Reparations
Reparations refer to actions taken to address past harms and injustices inflicted on individuals and communities, particularly those affected by systemic racism, discrimination, and historical inequalities. Systemic racism and discriminatory policies have disproportionately harmed people of color and marginalized communities. The effects of these harms and injustices continue to be felt today, contributing to disparities in life course outcomes. Reparations are a victim-centered process by which survivors of atrocities and serious human rights violations, and their descendants, have the right to seek restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of nonrepetition for past and ongoing harms.
The Federal Government is responsible for (1) policies that led to the economic, political, and social erosion of Black communities; (2) failing to keep Black people safe from or actively sanctioning White domestic terrorism and failing to prosecute it when it occurred; (3) the impacts of government-imposed segregation leading to harmful health outcomes and environmental racism; (4) the ongoing harms of racialized mass incarceration and family separation, oppressive and abusive criminalization, and the continued impact of embedded historical harms of the criminal legal system on Black people and Black communities; and (5) banking, consumer, housing, health, education, and employment discrimination.
1619, a year before the Mayflower arrived on American shores, marked the first year White Virginians purchased around 30 enslaved Angolans from Portuguese traders who were forcefully transported through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, thereafter launching a violent system of racial subjugation, exploitation, and genocide. over the course of nearly 300 years, at least 12,500,000 Africans were kidnapped from their homelands by European traders and forcibly brought across the Atlantic Ocean in one of the largest forced displacements in human history, and at least 2,000,000 did not survive the horrifying, brutal, and grueling journey across the Atlantic, also known as the Middle Passage.
The bodies of enslaved people became the single largest financial asset of property in the United States that were purchased through loans, repaid with interest, and insured with exorbitant policies. The enslavement of Black people and the country’s commitment to using unflinching violence and oppression created labor-enriched White slave- owners and their descendants, fueled the country’s economy while suppressing self-determination and wealth- building for enslaved Black people. enslaved people themselves became commodities that, by 1860, were valued at over $4,000,000,000. Post emancipation, newly freed Black people were left with zero wealth and landless, with a lack of education, poor health, and severed family and homeland ties.
The first formal record of a petition for reparations in the United States was pursued and won by a formerly enslaved woman, Belinda Royall. Professor Ray Winbush’s book, Belinda’s Petition, describes an appeal she presented to the Massachusetts General Assembly in 1783, requesting a pension from the proceeds of her former enslaver’s estate (an estate partly the product of her own uncompensated labor). Belinda’s petition yielded a pension of fifteen pounds and twelve shillings.
Over 78 percent of military-age free Black men served in the Union Army, and 200,000 Black men enlisted in the Union to fight during the Civil War, accounting for 1 in 10 Union soldiers. Following the Civil War, in 1865, Confederate veterans founded the Ku Klux Klan, a group that would unleash genocidal violence and a reign of terror across the country for decades to come. An estimated 6,500 racial terror lynchings took place between 1865 and 1950. White supremacists raided, mobbed, massacred, and completely burned countless Black communities across the United States.
On July 14, 1862 the Compensated Emancipation Act was passed which ended slavery in the District of Columbia. Notably, reparations were paid, not to the formerly enslaved, but payments were made to the former slaveholders, for loss of “property.” President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act in 1862, which by 1934, when the Act ended, had granted more than 270,000,000 acres of land in the West to White people virtually for free. On February 18, 1866 the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate passed a bill providing for 40 acres of land as part of the Freedman’s Bureau. It was vetoed by Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson the following day. Johnson likewise reversed and annulled proclamations such as General William Tecumseh 3 Sherman’s January 16, 1865 Special Field Order No. 15, that sought to allot land to freed families in plots no larger than 40 acres.
Enslaved people were never granted any form of compensation after the abolition of slavery, and were thrust into a near-century-long epoch of legal segregation through Jim Crow laws. After emancipation, laws that governed slavery were retooled into Black Codes to control free Black people, thereby establishing a criminal legal system that sanctified the continuation of slavery by another name. So unbearable were these Black Codes and the brutality of Jim Crow, that 6,000,000 Black people were displaced and forced to migrate to the North seeking some form of safety and political asylum within the border of their own country during "The Great Migration", also known as "The Great Displacement".
