing. . . the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization.” Haitian born Benito Sylvain, the former secretary of the Haitian Legation in London and serving as Aide-de Camp to the Imperial Household of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik, attended the London Congress in 1900 as the Ethiopian Representative. In 1900, Bishop Turner said,
“We remained in slavery two hundred and fifty years, and have been free the best end of fifty more years. In other words we have been dominated over by the buckra, or wite race, for about three hundred years. We have worked, enriched the country and helped give it a standing among the powers of the earth, and when we are denied our civil and political rights, (many) ridicule the idea of asking for a hundred million of dollars TO GO HOME, for Africa is our home and is the one place that offers us manhood and freedom, though we are the subjects of nations that have claimed a part of Africa by conquest. A hundred million of dollars can be obtained if we, as a race, would ask for it. The way we figure it out, this country owes us forty billions of dollars, and we are afraid to ask for a hundred million. Congress, by its legislation, throws away over a hundred million annually.” (Black Nationalism in America, ed. by Bracey, Meier, and Rudwick, New York, 1970, p. 172)
The African nationalist Arthur Anderson said in 1919, “We, the colored race of the USA and our representatives, your wards, your half brothers and sisters by blood, demand of the Government of this United States 600,000,000 dollars indemnity for slavery, for the trail of blood sacrificed in human lives, the loss of country. The years of tyranny and oppression that followed and continues until today on the ex-slaves and their offsprings, created by the institution of a cruel slavery by the American people of the U.S.A.”
Marcus Garvey saw the redemption of Africa as recompense for the exploitation of African people; He petitioned the League of Nations to turn over the former German colonies in Africa to the UNIA in 1919.
The Peace Movement of Ethiopia petitioned President Franklin Roosevelt and the Virginia legislature in 1930s for reparations.
Paul Roberson, William Patterson, and W.E.B. Du Bois launched the 1951 Genocide Campaign that included a call for repair and reparations in 1951.
Robert Brock in 1956 formed the Self-Determination committee in Los Angeles, CA which advocated for reparations for over 40 years.
Queen Mother Audley Moore appealed to the UN in 1957 and 1959 for reparations for African Americans. 𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇-𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, making her an international advocate. Interviewed by E. Menelik Pinto, Moore explained the petition, in which she asked for 𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 to monetarily compensate for 400 years of slavery. The petition also called for 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚.
The New Alajo Party in 1961 stated, “All leaders must be educatied by their own people in their own aims. Our present leaders are not. That is why our power is wasted. The U.S. owes us millions of dollars in indemnity for slavery. We must have strong leadership to collect this money which is due each family. You and your friends should join the Alajo Party now to petition the U.S. to pay its debt to us.”
The development of revolutionary territorial nationalism in the United States also includes the formations of the African Nationalist Partition Party of North America (ANPP), the African Descendants Nationalist Independence Partition Party (ADNIP), and the Provisional Government of the African American Captive Nation (PG-AACN). The goal was to establish an African state in America with reparations by 1972. The PG-AACN’s Cabinet included Chief Oseijeman Adefunmi as President, Robert F. Williams as Prime Minister, Abdul Rahman as First Deputy Prime Minister, Queen Mother Audley Moore as Second Deputy Prime Minister, and Moore’s Sister, Loretta Langley, as Acting Minister of Finance. The PG-AACN intended to relocate to South Carolina by 1965 where it would begin to work on liberating a thirteen state region in the southeastern United States. The PG-AACN’s Declaration of Self-Determination of the African American captive nation listed grievances agains the U.S. Government. In 1962, Moore organized the Reparations Committee of the Descendants of United States Slaves, which filed a claim in California. She went to the White House in 1962 to meet with President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, at the time of the one hundred years of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Queen Mother set up the Reparations Committee with a petition drive to get signatures to demand reparations for slavery and 100 years of economic, political inequality. She went all over the country getting signatures and organized the African-American Party of National Liberation in August 1963. Its political position was that African Americans constituted a captive oppressed nation in the black belt South. Some members of the Revolutionary Action Movement in Philadelphia joined the African-American Party of National Liberation (AAPNL) and formed a joint study collective.
African American Repatriation League appealed for support for blacks to emigrate to Africa as compensation for slavery
Martin Luther King Jr. called for reparations in 1963 and 1964 through a “Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged” – “The moral justification for special measures for Negroes is rooted in slavery.”
Black Panther Party was formed and issued a call for reparations as part of its 10-Point Program in 1966:
“3. We Want An End to the Robbery By the Capitalists of Our Black Community.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us, and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.
