Reparations Now!

Hey--The Obama Presidency adds a whole new paradigm to an oldie but goodie...

REPARATIONS NOW!

BY: REGINA BROWN
WITH ADDITIONAL RESEARCH BY: RAVAN PATRICK

I was watching t.v. several months ago and heard a woman, a Nazi Holocaust survivor, speak the words that compelled me to write this paper. She said, to paraphrase, “any time work is done, the worker deserves to be compensated.” This statement struck a chord deep within my soul. That chord was plucked by my ancestors who slaved for this country without ever being compensated. It was also plucked by my more recent ancestors, who although never worked without compensation, were hindered by being relegated to begin their careers on the lowest socio-economic rung of society’s ladder for no other reason than being descendants of slaves who built this country with blood, sweat, and tears…for free!
I decided that I must write a paper about this issue. After being in school for over sixteen years, this seemed the obvious answer for me. You see, anytime I was given a paper assignment where I was free to choose my own topic, I would choose something that bothered me about society and basically just vent my anger. I knew at least one person (teacher or professor) would have no choice but to give my thoughts a forum. But as a financial analyst, I found myself without a forum to vent. But then, I thought of Bill Gates. He bought Hotmail because of the advertising power that inserting a plug for his company at the bottom of each email sent would give him. This is the exponential information dissemination power of email via the internet. This is why the revolution will not be televised…it will be on the internet.
So, I started doing research where I could. Where I could was the automobile industry.
In The Detroit News on March 17, 1999 it was reported that in Cologne, Germany a fund was set up by Volkswagen (and DaimlerChrysler, Bayer,…) to pay slave laborers used during the Nazi regime. While the fund paid 219 people so far, Volkswagen estimates that some 17,000 forced laborers toiled in its factories from 1941 to the end of World War II, and others estimate the numbers are much higher. In the Detroit Free Press on February 17, 1999, they mentioned that the creation of this fund came only as a response to lawsuits against German companies in the United States by former “slaves”. In the New York Times on February 18, 1999, there was an article entitled, “Holocaust Lawsuits Spark Demand for Historians.” It said that the mounting wave of Holocaust-related lawsuits has created both a litigation and public-relations nightmare.
So what? What does any of this have to do with African-Americans? It’s simple, the Jews are creating legal precedents for reparations for descendants of African slaves in America. African-Americans would still be attending segregated schools if some brave Black lawyers had not sued for the right to an equal education. We still would not be able to vote if we hadn’t sued and protested for the right. We would not have Affirmative Action if people hadn’t given their lives to the cause of equalizing the playing fields when it comes to employment. Oh that’s right, Affirmative Action is on its’ way to extinction since we have grown complacent. Those who benefit most from its existence feel they are just so special and qualified that they had to be picked from the masses to succeed, instead of being grateful their predecessors paved the way and making sure to further pave the way for future generations.
The Jews understand that the only way to get paid what is owed to you by those dishonest and evil enough to take it from you in the first place is to sue them and humiliate them publicly to the point where their business interests are being hurt by negative publicity and they just want to shut you up! Not suing for what’s owed to us in America is like saying, “We don’t deserve to share in the wealth of this nation even though our ancestors literally built it.”
There is another powerful means of bringing corporate powers-that-be to their knees. Let’s not forget the lesson of the Montgomery Bus boycotts. We can still use our collective economic purchasing power (estimated at $220-290 billion) to send a message that until our demands are met, you won’t see our money.
Okay, so who are we going to sue or boycott? To me, the answer is obvious. Let’s take it back to the fields…cotton and tobacco baby!
By 1860 cotton industries were the leading component of the industrial economy. Due to multiplier effects, the free labor of slaves spearheaded the industrial revolution in the United States and in Britain. In 1944 in Capitalism and Slavery, Eric Williams wrote, “Most of the cotton British workers spun, wove and dyed into cloth was picked by slaves. The slaves’ labor subsidized industrialization in Britain, allowed British workers to be paid and British industrialists to prosper. British textile industrialization created demand for iron and coal, banking, transportation and other service.” These same multiplier effects were at work in the United States, allowing prosperity to be shared not only by cotton plantation owners, but the entire early-industrialists as a whole.
I decided to go to the source: www.cotton.org They listed the Cotton Council International, 1521 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Email: cottonusa@cotton.org phone(202)745-7805 fax (202)483-4040.
On this site the Council’s President, Jack S. Hamilton is quoted, “I learned firsthand this year about the victories that do not make the front-page headlines. One only has to imagine the impact on our industry if [we] had not led efforts to improve the availability of labor and had not sidetracked new, burdensome clean air rules.”
I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like a mighty powerful council that can affect labor supply, an economic factor, I thought remained constant. The Environmentalists lobby for clean air for all, regardless of race or economic level. But this man and his council seen to have the power to sidetrack those pesky environmentalists that stand in the way of their cash flow. That means, they have some awesome political connects!
Slaves in America picked tobacco too…for free! Why then would it be improper to question this industry as a whole, to acknowledge this egregious past and compensate descendants of slaves? Especially when facts prove that the industry targets these very descendants with its’ harmful (main) product.
One of the industry’s most notorious minority cigarette marketing campaigns was for “Uptown” cigarettes. The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association played an active role in the Philadelphia “Coalition Against Uptown Cigarettes,” which pulled health, consumer, and social justice groups together to oppose the test-marketing of Uptown cigarettes in Philadelphia. RJReynolds Tobacco Co., the manufacturers of Uptown, eventually withdrew the product under pressure from HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan, MD., and the coalition. Dr. Sullivan said, “At a time when our people desperately need the message of health promotion, the tobacco industry’s message is more disease, more suffering and more death for a group already bearing more than its share of smoking-related illness and mortality.”
Reed Tuckson, former District of Columbia Health Commissioner, called the tobacco industry’s marketing practices “the subjugation of people of color through disease.” Smoking rates among black males had doubled in four years when the Centers for Disease Control studied these rates in 1996.
Black-oriented and Black-owned magazines receive more revenues from cigarette advertising than other magazines. Stronger, mentholated brands (Newport-Alive with Pleasure!) are also more commonly advertised in Black-oriented than in White-oriented magazines. Billboards advertising tobacco products are placed in African-American communities four to five times more often than in white communities.
The tobacco industry is also cozy with the political powers-that-be in America. How do I know? In 1992 Phillip Morris’ Senior Vice-President, Craig Fuller, was the manager of the Republican National Convention. In an article in the Washington Monthly (September 1989) this analysis of the tobacco industry is given: “Donning the mask of philanthropy the tobacco companies have courted almost everyone with a glimmer of uprightness and a use for cash…The purpose of this fevered gift-giving has been to divert the public’s attention from what the tobacco companies really do: lure people, particularly young ones, into buying a highly addictive drug.” Obviously this industry has powerful, outspoken opponents who would probably love to participate in a boycott of their products for whatever reason.
RJ Reynolds-Nabisco, DelMonte, KFC
Phillip Morris-Seven-Up, Miller Brewing Co., General Foods
(**As an aside, I cannot say that I have not smoked cigarettes and act all holier-than-thou. But I do remember when the high-level whistle-blowers cam out a few years ago and revealed that ammonia was added to facilitate the “free-base” effect in nicotine (like some crack) and I am going to do my best to stay away from cigarettes!)