Former U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Mary Frances Berry illuminated the case of Callie House in her book, My Face is Black is True. Callie, along with Rev. Isaiah Dickerson, headed the first mass reparations movement in the United States, founded in 1898. The National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief Bounty and Pension Association had six hundred thousand dues-paying members seeking compensation for slavery from federal agencies. During the 1920s Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association galvanized hundreds of thousands of Black people seeking repatriation with reparation, proclaiming, “Hand back to us our own civilization. Hand back to us that which you have robbed and exploited of us … for the last 500 years.”
Black people were excluded from the Social Security and Wagner Acts of 1935 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. From the 1930s to the 1960s, Black people across the country were effectively barred from the home-mortgage market, thereby locking Black people out of the greatest opportunity for wealth accumulation in the history of the United States. Black communities bear the brunt of environmental racism and remain disproportionately impacted by extreme temperatures and environmental hazards due to the close proximity to places like chemical plants, oil refineries, trash incinerators, construction sites, and waste dumping sites, as a result of lacking of greenery and tree canopies.
Reparations have been given in other cases of historical injustice, such as German reparations to Holocaust survivors, U.S. reparations to Japanese Americans interned during WWII, and compensation to Native American tribes for stolen land. Advocates argue that similar measures are appropriate for slavery.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American writer, journalist, and public intellectual known for his deep exploration of issues related to race, African American culture, history, and politics. Coates has written across various media, including essays, memoirs, and comics, making a significant cultural and intellectual impact. Coates gained widespread recognition for his long-form essays in The Atlantic, where he wrote about systemic racism, white supremacy, and the black experience in America. He penned the widely acclaimed "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration", addressing the impact of mass incarceration on African American communities.
Coates wrote for Marvel Comics, contributing to Black Panther and Captain America. His work on Black Panther (starting in 2016) was praised for adding political complexity and depth to the character and the world of Wakanda, aligning with his exploration of African identity and politics. Coates has been a powerful voice on matters of race and history, engaging with contemporary politics, and critiquing structural racism in America. His writing has inspired discussions about reparations, police brutality, and the legacies of slavery and segregation.
His most famous essay, "The Case for Reparations" (2014), is a powerful argument for compensating African Americans for the lasting harm caused by slavery, Jim Crow, and discriminatory policies like redlining. Ta-Nehisi Coates has been one of the most influential contemporary voices advocating for reparations for African Americans. His 2014 essay, "The Case for Reparations", published in The Atlantic, was pivotal in bringing the topic into mainstream discourse. In this essay, Coates makes a compelling argument that the U.S. government owes reparations to Black Americans for centuries of enslavement, racial discrimination, and policies that have actively disadvantaged Black communities.
Coates details the history of systemic racism in the United States, from slavery to Jim Crow, and more modern practices like redlining, which prevented Black people from building wealth through homeownership. He emphasizes that while slavery was officially abolished in 1865, the economic, social, and legal marginalization of African Americans continued well into the 20th century through discriminatory housing policies, segregation, and unequal education.
One of the essay's major focuses is the discriminatory practice of redlining, where Black neighborhoods were marked as "risky" investments on government-sanctioned maps, effectively denying Black residents access to mortgages and homeownership opportunities. Coates uses the example of Clyde Ross, a Black man who faced systemic discrimination while trying to buy a home in Chicago, as a personal illustration of how Black Americans were barred from building generational wealth. Ross, and many like him, were forced into exploitative contracts, losing money and never truly owning their homes.
Coates clarifies that reparations are not just about financial compensation. Rather, they are about addressing and acknowledging the long-term harm inflicted on African Americans and instituting policies that dismantle systems of racial inequality. He calls for a national reckoning and a process of confronting the nation's history of racial exploitation. For him, reparations are about the full recognition of Black suffering and a material and moral response to it.
Coates argues that the case for reparations is not just an economic or legal issue, but a moral one. He believes that reparations are necessary for America to confront and atone for its past. He connects the idea of reparations to similar historical actions, such as reparations paid to Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II.
Coates supports HR 40, a bill introduced by Congressman John Conyers that calls for a formal study of reparations for African Americans. The bill does not propose immediate payments but seeks to examine the long-lasting effects of slavery and segregation and to explore solutions.