The A. Phillip Randolph Institute in 1966 pur forth a Freedom Budget calling for 355 billion dolloars for black people for economic development.
Republic of New Afrika (RNA) was formed with a demand for land to create a separate government composed of the “Black Belt” states in the souther U.S. and several billions of dollars in 1968. See IMARI OBADELE ON MALCOLM X AND REPARATIONS and A Matter of War: Imari Obadele, Our Enslavement in the 13 Colonies and the United States, the Republic of New Afrika and Reparations
Whitney Young of the Urban League suggested a Marshall Plan for African Americans.
Black National Economic Conference issued the Black Manifesto with a demand for reparations from churches in 1969. James Forman former executive director of SNCC in May 1969 targeted religious institutions in the Black Manifesto; he demanded $5 billion in reparations from white Christian churches and Jewish synagogues – some white Protestant churches increased their annual contributions to Black organizations by $1 million
Similarly, African people in the Caribbean through such organizations as the National United Movement of Barbados and the New Jewel Movement of Grenada called for Reparations for African people through documenting the wealth stolen from African people over the centuries and uniting with the call of the Non-Aligned Nations Conference for Reparations of 300 billion dollars for the “underdeveloped” countries of the world.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟐
If you look at the opening credits to the documentary, you will see that the documentary features the "celebrities" like Dick Gregory, Isaac Hayes, the Jackson, Jesse Jackson, etc. But in fact the majority of the delegates were serious political activists, most of which came out of the nationalist segment of our people. Among the driving forces was the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA). The PGRNA submitted a reparations program called the Anti Depression Program to the National Black Political Convention in Gary, IN in 1972. In the book 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒆: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂, Nkechi Taifi writes,
“The RNA supported James Forman’s Black Manifesto, which in 1969 called for white churches and synagogues to pay Black people half a billion dollars in reparations. The RNA drafted an Anti-Depression Program which 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐩-𝐬𝐮𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟐 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. . . . It was an act . . . 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝, 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. The Mississippi Loyalist Delegation to the Democratic National Convention accepted the Anti-Depression Program that same year. . . . 10,000 Black delegates gathered at the Black National Convention in Gary, Indiana, and adopted a Black Agenda which specifically called for reparations to Black in America from the U.S. government. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭.”
In 1973, the Review of Black Political Economy carried a whole issue on the subject - seeking to determine ways to estimate the amount of reparations owed and the economic basis of the campaign.
Queen Mother Audley Moore's Speech to the Summit Meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Kampala, Uganda - July 28, 1975
The 14-Point Working Platform of the African People’s Socialist Party, “What we want – What we believe” was adopted at the First Congress of the African People’s Socialist Party, September 6, 1981, 9 years after the Party’s founding. It states:
11. We want the U.S. and the international European ruling class and states to pay Africa and African people for the centuries of genocide, oppression, and enslavement of our people.
We believe that U.S. and European civilization were born from, and are presently maintained by, the horrendous theft of human and material resources from Africa and its people. We also believe that this theft of human and material resources is responsible for the present underpopulation and underdevelopment of Africa and her people and the political servitude, material impoverishment, and cultural discontinuity and disintegration of African people throughout the world. We believe that Africa and African people are due reparations, just economic compensation, billions of dollars which must be paid to the Organization of African Unity or any other legitimate international organization of African people, for equitable distribution for the development of Africa. We also believe that reparations must be distributed to the various independent African states dispersed throughout the world, and to the legitimate representatives of African people forcibly dispersed throughout the world who have not yet won liberation.”
