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Slavery

“Colfax Massacre” in Louisiana.

‘The War of Races’: How a hateful ideology echoes through American history

By Editors' Choice

From slavery to Reconstruction to Dylann Roof, the idea of “race war” has a long and bloody legacy in the United States. By Michael E. Miller, The Washington Post — It was high noon on Easter 1873 when the white mob came riding into Colfax. Five months earlier, Louisiana had held its second election since the end of the Civil War and the beginning of black male suffrage. But some…

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Sydney Labat, 24, and 14 of her Tulane University classmates posed at the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, La.

Med students send message with plantation photo: We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams

By Editors' Choice

More than a dozen medical students from Tulane University posed at the former slave quarters in the hopes of inspiring others. By Mohammed Syed and Suzanne Ciechalski — It wasn’t by chance that more than a dozen black medical students dressed in white coats and posed outside the slave quarters of a Louisiana plantation. Russell Ledet and classmates from Tulane University planned the trip and photos at the Whitney Plantation…

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President Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which granted reparations to Japanese Americans

Another way to look at reparations

By Reparations

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…

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Leaders for the Union for Reform Judaism

Major Jewish Denomination Votes To Support Reparations For Slavery

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

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…

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Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Jewish Reform movement votes to back reparations for African-Americans

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

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…

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John Harvard Statue

Harvard benefited from Antigua slavery. The two are talking about an education partnership.

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

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…

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Jesuit statue - Georgetown University campus in Washington.

Reparations mark new front for US colleges tied to slavery

By Reparations

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…

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Ta-Nehisi Coates

As Reform Jews, we must consider reparations for American slavery

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

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…

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Historian Hans Fässler, the spokesman for SCORES

Swiss launch committee on slavery reparations

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

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

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