Presentation by Jeffrey S. Lowe, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy, Texas Southern University for the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW). National Emergency…
By Ken Epstien, Post News Group — The City Council this week unanimously passed Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney’s resolution in support of HR-40, the bill in Congress to study reparations to “descendants of enslaved African Americans.” Council President Rebecca Kaplan co-authored the resolution. Rebecca Kaplan “This is an important time in our nation’s history where we need to seek to make right that which is wrong,” said McElhaney, speaking at…
H.R. 40, the bill for a commission to study reparations, can help fulfill the promise of “40 acres and a mule.” By Taru Taylor, Truthout — The U.S. government was on the wrong side of history when they reneged their promise of “40 acres and a mule” to formerly enslaved Black Americans in 1865. Exactly 154 years later, let’s pass H.R. 40, the bill for a commission to study reparations, and…
By Susan Neiman, Los Angeles Times — Born as a white girl in the segregated South, I’ve spent most of my adulthood as a Jewish woman in Berlin. This double perspective has fueled my resolve to explore America’s fraught relationship with its history. It is easy to point to the differences between the Holocaust and the enslavement and abuse of millions of Africans. When examining possible responses to these crimes,…
The National African American Reparations Commission Praises Progress on Reparations Expresses Concern Over Attacks on Sen. Kamala Harris’s Identity New York, July 19, 2019 — The National African American Reparations…
By Nicholas Wu and Deborah Barfield Berry, USA Today — WASHINGTON – Calling racism the “poison of America,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer gave his support Tuesday to a bill to set up a commission to study reparations. “The disparities in race affect everything, not just the obvious things, but the non-obvious things” like pollution and climate change, Schumer explained. The bill, proposed by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Texas…
Beto O’Rourke says he is descended from slave owners, supports reparations to unite ‘two Americas’. By Vandana Ravikumar, USA Today — The former House representative from El Paso, Texas, published a Medium…
By Sandy Mazza, USA Today — ATHENS, Ala. – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was born about 40 miles from his great-great-grandfathers’ Alabama cotton farms, worked by slaves 100 years before. Like so many long-standing Southern white families, McConnell’s forebearers built their wealth with free slave labor and cheap land. Two of his great-great-grandfathers owned more than a dozen slaves, census records reviewed by the USA TODAY Network show. The…
By Julianne Malveaux — The first week of July produced a somewhat positive Employment Situation report. While the unemployment rate ticked up just a bit, about 224,000 new jobs were…
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…
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…
By Christian Weller — This article was originally published in Forbes on June 19, 2019. June 19th marks the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Texas and a reminder…