According to The Burning Spear, Vol. 9 Number 8 of Novembr 1982,
“At this time, however, the Black Power Movement was facing vicious attacks and was unable to carry out the mass campaign that the reparations demand was beginning to mobilize. Indeed, the U.S. government assaults came at a time that the mass mobilization of Africans for independence, and for historical justice and reparations, threatened to destabilize the whole imperialist power. It is appropriate, then, that after 10 years, after the African movement for feedom and independence has agains struggled to put forth its strategy and after African people have begun to move in a massive way, that Reparations should once again be picked up, should be put forward by all those who can contribute data, understandings, testimony, history, and truth about the right of African people for reparations. And then it will be taken by the masses of African people, will be carried forth as it has been developed through the centuries, and will ignite our people’s struggle for freedom and independence. Reparations now! . . . Since our First Party Congress some thirteen monthys ago, our Party has been doing concrete work to bring about a real capability of our people to begin doing something about the reparations owed to us by the U.S. government. What soon became clear to us is the fact that our people need a mass, U.S.-wide action-oriented organization to maker our just fight for black reparations. We knew that in order to make the demand real it would be necessary for the masses of working and poor black people throughout the U.S. to take up the demand as their own and to have their own fighting organization that they could use to shove the demand down the throat of the U.S. government. This is why our Party is calling for the November 15-16 convention in New York to build the black reparations organization immediately following the two-day World Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S. But in keeping with our understanding that the black reparations organizations has to be a genuine mass organization capable of attracting the participation and support of the broad masses of our people, the Party organized a pre-convention meeting of people from throughout the U.S. who we aksed to serve as the national steering committeee which would have the responsibility of planning, convening, and presiding over the founding convention up till the point when the officers of the organization would be elected. The pre-convention meeting was held in New York on October 16 . Twenty-one individuals from throughout the U.S. who are well respected for their work and commitment to the cause of black freedom had been invited to the pre-convention meeting. Although 20 people turned up for the meeting, twelve of those were steering committee nominees, the other being observers. . . . The pre-convention meeting was presided over by the New York based National Committee to Build the World Tribunal on Black Reparations. . . . The rules of the procedure for the convention were also adopted, and the Steering Committee voted to call the organization being built the African National Reparations Organization (ANRO).”
“The International Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S. was a precedent setting and mobilizing legal hearing, the first time in history that the U.S. government has been formally put on trial for crimes against black people in the U.S. This tribunal was conducted with the utmost seriousness, adhereing to the rules of evidence to support the charges that the U.S. had violated international law. . . . This was the work that Malcolm X was just beginning to bring to fruition when he was assasinated to silence his leading voice. . . .Even though we do not have state power, we are a people and we have been wronged and have a right to petition for redress as well as to struggle for state power in order to achieve that redress.”
On November 15 and 16, 1986, ANRO held the Fifth Session of the World Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S. Serving on the international panel of judges at the Fifth Session were Chaminuka Mnombatha of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azuania-UN Mission; OUsainou Mbenga from Gambia; and Serge Mukendi from the Workers and Peasants Party-Congo.
NCOBRA
The adopted Anti Depression Program adopted at the National Black Political Assembly Convention in 1972 would become the basis of the 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 𝐀 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐜𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟕 prepared by President of the PGRNA Imari Obadele (September 1987). The act proposed the following, simple and logical formula for reparations:
1. One-third of the annual sum shall go directly to each individual;
2. One-third of the annual sum shall go directly to the duly elected government of the Republic of New Afrika and to any other state-building entity of New Afrikan people; and
3. One-third of the annual sum shall be paid directly to a National Congress of Organizations. And all of this to be framed and manifested through a PLEBISCITE.
Nkechi Taifa also writes in her memoir, 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓, 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑳𝒂𝒘𝒚𝒆𝒓,
"The spark for [the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America - NCOBRA] founding emanated from a 1987 conference on Race and the Constitution spearheaded by the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) and held at Harvard University. . . . [Note, in 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒆 Taifa adds, “Aiyetoro invited Imari Obadele, President of the Republic of New Afrika, Chokwe Lumumba, co-founder of the New Afrikan People’s Organization, and me, along with economist Richard America, to address the issue of the constitutionality of reparations on a panel at Harvard and to discuss whether a U.S. constitutional amendment was needed to effectuate reparations.”] We also examined an act authorizing negotiations between a commission of the U.S. and a commission of the RNA to determine kind, dates and other details of paying reparations. 𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 '𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭' 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐫 . . . . Out of that historic September 26, 1987 gathering, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparation in America (NCOBRA) was born, bringing together diverse groups under one umbrella. 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦. . . . Since the creation of NCOBRA, the demand for reparations in the United States has substantially leaped forward, generating what I've dubbed, the modern day Reparations Movement. It was the perfect storm. The Black Power Movement was open and receptive to a broad-based approach to further the issue of reparations. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 . . . .
Nkechi Taifa continues in 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒆:
"𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐝, 𝐰𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐲. After the enslavement era Black people never had the opportunity to decide what our future would hold, with full appreciation of our options and reparations to put our choices into reality. [𝑺𝒊𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆: 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒇𝒓𝒐 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍.] Would we repatriate back to Africa? If so, how? Would we settle in the independent Haiti Republic or somewhere else in the diaspora? Would we accept the U.S. offer of 14th amendment citizenship into the new white nation it was developing and strive to make a multiracial democracy real? Due to severed homeland ties, would we plant our own flag in the ground in this country that we worked and built, negotiated with Native peoples, and establish our own independent Black Nation on soil claimed by the U.S.?
𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐚 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞, 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬. For those who wish to repatriate, we wrote that they should have sufficient resources to make that reintegration a reality, as well as for those who seek to emigrate elsewhere. For those who wish to force this country to respect our rights as full citizens, that option must be accompanied by transformative changes in policies and practices, closure of the Black/white wealth gap, elimination of educational and health disparities, cessation of mass incarceration disproportionately impacting black people, and release of Black political prisoners and prisoners of war. And for those who wish to establish an independent New Afrikan nation-state on this soil, following the model of five states in the Deep South or elsewhere, should likewise have the economic resources and political diplomatic recognition to make that self-determination choice a reality. . . .
‘𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠’ 𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞’𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦. If the informed consent exists from the population in question, then the population is ‘made’ citizens, but have become citizens under their own volition.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐒 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝/𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐣𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐲. The distinction making us citizens of the U.S. and voluntary choice of such citizenship, by New Afrikans desiring the same, is important. 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭, 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. 𝐈𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 (𝐢.𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐧𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐕𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐲, 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫, 𝐍𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭, 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝, 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐲, 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐦, 𝐞𝐭𝐜.).
𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝, 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬 (𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐬) 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 ‘𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩’ 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝.
Third, imposed citizenship offends the 13th Amendment. It limits the freedom declared by that amendment, and 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬, merely by virtue of their presence in the United States - a presence which emanates from the enslavement that the 13th Amendment is purported to have abolished. No person or population so disposed can be said to have received full reparation for slavery.
The political essence of slavery is not merely found in economic exploitation of labor, but in 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞, 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞’𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬. 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. Recall that Sister Collins has appropriately defined reparation as ‘redress for an injury, or amends for a wrong inflicted.’ A wrong doer certainly cannot amend for a wrong inflicted by inflicting another wrong. . . .
Black Reparations Commission President Dorothy Benton Lewis, . . . who worked closely with the Republic of New Afrika and the African National Reparations Organization. . . Working closely with the RNA and its Foreign Affairs Task Force, . . . urged Brother Imari to convene a national gathering on reparations to discuss how to increase its exposure in the U.S. and make the issue of reparations a household word." Out of that came the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA).
August 21, 1987,
Imari Obadele, the president of the RNA, and an avid organizer for reparations, seized the time several weeksprior to the convening of the NCBL (National Conference of Black Lawyers) conference at the urging of Queen Mother Dorothy Benton Lewis, leader of the Black Reparations Commission, and issued a call to more than twenty-five organizations and individuals to come to Washington, D.C. and discuss building support for the armed struggle in Namibia, South Africa, Angola, and Mozambique. Development of a definitive campaign for reparations for N'COBRA was born the next year,
September 26, 1987
First organizing meetings held in D.C. at the headquarters of the Majestic Eagles.
November 8, 1987
Second organizing meeting held in D.C. at the headquarters of the Majestic Eagles.
January 16, 1988
Third organizing meeting held in Jamaica Queens at Southern Queens Park Association.
February 27, 1988
Fourth Organizing meeting held in DC at the Commission for Racial Justice. The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) is formed.
April 10, 1988
Fifth organizing meeting in Philadelphia, PA at the MarcusGarvey House. An N’COBRA acting Executive Committee was formed that included Kalonji Olusegun, Imari Obadele, Nana Seshibe, James Turner, and Adjoa Aiyetoro. Washington, D.C. was chosen as the headquarters.
April 8, 1989
First N’COBRA Town Hall Meeting held at he Frank D. Reeves Center, in Washington, DC. Speakers include Senator Bill Owens, of Michigan, Kalonji Olusegun, Nkechi Taifa, Chokwe Lumumba, Imari Obadele and Adjoa Aiyetoro.
June 1989
N’COBRA receives a letter from Congressman John Conyers, of Detroit, Michigan, requesting the organization’s review and comment on a legislative summary that he planned to incorporate in a bill to be introduced to the House of Representatives.
July 8, 1989
N’COBRA convenes a public meeting at the Reeves Center, in Washington, DC to discuss and respond to Congressman Conyers’ request.
November 20, 1989
Congressman Conyers introduced H.R. 40 to the House of Representatives
November 11-12, 1989 - ANRO hosts the 8th Session of the World Tribunal on Reparations for African People at the University of District of Colombia.
June 1990
First N’COBRA annual Reparation Conference is held at Howard University, National Co-Chairs are Kalonji Olusegun and Adjoa Aiyetoro, Esq. Special guest, State Senator Bill Owens, discussed the reparations bill he introduced in the Massachusetts State Legislature.
September 1990
Nkechi Taifa, as chair of the DC Chapter of NCBL, requests the DC Council to issue a resolution in support of Reparations through the Honorable Wilhemina J. Rolark, Chair of the Judiciary Committee. The DC Council issues a resolution.
