Perspective: The centuries-long fight for reparations
Melisande Colomb, 63, is a descendant of slaves sold by the Jesuits to fund a struggling Georgetown University. By Ana Lucia Araujo Ana Lucia Araujo is a professor of history at Howard University, and author most recently of"Reparations for Slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History." April 28 at 6:00 AM Nearly five years ago, Georgetown University students brought to light an unexpected event associated with the university’s history.
Collective calls for reparations emerged at the end of the 19th century, when it became clear that the post-Civil War attempts to redistribute land to former slaves and ensure full citizenship would not be accomplished. Thousands of former slaves gathered around the country to demand that Congress pass a bill providing them with pensions. But the movement was not successful.
One such group was the Republic of New Africa. Founded in Detroit, its president was the author and civil rights leader Robert Franklin Williams, who had been head of a North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and the author of the influential book “Negroes With Guns.
The document’s arguments requested that white Christian churches and Jewish synagogues pay a total of $500 million in financial reparations. According to the manifesto, the churches and synagogues were part of a capitalist system that made their wealth based on the exploitation of black people.
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