Atanaskovic 1 Stefi Atanaskovic English 1010 Professor McKeever 12 November 2013 Word Count:

Slavery Reparations There is no question that slavery if one of the most horrific events in Americas past and still haunts todays society. But is money enough to settle the score and allow people to move on from the past? Throughout the last century the idea of slavery reparations has been very controversial, although very popular in the 1900s the idea had seemed to die down. But now that the notion has been returning, some believe that paying reparations to the descendants of slaves would be a way to repair the past. Advocates of slavery reparation argue that their ancestors are owed reparations, and to pay would be the ethical thing to do. This is completely unnecessary, slavery was such a long time ago and the time for this issue has passed. At the turn of the mid-20th century, a number of people, including African Americans, believed that descendants of past slaves should receive reparations for injustices committed some 100 years earlier. The idea briefly came up at the time of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. When black freedom was being fought for, the idea of reparations came up as a way of repayment to those involved with slavery. Although the idea had passed as quickly as it had come because of the lack of financial funds due to the cost of war, talk of reparation could be heard in the whispers of those still haunted by slavery. In 1969, black militants led by James Forman began demanding a down payment of $500 million on future reparations (Olson). This inspired books and other works to be written regarding restitutions, such as a book called The Case for Black Reparations, written by Professor Boris Bittker of Yale University. These works and the efforts of Black Organizations expedited the US to vastly increase spending on social welfare, education, housing, and urban programs, aimed primarily at relieving black

Atanaskovic 2 poverty (Olson). Major Black organizations had also fought for reparations, including NAACP, the Urban League and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The organizations talked to local and state Democratic Politicians about their ideas. The organizations did as much as they could to talk up reparations. The idea of reparations was beginning to get national attention due to the efforts of people who believed reparations were the ethical solution to right the wrong the US had committed.

The idea of reparations lost support much faster than it had gained, despite the efforts of committees and advocates through problems that had arisen. In late 2000, a new project called the Reparations Assessment Group began preparing for lawsuits, which would cost staggering amounts (Olsen). Harpers magazine estimated it wouldve required $97 trillion to pay for the hours of uncompensated work of slaves (Olsen). On average, about $300,000 would be due from every American family of non-slave descent, a due not many were willing to pay. Along with the astounding amount necessary for compensation, the attacks of 9/11 broke the momentum with an abrupt jolt (Shriver). The main concern of people after the attacks was national unity and terrorism. The idea of reparations was hardly talked about after the tragedy. The issue finally lost all momentum in that time period when polls were set up to determine the amount of support of the reparations. Only a small number of whites were supportive of the movement, and it was made clear that a number of black people also opposed (Olsen). 4% of the polls showed support, while 90% were in opposition. (Olsen).This was the end of motion for the 20th century, and the issue was not brought up again until 2002.

The idea came back in the early 2000s when the efforts of few got the attention of many. In 2000, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, pioneer of the Corporate Restitution Movement and Executive Director of the Restitution Study Group, brought the idea back up. Despite having no outside financial backing, she rocked the insurance industry in 2000 by confronting Aetna with evidence that it had insured the lives of slaves for slaveholders. That prompted California to

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require other insurers to search archives for slave policies. In 2006, California State Senator Tom Hayden introduced the first slavery era disclosure law. It requires insurance companies to report on any slave policies they had previously written. Deadria had single-handedly brought the idea of slavery reparations back into focus. Since this, there have been other laws written about companies to report on slave policies.Most recently, a coalition of student groups, reparations organizations, social justice advocates, and elected officials launched a student loan boycott against banks complicit in slavery like JP Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank of America, Fleetbank, Bank One, and Wachovia. (FPR). Following the boycott announcements , the company in protest began to panic. JP Morgan Chase began an aggressive direct mail and television advertising campaign promoting their student loan products. On Tuesday, May 22, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States docketed a petition filed by Deadria FarmerPaellmann -- the descendant of Africans enslaved in South Carolina -- asking the Court to hear a case against 17 major financial institutions for their role in financing, underwriting and supporting slavery. (Mayer). The judge ended up dismissing her lawsuits, but not before the case was published on several websites and journals, such as USA Today. Today, FarmPaelleman continues with her work on receiving justice. Reparations were making their way back into talk and brought hope for many advocates of the idea, although the advocates were only a small part of the population. Mentioned above are the strong ideas of few, but what is the main viewpoint of the population as a whole? "Not a single person directly affected by slavery remains alive," noted Project 21 member Michael King. "While the race warlords go out of their way to create emotional combat between the races, black America falls further behind in important areas politically, educationally, economically (Rancourt). This represents the opinion of most of

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America; most of the population does not support the idea of reparations. To pay reparations is not an idea supported by the people, and the majority of those who support it will be those receiving the reparations, giving less incentive to pay. Also, some peoples ancestors hadnt arrived in America yet when slavery was going on. It would be extremely unfair to those people because they were not involved in any way. The government cannot make them pay to repair something they werent involved in. Although some people are passionate for this cause, the idea as unnecessary. This is just another way of people to get easy money. It would be very different had the ones fighting for reparations being people actually harmed by slavery. In reality, these are people who probably arent even sure that their ancestors were slaves. Paying them wont help their ancestors from what happened during slavery, the time for this has long passed. It is irrelevant to todays society and is not an issue worth wasting time on. This is yet another example of people with an idea and fire in their hearts, willing to take on all the doubters, against those who are trying to remain logical and take care of the majority. I usually support standing up for what you believe in, but this is completely unnecessary. Most of the people supporting it will be the ones receiving reparations and this is just a way for them to make money. It is not fair to the majority of America and may cause financial issues for other people. It is an idea whose time has passed and there are greater issues in the world to worry about.

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Works Cited Bast, Joseph. The Case Against Reparations For Slavery...Sort Of (2004): 1-7. Print. Donald, Shriver W. "Reparations for Past Injustices Is an Ethical Issue." Sojourners Magazine June 2008: n. pag. Print. Olsen, Walter. "Slavery Reparations: What Happened?" Los Angeles Times [San Diego] 31 Oct. 2008: n. pag. Print. "Reparations for Slavery?" Constitutional Rights Foundation. N.p., 2013. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. <http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/reparations-for-slaveryreading.html>.

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Savali, Kirsten West. "Should Black America Get Reparations?" freerepublic.com. Ed. John Robinson. Kirsten West Savali, 29 May 2012. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2888961/posts>.