The question of reparations to African Americans for slavery has been a hot issue of debate for a few years now, and the divisions on this issue have show to be drawn along racial lines. Whites see reparations as an unjust penalty for something for which they have no current responsibility. Blacks see it as a just repayment for centuries of inhuman violations of basic rights. It has been pointed out by some that while slavery was a horrible injustice, and maybe a crime against humanity, it ended almost a century and a half ago and the current generation of Americans have no connection it. This line of thinking continues that because of the time and the disconnection there is no justification for paying reparations to current generations of African Americans. While this view of the issue seems logical and reasonable it is based on an assumption that is false. While slavery as an institution legally ended with the 13th Amendment, many of the assumptions and the implications of it have persisted through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century and effect America to this day. In fact the effect of some of the assumptions of race based on slavery still linger and cause social, economic, and political injustices and misunderstanding that divide America, but that will be addressed later.
Using the most restricted view, that reparations are not due current generations of African Americans due to disconnects, there is a need to provide legal justification for reparations. If you discount slavery as being legal during its time, the issue of reparations, in strictly legal terms, should be based on wrongs that occurred as a result of post 13th Amendment actions. It is my contention that there is overwhelming evidence to support reparations to current African Americans based on legal, civil rights, and human rights violations that have occurred since the end of slavery continuing to the present. There are three major classes of violations that can be documented by the evidence; Unequal Protection, Unequal Access, and Terrorism. These three form the elements of the basic case for the justification of reparations to African Americans.
Unequal Protection
The right to equal protection under the law is considered a hallmark of American society. We often speak of our country as being a nation of laws, not of men, yet as the law has been applied to African Americans from 1894 (Plessy vs. Ferguson) to 1964 (the Civil Rights Act) the principle of equality did not apply to African Americans. By law and by custom and tradition, black Americans were treated as a separate and lesser class. The existent of codes in the southern United States common referred to as Jim Crow laws, not assured the continuance of blacks as a subjugated group in the South, but also justified discriminatory laws and activities in the North. Rights such as voting, trial by jury of peers (in many places blacks were not allowed on juries), and basic property rights, were denied blacks. Consider the fact that rights of blacks were so constringed that they were even restricted in where and how they could spend their money.
Black Americans more than a century after Emancipation, still lacked the ability to demand enforcement of laws that protected their rights as Americans. The principle of segregation applied to American institutions for over 100 years created a separate class of governed individuals with limited or no access to the controlling elements of their lives. In the police and fire departments, the bureaucracies of local governments, and the law making bodies of both the state and local levels, there was an almost absolute absence of input from Black Americans.
For more than a century after the Emancipation blacks in America had the rule of law imposed upon without representation. Add to this the fact that even some of the most normal, mundane, day-to-day activities like riding a bus, eating in a restaurant, staying in a hotel, or going to a public restroom, all required special attention to your race as a consideration. The law was different when it was applied to blacks, and even given a just reason to ask for civil compensation, there was no chance of getting a fair trial because there were only white males on juries (even in civil courts).
The criminal courts were another matter, a whole class of crimes existed for which there was no protection. A white accused of a crime against a black was always acquitted; this was especially true in cases where the victims were outspoken blacks who were critical of the conditions of society. Proof of this can be seen in the attempts still today to prosecute cases involving civil rights related murders. There are still several high profile cases where murders, rapist, and arsonist still roam free and unmolested in spite of irrefutable evidence of their complicity or guilt. On the other hand there are literally hundreds of documented cases of innocent black adults and youth being sentenced to lengthy prison terms or death for crimes they didn’t commit. To be a black man suspected of certain crimes was an automatic death sentence. Lynch mobs as a matter of “tradition” summarily executed black men accused of rape of a white woman. This was not only true in the south, cities like Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Omaha, and Minneapolis/St. Paul all had documented cases of lynch mob executions of black men in the twentieth century.
In the 18th century, white Americans revolted over the principle of taxation without representation, Why should a demand for compensation based on imposition of law without representation be called unreasonable. Remember that during the period from the end of the Civil War to the end of the Civil Rights movement, there was no recourse within the law for African American to address the wrongs that were visited upon them by those who controlled the institutions of American society.
The case of the 2000 Presidential election and the Florida vote is a primary example. African Americans in Florida registered to vote in record numbers, and turned out to cast ballots in unprecedented numbers. In one of the closest elections in history, an examination of the ballots cast in African American communities in Florida there was an anomaly of statistical significance. African American votes had an error rate of from 5 to 20 times greater than any other group. This was found to be consistent when all other factors excluding race were accounted for. The obvious conclusion was that this was one of the most blatant displays of ballot tampering was either ignored or soft-peddled by the mainstream media. The implications of the error rate are only two, African Americans are lacking intelligence to vote properly or the votes in their communities were tampered with. The ignoring of either the most obvious voter fraud in recent history or definitive proof of inferior intellect of African Americans didn’t seem to get the attention it was due. Some action should have been taken. Yet the Voting Rights Commission, which referred the case to the Justice Department for criminal action, had its decisions basically ignored. The law was plain and the evidence was clear, but the effect would have unacceptable to the present administration. What is the recourse in law when even your vote is not secure from attack and evidence of fraud is ignored?
