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Symposium: The Reparations Question (July-August 1994 P&R Issue)

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A discussion of proposals for reparations to the black community for the injustices of slavery, and an alternative proposal.

Part One:

How to make white America comprehend and come to grips with the legacy of slavery? Is this a necessary precondition to dealing with, and perhaps ending, current institutionalized racism, segregated housing, school and employment patterns, and the prejudiced attitudes and behavior of individuals?

A deeply felt strand of thought and strategic thinking in at least a portion of the black community, and among some whites as well, holds that a program of systemic and large-scale reparations is an essential threshold step, for which precedents certainly exist in recent US and world history. On the other hand, the philosophical, political and practical problems of remedying past wrongs on the scale attributable to slavery, an institution that was formally and legally ended well over a century ago, are immense.

We decided to raise the reparations issue and its problems in the form of an interview with one of its leading proponents, economist Richard America. Accompanying our interview is a supportive commentary by Rep. John Conyers of Detroit, sponsor of a bill to study the legacy of slavery and propose remedies; and a strong but friendly dissent, with an alternative proposal, by Temple University sociologist Howard Winant.
— Chester Hartman

Part Two:

Our July/August issue had, as the lead article, an interview with economist Richard America, who has written about and advocated widely for reparations to the Black community for historical injustice and long-term disadvantaging effects of slavery. A supportive commentary by Congressman John Conyers (whose bill, H.R. 40, calls for a study of slavery’s legacy and recommentation of remedies) and a “friendly dissent” by Temple Univ. sociologist Howard Winant accompanied the interview.

We asked a number of social scientists and activists to comment on the issues raised in these contributions, and also indicated we would consider unsolicited responses from readers. Such commentaries appear below.

Part Three:

We offer five additional commentaries on the reparations issue. In our July/August issue we published, as our lead article, an interview with economist Richard America, who has written about and advocated widely for reparations to the Black community for the historical injustice and long-term disadvantaging effects of slavery. A supportive commentary by Congressman John Conyers (whose bill, H.R. 40, calls for a study of slavery’s legacy and recommendation of remedies) and a “friendly dissent” by Temple University Sociologist Howard Winant accompanied by an interview. We then, in our September/October issue, published commentaries by Wilson Riles, Jr., of the American Friends Service Committee, Joe Feagin / Hernan Vera of the University of Florida, Sharon Park of the Union Institute, Kalonji Olusegun of N’COBRA, David McReynolds of the War Resisters League, Bill Tidwell of the National Urban League, and Herbert Gans of Columbia University.

Here we are presenting a final set of commentaries, by PRRAC Board members Theodore Shaw of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and john powell of the University of Minnesota Law School, Jeanne Mirer of the National Lawyers Guild, John Tateishi, a key player in the successful Japanese-American reparations campaign, and Ronald Trosper of the National Indian Policy Center at George Washington University.

One additional item: At an October 17-18 University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute conference on “Race Relations & Civil Rights in the Post Reagan-Bush Era,” PRRAC Executive Director Chester Hartman moderated a panel on remedies, at which University of North Carolina economist William Darity presented an eloquent defense of the reparations concept; a copy of the text he read from may be available from Prof. Darity at the Economics Department, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC 27599