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Reparations

Here you will find reparation news, articles and media posts

Sheila Jackson Lee says reparations commission would help "understand the hurts" of African-Americans

Sheila Jackson Lee says reparations commission would help “understand the hurts” of African-Americans

By HR 40 Congressional Hearing, News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Emily Tillett, CBS News — The topic of reparations for the descendants of Americans who were enslaved has come up on the 2020 campaign trail and in the halls of Congress, as lawmakers continue to push for a commission to study and consider reparation proposals. One of those lawmakers, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, says some in Congress are now turning reparations into a “constructive discussion on the…

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Pete Buttigieg

Buttigieg releases 18-page plan to help African Americans and “complement” HR40

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

WASHINGTON (NBC News) — Working to prove himself to African American voters, Pete Buttigieg is releasing an 18-page plan Thursday to improve conditions and opportunity for black Americans on everything from the health care, education and criminal justice systems to entrepreneurship and access to credit. The wide-ranging plan constitutes Buttigieg’s initial version of a proposal for reparations for slavery. His campaign says it views it as a “complement” to H.R. 40, legislation working…

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Community Land Trusts Are a Model for Reparations

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

In a racialized economy, land trusts and cooperatives offer a lasting form of reparations, say activists. By Laura Flanders, Truthout — This year has already seen more Democrats talking about reparations than ever, including several running for the presidency. Now, rather than writing checks to individuals, more and more people are talking about collective strategies for repair and reparation. Community land trusts, cooperatives and mutual housing associations, for example, might…

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Toni Morrison

A Documentary That Shows Another Side of Toni Morrison

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

This moving and profound portrait serves as a fitting biographical tribute as well as a piercing, often painful recount of African American history from slavery and the Civil War to the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights movement and beyond. By Syreeta McFadden, The Atlantic — One of my white teachers in high school insisted that Toni Morrison would be confusing to me as a reader. So I approached the…

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General William Tecumseh Sherman in May 1865. Portrait by Mathew Brady.

The Truth Behind ’40 Acres and a Mule’

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

By Henry Louis Gates, Jr. — We’ve all heard the story of the “40 acres and a mule” promise to former slaves. It’s a staple of black history lessons, and it’s the name of Spike Lee’s film company. The promise was the first systematic attempt to provide a form of reparations to newly freed slaves, and it was astonishingly radical for its time, proto-socialist in its implications. In fact, such…

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Lindi Bobb, 6, attends a slavery reparations protest on August 9, 2002 in New York City. On June 19, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on legislation proposing the establishment of a commission to study reparations.

Race, Devils, Ignorance & Reparations

By Dr. Julianne Malveaux, HR 40 Congressional Hearing, Reparations

By Dr. Julianne Malveaux — I was honored to have been asked to provide testimony at the House Judiciary Committee hearings on H.R. 40, the legislation that would establish a commission to study reparations and recommend remedies to Congress. It is relevant legislation that has been a long time coming. It is important to note that the bill does not “cash the check,” as Dr. Martin Luther King challenged when…

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