The action of denial of adequate avenues of redress is in itself proof of damage deserving compensation, but when the very system that was created to address grievances is part of the violation of rights that is contested, what options are available?
Blocked Economic Access
“Your money’s no good here” is a saying that often is associated with friendship and graciousness, but for black Americans it represented a fact that defined the proscription of their access to the American Economy through the use of money. A study of the history of race reinforces the fact of the limited access of African Americans to the economy.
African Americans by law were not allowed to use their money to buy property where closed covenants existed. They could not spend money to stay in certain hotels, eat in certain restaurants, or ride on certain seats on buses and trains. Money didn’t and could buy admission to certain seats in movie theaters or circuses. Public parks were not fully public, access to swimming pools was almost non-existent. Of all these examples the first, the right to buy property was the most damaging.
While other ethnic groups were allowed free access to major growth areas of a city, as well as there own neighborhoods, blacks were limited by law and unable to fully pursue free enterprise. African Americans where channeled into limited labor markets or totally denied opportunities of economic participation. They often found themselves excluded from competing for contracts and gaining access to state and federal opportunities to become vendors. They were redlined from business loans and insurance. After years of exclusion from ownership and business opportunities, affirmative action has been virtually eliminated as a way to guarantee some participation by black owned businesses. These factors acted over time to reinforce community poverty and economic instability.
As they exist today, African American communities are essentially economic sieves. Money is constantly being drained from them to outside the communities. All the resources of black neighborhood flow outside the community through businesses that are owned by outsiders. The history of a lack of accesses to property, loans, and insurance all retard African American entrepreneurs’ development. The resulting low accumulation of resources within the community has served to institutionalize poverty within them.
Then there is the lack of adequate employment in the black community. This is especially acute in terms of individuals in management and supervision. From the beginning of this country there has been a question of the basic human potential of African Americans. Assumptions of inferiority and questions of the ability of blacks to perform with competency were, and in many instances still are, acceptable as reasonable standards for institutions and individuals to set in evaluating the lack of blacks in high-level or high tech positions.
When statistics clearly show that there is disproportionate lack of blacks, or any other minority, in any job there is a denial of the most likely cause, racism and a search for an alternative reason. The usual response has been to seek something in the excluded group that caused their lack of some fundamental quality. This approach ignores the primary source of this disparity, the continuing effect of the application of restrictive access to education an economic opportunity. The racism that caused the statistical imbalance is and has always been beneficial, to the white majority. The status quo, which maintains low accumulations of qualifications in the African American community, is a result of generations of exclusions with the only method of relief controlled by those who perpetrated the conditions.
Access to employment and promotion, lack of access to community ownership of business, are only part of the picture. Add the fact that access to quality education is a continuous problem, with many African Americans products of generations of under funded schools with inadequate resources. Even when black students managed to excel academically in spite of drawbacks, they have been held outside of many institutions for generations, first by laws, which totally excluded them from many professional programs, then by standards that required them to “prove” their qualifications using standards designed for others.
What is clear in a review of the actions of America over its history is that African Americans are the victims of what was in essence a separate, inferior access to economic opportunity. This channeled or denied access to opportunity was perpetrated and enforced by law and tradition creating and then maintaining community poverty and economic instability over generations. This poverty and instability in the African American community was, and still is, advantageous to White individuals and businesses and constitutes a type of restraint of trade. In the mainstream society this is a form of anti-trust and a cause for damages. However, it was the local, state, and federal governments of the United States that participated along with individuals, institutions, and businesses to deny African Americans full economic access! What relief is available when governments deny citizens the right to full economic participation?
Terrorism
September 11, 2001 exposed America as a nation to terrorism. Americans became aware of the effect of terrorist on even the most mundane of activities. Traveling on public transportation such as planes and buses, gathering in public places such as sporting events and concerts, and even handling and opening mail became the subject of security concerns. The effect on the economy and the general peace of mind of Americans was disrupted in a way that challenged our fundamental belief in our security and our right to be free from fear.
Yet in African American communities there is a history of terrorism that is part of every individual’s experience. From the end of slavery until the present Black Americans have been subjected to the activities terrorist. For almost a century following the end of the Civil War white groups and individuals openly spoke of their right to enforce a code of oppression. These same groups enforced their beliefs by acts of terrorism against African Americans, and did so with impunity. Over 500 African American men and women a year were the victims of lynching throughout the county during this period. Minor “crimes” such as being “disrespectful”, “not knowing your place”, or challenging the word of a white person could result in official and/or unofficial punishments.
In the South blacks were victims of outright discrimination and racism, and if wasn’t enough African Americans were forced to accept social subjugation. They were expected to accept the derogatory term “boy” as title for male adults, and address whites with Mr. and Mrs. Prefix followed by the first name. It was understood that the lack of use of this etiquette form by blacks was grounds for “corrective” actions. Consider that the simple act of exercising your freedom of speech could result in punishment up to death had a chilling effect on all forms of development. What made this even more terrorizing is that in almost all these cases there was no hope of protection from law enforcement.
