By Bill Smith, Evanston Now — After three months in which the Evanston City Council’s three-member reparations subcommittee held not a single public meeting, on Dec. 19, 2019 the city issued a press release announcing a schedule for a reformulated subcommittee to develop a reparations plan for submission to the City Council next year. At various times this fall members of the subcommittee that was appointed on Sept. 9 — Aldermen Robin Rue…
Towards the Year of Marcus Mosiah Garvey. 2020 will mark the 100th Anniversary of the International Convention of the Negro People of the World, Convened in 1920 in New York by Marcus Mosiah Garvey, President General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). Marcus Garvey was the greatest mass-organizer Black people have ever produced and the architect of an economic, social and political blueprint designed to…
By Edna Whittier, The Roanoke Times — In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act to compensate Japanese Americans who were in internment camps during World War II. Offering a formal apology it paid $20,000 to each surviving victim and their heirs. In 2004, the State of Virginia established the Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship fund setting aside $1 million (with another $1 million contributed by philanthropist John…
The perils facing Blacks in Tulsa, Oklahoma didn’t end with the show’s season finale. By Dreisen Heath, Human Rights Watch, Co-written by Kristi Williams, The Real Black Wall Street Tour Company — Watchmen may have been snubbed by the Golden Globes, but the season finale left many viewers in awe. As Black women who hail from Tulsa, Oklahoma — where the Watchmen plot plays out — we hope the season’s biggest legacy will…
The Union for Reform Judaism is calling for a study on reparations to redress the continuing effects of slavery and systemic racism against Black Americans. By Carol Kuruvilla, Huff Post — The Reform movement, America’s largest Jewish denomination, has passed a resolution supporting the need to make reparations for slavery. The resolution, approved by delegates to The Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial meeting on Friday, supports the creation of a…
Union for Reform Judaism declares its support for reparations for the descendants of slaves in the US. By Ben Sales, TGA — The Reform movement declared its support for reparations for African-Americans at its biennial conference. The resolution, which was approved Friday by voice vote at the 5,000-person gathering of the Union for Reform Judaism, calls for “a federal commission to study and develop proposals for reparations to redress the…
Vantage Point Radio Recorded December 16, 2019 — On this WBAI pledge drive edition of Vantage Point, host Dr. Ron Daniels aka The Professor talks with guests David Gardinier and…
By Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald — Harvard University and the island of Antigua and Barbuda are talking about an educational partnership following a letter the Caribbean island’s prime minister sent to the university requesting slavery reparations. A Harvard University spokesman confirmed to the Miami Herald that the school’s president, Lawrence Bacow, recently reached out to Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, to discuss how the prestigious university…
By Carolyn Thompson, AP News — BUFFALO, N.Y. — The promise of reparations to atone for historical ties to slavery has opened new territory in a reckoning at U.S. colleges, which until now have responded with monuments, building name changes and public apologies. Georgetown University and two theological seminaries have announced funding commitments to benefit descendants of the enslaved people who were sold or toiled to benefit the institutions. While…
‘It was time to lead in urgency’ By Genevieve Bookwalter, Chicago Tribune — Hundreds of Evanston residents packed the sanctuary of First Church of God Wednesday evening to participate in…
By Jonah Pesner, Chicago Tribune — Americans in general and faith groups in particular increasingly find ourselves reckoning with our nation’s bigoted history and struggling with how to dismantle the racist systems and structures that persist to this day. As the largest Jewish denomination in the United States, it’s time for the Reform movement to join this conversation. It’s time for us to talk reparations. When I first read Ta-Nehisi…
A Swiss historian backed by dozens of public figures has launched a committee that makes the case for slavery reparations in the context of Switzerland. The supporters of the Swiss Committee on Slavery Reparations (SCORES) believe that reparations must be negotiated through dialogue between those who benefited from the transatlantic slave trade and the descendants of the victims. “The centuries-old human crime of slavery within the framework of the exploitation of the American colonies by Europe demands