Let me clarify my vision. I don’t have the answers, I just think we’d better damn sure start asking the right questions to the right people. How about this one-email, mail, phone call, whatever-“Dear Mr. Hamilton (cotton Council Pres. Or Procter &Gamble CEO if you wish), I am a consumer of the product Tide. I am concerned with its affiliation with Cotton, Inc, since I see that logo with a boll of cotton right on the front of the label. The cotton industry has never addressed the issue of reparations for slave laborers’ descendants. I therefore regret to inform you that I will no longer be able to purchase this product in good conscience.” Or, to one of the Big Tobacco companies: “I am appalled by your targeting of minorities and lack of address of the issue of reparations for the millions of slaves who picked tobacco to enrich your industry’s early tobacco ventures. I will continue to speak out against your industry until this racial targeting is ceased and the issue of reparations is addressed.” I don’t expect that any cotton or tobacco company will actually pay Black people for slaves’ labor (I might be wrong you know?). I think they are some of the correct people to question since they have undeniable political influence and some of the inherited wealth, which has been passed down from generation to generation and now rests with the leaders of these industries, is rightfully the property of African-Americans. If they are completely innocent, let them come out publicly and prove they are not proper targets for boycotts demanding slavery reparations. That would just fan the flame of the Reparations Movement through publicity. If they are guilty, they will probably not want to face that debt alone and will petition the government to pay the Reparations promised by Special Field Order #15 on January 16, 1865 and sought again in the 1867 Slave Reparation Bill.
The most disturbing revelation in this research process came when I asked my long-time friend to help me with some research. She sent me a healthy-sized packet in the mail and on the first page was the following information:
Forty Acres and a Mule: Civil War: Special Field Order#15,1865
On this day in 1865, in the midst of his ‘March to the Sea’ during the Civil War, General William T. Sherman and the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with 20 Black Community leaders of Savannah, Georgia. Based in part to their input, General Sherman issued Special Field Order # 15 on January 16, 1865, setting aside the Sea Islands and a 30 mile inland tract of land along the southern coast of Charleston for the exclusive settlement of Blacks. Each family would receive 40 acres of land and an army mule to work the land. Gen. Rufus Saxton was assigned by Sherman to implement the order. On a national level, this and other land confiscated and abandoned, became the jurisdiction of the Freedmen’s Bureau, headed by Gen. Oliver Otis Howard (Howard University-Go Bison!) In his words he wanted to “…give the freedmen protection, land and schools as far and as fast as he can.” However, during the summer and fall of 1865, President Johnson issued special pardons, returning the property to the ex-Confederates. Not giving up one inch, Howard issued Circular 13, giving 40 acres as quickly as possible. Upon his hearing this, Johnson ordered Howard to issue Circular 15, returning the land to the ex-Confederates.