No home, church, or school was secure from assault by white citizens who felt blacks were trying to change or question a life style they felt justified in fighting to conserve. Terror and violence against African Americans was so accepted that cruel jokes like calling Birmingham, Alabama “Bombingham” in recognition for the method of choice used by white supremacist to express their displeasure with Civil Rights Activist. Organizations such as the White Citizen’s Council and Klu Klux Klan maintained political power while at the same time perpetrating acts of terror against their enemies. But it wasn’t just in the South, in the North African Americans were targets of terror for actions such as buying a home in a White neighborhood., eating in certain restaurants, and socializing across the lines of race. Still today there are neighborhoods in America in which as a black person your life was on the line.
At the end of World War II there was a list of the four freedoms, one of them was Freedom From Fear, in this country African Americans have never know that as a fact. The primary keepers of the peace, the police, historically have acted in most cases as a reinforcement of the status quo. The status quo being blacks, particularly young men, were to be watched with suspicion.
In every city incidents involving police shootings of unarmed African American males are common. What is also consistent is the disturbing fact that there has seldom been reasonable accountability for these shootings. Police officers in questionable shootings are generally given little or limited examination. African Americans, particularly young men, are taught by experience to know that they are at jeopardy when approached by the police. Police have never been considered a friend to the black community. One thing that seems to be misunderstood is that the reason this is a fact is because the adage “protect and serve” never applied to African American communities. Police didn’t protect or serve the African American communities. On the contrary in most cases they were both the face of and the instrument of sanctioned oppression.
If you were to discount the impact of terrorism on the African American community, which would be a denial of fact backed by thousands of documented examples, there is still the case to be made for civil restitution. If O.J. Simpson can be found civilly liable to the sum of $36 million for the death of an individual he was found not guilty of murdering, what would be justice for 50,000 African Americans murdered by a society that treated their deaths with gross indifference? What would be a fair compensation for the actions of police departments which, not only allowed groups of citizens to be terrorized, but at times participated in terrorist acts against them?
There are thousands of documented cases that demonstrate both sanctioned and unsanctioned groups acted with impunity imposing terror on African Americans, their institutions, and their families. What is the value of the freedom from fear and what price would you place on those who denied this freedom from groups of their citizens?
Solutions
Slavery, while worthy of consideration as a reason for Reparations to African Americans is not the only reason or the best reason for considering such a civil judgment. Consider the yet lingering, institutionalized racism that has allowed the remnants of a way of life that relegates people to subordinate expectations based solely on their race continues to receive respect as a legitimate point of view. In a society where evidence of racism is dismissed as misinterpreted statistics, subjective evaluation, or reverse discrimination, what hope is there for a fair hearing of the case for Reparation?
The case for Reparations is worthy of boarder discussion than just slavery. It covers every area of life in America, and the nature of its institutions and their relationship to the African American community. Wealth in the White community has been supported by restriction of trade with and without formal support. Law in intent and application was unequal and separate. It was often a function of government to maintain a status quo that held African Americans and their interest in political and economic subordination. At the same time is it realistic for African Americans wanting a fair hearing on their grievances to be skeptical of the intent of mainstream America? While hearings on Reparations by a neutral party are logically justified, there isn’t any arbiter in America that can put forth a legitimate claim of neutrality. Why should African Americans trust any decision of that comes from the same people and system that enslaved them, oppressed them, denied them their rights, and still holds the concept of their equality in contempt?
Everyone has some stake in the outcome of what is potentially the greatest civil damage claim in the history of mankind. The issue of the economic impact of any monetary settlement in a Reparations case could change the shape of the American economy forever. In some minds Reparations for African Americans is not feasible for economic reasons alone. However, the cost of a fair settlement of the grievances of African Americans is more than money; it is the admission of a nation that it has been consistently wrong. The payment of Reparations would be an admission of national guilt that would have to be addressed by the United States on the world stage. The political and economic price of such an admission would cause repercussions that would have a fundamental effect on the every institution in the United States.
There is a need to review the evidence in an open court where a neutral party can determine the validity of the claims. If the evidence shows that a separate standard has been applied and that an advantage exists as a result, the law is clear. The demand for a hearing of the case is reasonable, and should be addressed with the respect due any civil action. The case should be judged on the merits of the evidence presented. Without regard to the time frame, if the evidence provided proves that a wrong has been committed, and then a finding of guilt must be established.
America has been guilty of crimes against African Americans, their families, and institutions, this the evidence does show. There has to be recognition of the damage that this evil history of oppression and terror has caused. In the end justice may never be completely served (there may be no way to adequately address the damages due) but a meaningful start would be the admission of guilt for the actions that established a separate inferior set of standards for treatment and expectations for African Americans. America must repudiate the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior, not just with words but also by its actions. Traditions and symbols that represent the history of oppression must be recognized for their racism and abandoned. It must also be recognize that many American “traditions” are part of a history that is based in whole or in part of institutionalized belief of the inherent inferiority of African Americans. It is this belief that created and maintained the negative political and economic situation of African American community. Until this fact is addressed there will be no racial peace in America.