November 8-10, 1991
ANRO hosts the 10th Session of the International Tribunal on Reparations for African People in the U.S. (notice the name change) in Philadelphia. According to the Special Supplement to the Burning Spear, November 1991,
“When the initial reparations tribunal was conceived by the Party, it was seen as a means to advance the entire anti-colonialist movement with the U.S. and to unite all African anti-colonialist forces around a concrete program that most of us claimed to embrace in theory. The attempt to unite the movement around the reparations tribunal was a failure. The turnout of anti-colonial organizations for the unity meeting called by the Party in preparation for the founding rribunal was negligible. The then-president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA), Imari Obadele, came to the meeting onlyt to condemn an unrelated article that had appeared in The Burning Spear, the Party’s news organ, at a much earlier date which had challenged the philosophy of New Afrikanism which is embraced by the RNA. But if Imari’s RNA used an old BUrning SPear article as the basis of its hostility to the founding of the reparations tribunal and the African National Reparations Organizastion as the mass anti-colonial organization through which our movement might achieve practical unity through work around reparations, other oranizations and personalities, some of which actually boycotted the founding reparations tribunal, had no such excuse. The National Black United Front (NBUF), which, like the RNA had adopted reparations in its founding document and whose national office was then located in New York, the site of the founding reparations tribunal, refused to support the founding reparations tribunal when NBUF’s leader at the time was not given the leading role at the reparations tribunal. In an article preceding the foundint reparations convention, the national organizer of the NBUF was quoted in the National Guardian, a New York based white liberal newspaper, as stating that reparations was not ‘germane’ to our people. The truth is that manh of the forces who now support the reparations demand - both liberals and nationalists - were opposed to the reparations tribunal and continue their opposition up to now because of its relationship to our Party. The role of the Party in the founding and organizing of the reparations tribunal represented the re-emergence of the organized strenght of the African working class which had been brutally suppressed, defeated, disorganized and dispersed with the defeat of the Black Revolution of the Sixties. For many African liberals and nationalists the African working class is more despised and feared than the white ruling class colonial oppressor. This is because the African working class truly has nothing to lose but its chains. Unlike the African petty borgeois liberals and nationalists, the African working class cannot realize its genuine needs and aspirations withou the total revolutionary destruction of parasitic white-capitalism. But the nine years of reparations work done by the Party and ANRO leading up to this 10th Commemorative Session of the International Tribunal on Reparations for African People seriously challenged the complacency of various of the nationalist forces. They became increasingly concerned lest they be left out of an ability to acquire money and resources in their own class interests from the reparations demands. This and the achievement of repaarations pittance by the Japanese for their internment by the U.S. government during the second imperialist war made active believers out of nationalists and the liberals as well. Now there is a growing unity within the primitive petty bourgeoisie around the reparations demand.”
After all this,
The first Pan African Conference on Reparations was held in Abuja, Nigeria in 1993. The Abuja Proclamation, adopted during the First Pan-African Conference on Reparations in Nigeria, represents the first systemic attempt by African states to collectively demand accountability for the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism, and their intergenerational impacts.
Lost and Found Nation of Islam under the leadership of Silas Muhammad petitioned for a UN hearing on Reparations.
History of Black Americans suing for reparations
1995 Cato v. U.S.
2002, Imari Obadele (Republic of New Afrika) won an indirect consideration of the legality of reparations in the federal court of claims; Obadele v. U.S.
2002, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann sued Aetna Insurance Company, Fleet Boston Financial (successor of Providence Bank founded by Rhode Island businessman/slave trader John Brown), and the CSX Railroad; the claim alleged that these companies conspired with slave traders and illegally profitted from slavery
History of Black Americans being paid reparations
Rosewood survivors and descendants paid by FL
Timothy Pigford (black farmers) vs. USDA – $1.25 billion in 1999; Pigford II case as well
North Carolina passed an appropriations bill to give compensation, up to $50,000 per person, to individuals sterilized under the authority of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina
History of reparations being recommended to Black Americans
1997 – Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Riots of 1921
2005 – Virginia and private donations provided scholarships to pursue higher education to African Americans whose public schools were closed in Prince Edward County after Brown V. Board
2006 – commission recommended reparations be paid to descendants of Black people killed in a riot that destroyed Black homes and businesses in 1898 in Wilmington, NC; the legislature refused
History of Reparations Internationally
2001 The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa
Present day mobilizing for reparations in:
U.S., Caribbean (CARICOM), South America, Various countries in Africa and in 2016, the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent 2016 call for reparations