Coates testified before Congress in 2019, in a landmark hearing on the issue of reparations, where he continued to argue that the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination in the U.S. demands a serious response.
For Coates, reparations are not merely about addressing individual harms but about transforming American society. He views it as a way to address the structural inequalities that still exist today and that stem from a long history of racial oppression. While his call for reparations has sparked debates, it has undeniably played a significant role in reinvigorating discussions around justice for African Americans in the context of slavery and systemic racism. His work has influenced scholars, politicians, and activists who are now pushing for more concrete actions and policy considerations around reparations.
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative by The New York Times Magazine that aims to reframe the history of the United States by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the national narrative. It was launched in August 2019 to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English colonies, specifically in Virginia, in 1619. The project was spearheaded by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her introductory essay. The overarching goal is to reexamine U.S. history through the lens of slavery and its enduring effects on American society. The project challenges the traditional view that America’s founding began in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, instead suggesting that the country’s true founding was 1619 when slavery began, as it profoundly shaped every aspect of American life—political, social, and economic.
The 1619 Project argued that modern American economic practices, such as labor exploitation, find their roots in the systems created by slavery. Suggesting that slavery not only shaped American democracy but also created deep contradictions within it, such as how enslaved people fought for freedoms they were denied. Tracing the origins of racial health disparities to medical experimentation and neglect during slavery and segregation.
Hannah-Jones’ essay positions African Americans as foundational to the concept of American democracy, despite their historical exclusion from its benefits. She argues that the fight for Black freedom and equality has been integral to the expansion of rights for all Americans. She emphasizes the contributions of African Americans in shaping the nation, especially through the civil rights movements and in cultural contributions like music, art, and literature.
The 1619 Project sparked significant debate and controversy, especially regarding its interpretation of American history. Some historians have critiqued certain claims in the project, such as the suggestion that the American Revolution was fought, in part, to protect slavery. While the project has acknowledged this criticism, it stands by its broader assertions about the centrality of slavery in American history. Politicians, particularly from conservative circles, have criticized the project as revisionist and unpatriotic. In response, several states have introduced or passed legislation limiting how race and slavery can be taught in schools, in opposition to the 1619 Project's narrative. Donald Trump, for instance, launched the "1776 Commission" in response, which sought to promote a more traditional and celebratory view of American history.
In June 2023, the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans (Reparations Task Force) released its final report. With more than 115 recommendations, the Report provides valuable guidance for this important work for lineal descendants of an African-American Chattel enslaved person (descendants of enslaved people who were abducted from their African homelands by force to be enslaved in North America) or of a free African-American person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th Century.
Some advocates argue for direct monetary compensation to descendants of enslaved people. The amount could be calculated based on the unpaid labor of enslaved people, compounded over time. Reparations could also take the form of investments in African American communities, such as funding for education, healthcare, housing, and job creation. Scholarships, grants, or free college education for African Americans could help address educational inequalities. Reducing or forgiving student loans, providing tax breaks, or reducing debt burdens for African Americans could help narrow the wealth gap.
Reparations could involve providing land or offering support for black-owned businesses to help build wealth. Some argue that beyond financial compensation, the U.S. should officially apologize for slavery and invest in memorials and museums to educate future generations about the horrors of slavery and its lasting impact.
Some opponents question whether reparations would effectively address the ongoing problems faced by African Americans or whether other reforms (e.g., improving education, healthcare, and criminal justice) would be more effective. Some believe that reparations would be socially divisive, stirring up resentment among people who feel they are being unfairly asked to pay for historical injustices that they themselves did not commit.
HR 40 is a bill first introduced in Congress in 1989 and reintroduced many times since. Named after the "40 acres and a mule" promise made to freed slaves after the Civil War, the bill calls for the creation of a commission to study and develop proposals for reparations. While the bill has never passed, the conversation continues to grow.
Financial reparations would be paid by the Federal Government for an amount that respected economists have estimated totals, at minimum, $14,000,000,000,000 to eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans. Some scholars have estimated that the United States benefitted from 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and the end of slavery in 1865, which would be valued at $97,000,000,000,000 today. The USA Gross Domestic Product was about $25,000,000,000,000 in 2022.
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