How could it be possible, I wondered with horror, that the man responsible for fighting for reparations to the point of defying the President of the United States was the founder of my illustrious alma mater? I was angry. Why didn’t they tell us? If I knew, maybe I would’ve done a little less partying (probably not!) and gotten involved in some campus activism! But the truth is omnipresent. It was there for me to find, I only needed to go looking for it.
A couple years later Thaddeus Stevens spoke to the US House of Representatives on Section 4 of HR 29, the 1867 Slave Reparation Bill. Speaking of this bill he noted that the guardianship of the Freedmen’s Bureau could not be expected to protect blacks for long since it encounters the hostility of the old slaveholders because it deprives these ‘dethroned tyrants’ the luxury of despotism. Further he states that once the Freedmen’s Bureau is dismantled, blacks would be left as prey to the legislation and treatment of their former masters, and the evidence already furnished shows they will soon become extinct, or be driven to defend themselves…and it seems probable that the war of the races might ensue which the President feared would arise from the kind treatment and the restoration of their r[ights].
He goes on to say that in order for blacks to be independent of their old masters and not be forced to work under unfair conditions, they must have their own land. He also noted that nothing elevates the character of a citizen like property ownership. He mentions also that when one of the wisest monarchs, the Czar of Russia, freed 25 million serfs (slaves), he didn’t have any foolish notions of depriving his empire of their labor or of robbing them of their rights. Instead the Czar ordered their former masters to make compensation for their unrequited toil by conveying to them the very houses in which they lived and a portion of the land which they had tilled as serfs.
But what I was happy to read in his address were the actual dollar figures. The fourth section provides that out of the confiscated lands each liberated slave who is a male adult, or head of a family, shall have assigned to him a homestead of forty acres of land, with $100 to build a dwelling. It called for $200 million to be invested in US Securities at 6% with the interest semi-annually added to the pensions allowed by law to pensioners who become so by reason of the Civil War. There was also $300 million, or so much as needed, allotted to pay damages done to loyal citizens by the civil or military operations of the Confederate States of America.
One only needs to do a simple present value calculation using the formula (1+r)^t. Since no one was given this money or land, there’s no need to speculate on whether or not our ancestors would have squandered it or saved it for us. Since it was never given, but should have been, it’s like money in the bank. Let’s focus on the $200 million called to be invested in securities since we have all the necessary information to apply to the formula: r =.06 (6%interest) t=143 (year 2000-1867) The future value factor is : (1.06)^143=4156.604782. So to find out how much that is worth today, we would multiply that factor by $200 million. Hold on,…it’s $831,320,956,304.17. That’s billion y’all! Assuming there are approx. 30 million blacks in the country, that is $27,710.70 each, and that doesn’t even take into account the 40 acres, mule or the other $300 million that was called for allotment to the freed slaves. Hey, I have a heart and I care about this country, it’s my home! If the government can’t cut me a check right away, it’s all good. They can just stop taking 1/3 of my income in taxes until I reach $27,710.70, or whatever figure is agreed upon with in depth study.
This type of thinking may seem crazy or far-fetched to some. But what I realize now that I didn’t when I started my research is that there is a Movement out there that feels exactly as I do. You probably won’t see a report about this movement on the news or in the paper, but all you have to do is go to the internet and all the information you could ever want is available.
In an article on Afronet.com, Trudy Goodwin outlined the efforts of the Reparations Movement yesterday and today. Since the 1950’s leaders have come for the to speak for disenfranchised blacks. Queen Mother Moore was the matriarch of the reparation/compensation movement. Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Robert Brock of the Self-Determination Committee, the Obdelies of the Nat. Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), the National Commission for Reparation (NCR) and Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (C.U.R.E) are working nationally to gain reparations for African Americans.
In 1989, Congressman Conyers introduced H.R. 3745 which commissioned a study of the Reparation Proposal for African Americans Acts. In 1998, it was changed again to H.R. 40. The bill would establish an appointed commission charged with researching slavery’s effects on today’s African-Americans and deciding if a remedy, such as reparations is necessary.
In an open letter to Congressman John Conyers Jr. (669 Federal Bldg., W Lafayette, Detroit, MI, 48226.) an anonymous writer says:

It is indeed a blessing to know that you and Dr. Robert Brock of the “Self Determination Committee” are front runners in addressing the “Reparations” for all African Americans of Slave Descent. I have recently been informed about HR 40, in which you spearheaded this movement to gain what lawfully belongs to us, and yes, it is TIME.
Your letter to Dr. Brock of February 6, 1998 indicates that there is substantial precedent for requesting reparations. I am motivated to contribute in getting the word out to many slave descendants, who are still unaware that such a movement exists. The government needs to recognize that such a debt to our people is well overdue and the interest alone on this debt has to be quite large. Dr. Martin Luther King was on this road and fully recognized the Reparations due to the people of slave descent. Yes, this too is part of his dream.
Dr. Brock won a default against the Internal Revenue Service/Federal Government in the United States Supreme Court on the issue of “Reparations.” Also, most recently, Dr. Brock represented another case, where Blacks in a class-action lawsuit against the IRS and the United States for illegal Black taxation, slavery and a myriad of human violations.

The Honorable Silis Muhammad, CEO of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (LFNOI) established the National Commission for Reparations (NCR). In 1994 an extensive legal document entitled, Petition for United Nations Assistance Under Resolution 1503 on Behalf of African-Americans in the USA, was filed with the UN’s Sub-Commission on Human Rights. Ms. Goodwin believes that we, as African-Americans must push the NCR petition, which carries far-reaching historical significance for approximately 40-50 million African-Americans. She also gives a counter-argument to Caucasian Americans that might ask why they must pay for the wrongdoings of their ancestors. In 1994, the year tax funds were used to pay Japanese American Reparations, nearly one third of those who paid taxes were born after World War II. All Americans, whether they supported the imprisonment of Japanese Americans or not, shouldered the financial burden.
The Reparations Movement extends beyond African-Americans in the United States. The Africa Reparations Movement (ARM) was formed in 1993 as a result of the Abuja Proclamation, which called for a National Reparations Committee to be set up throughout Africa and the Diaspora. (http://the.arc.co.uk/arm/FAQs.html) In a paper presented to the First Pan-African Congress on Reparations (Abuja, Nigeria on April 27-29) Lord Anthony Gifford, British Queens Counsel and Jamaican Attorney-at-Law outlined the legal basis for the claim for African [All Africans!] Reparations:
1. The enslavement of Africans was a crime against humanity.
2. International law recognizes that those who commit crimes against humanity must make reparation.
3. There is no legal barrier to prevent those who still suffer the consequences of crimes against humanity from claiming reparations, even though the crimes were committed against their ancestors.
4. The claim would be brought on behalf of all Africans, in Africa and the Diaspora, who suffer the consequences of the crime, through the agency of an appropriate representative body.
5. The claim would be brought against the governments of those countries which promoted and were enriched by the African slave trade and the institution of slavery.
6. The amount of the claim would be assessed by experts in each aspect of life and in each region affected by the institution of slavery.
7. The claim, if not settled by agreement, would ultimately be determined by a special international tribunal recognized by all parties. (http://212.212.12.9/arm/legalBasis.html)




If you are still reading, I thank you infinitely! I wrote this so I could feel as though I had done something in my life to inform my people of our yet unattained but richly deserved inheritance, not for a grade or to find validation in one of this society’s publications. By reading my thoughts, I hope you will do something to further the cause of the Reparations Movement, whether it be bringing up the subject in conversation, passing along this email, or even running for public office with Reparations as your platform.
I dedicate this effort to my inspirations for writing it, my great-grandmother Leesidner Baskerville and the late Tupac Shakur. My great-grandmother is 95 years old and still vital, active in her church and a joy to behold. She is a constant reminder for me to DO THE MATH! She was born in 1904 and her grandparents are the ones who should’ve received the 40 acres, etc! I think about how much better off her life would have been if her ancestors had gotten what was owed to them. And, of course that makes me think of how much better off my parents, grandparents and entire family would be if we [all] would have just gotten what was owed to us. While I was never the biggest Tupac fan while he was alive, in a post-mortem special he was quoted as saying, “I might not change the world, but my music can spark the mind that will change the world.” In that one profound statement he crystallized the challenge Hillary Clinton gave my graduating class. That challenge is to believe in our hearts that we (one person) can make a difference. She quoted Nelson Mandela who said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are all powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
James 5:1-8
1 Go now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches
are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust
of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as if it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. 5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. 7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandmen waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth near.

Genesis 15:13-14
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs , and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward they shall come out with great substance.

PEACE!!!