Forty acres and a mule? Conyers reintroduces bill for reparations
By HERBERT L. WHITE
CONSOLIDATED MEDIA GROUP
v Forty acres and a mule haS
never been so controversial.
The idea of reparations for
people of African descent is a
hot-button issue not only atnong
African Americans but among
all Americans.
Next week, the National
Coalition of Blacks for Repara
tions in America will meet in St.
Louis for a national conference
, that could determine the tone of
the reparations debate. N'CO
BRA is one of the leadinlg advo
cates of reparations. Although
the U.S. government has yet to
even publicly apologize for slav
ery or its effects on African
Americans, more blacks are
weighing the prds and cons of
reparations. Seventy percent of
African Americans favor repara
tions, according to a poll con
ducted by the National Ne\*spa
per Publishers Association, a
trade group representing black
newspapers in the United States.
"More people are becoming
aware," said Melodye Micere
Stewart, co-chair of N'COBRA's
Charlotte chapter. "That's the
key. As the community becomes
informed, we can make an
informed decision."
America has made repara
tions in the past. Japanese Amer
icans were compensated for
internment in prison camps in
World War II, and native peoples
have been given land and tax
exemptions under terms of
treaties signed between their
leaders and the government.
Black i survivors of the Rose
wood, Fla., massacre of 1923
received compensation for their
suffering at the hand of whites
who destroyed the mostly-blatck
town. Earlier this year, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
reached a S350 million settle
ment with black farmers for
years of discrimination. As a
group whose labor helped build
the U.S. economy without pay
and bore the burden of racism,
reparations is an idea whose time
has come, said Robert Brock, a
Washington. D.C. attorney who
has represented U.S. slave
descendants in lawsuits against
the government and Internal
Revenue Service.
"The wealth of America is
our legal property," he said, "but
we must make our legal claims to
get money as others have made
their claims and gotten money."
That wouldn't work, says
D a vy i d
Aimasi,
director of
Project 21, a
black con
servative
consortium.
The cost of
compensat
ing millions
of Africans
and their
descendants
would be counterproductive fis
cally and socially.
"It's a rather silly idea that'll
produce more animosity than it's
worth," Almasi said. "It's an idea
that should've been considered
(when slaves were freed after the
Civil War). We can extend the
hand of friendship and under
standing, but we can't consider
reparations."
Members of the Congression
al Black Caucus want the gov
ernment to at least study the
idea. Rep. John Conyers, D
Mich., has introduced a bill that
would fund a reparations study
commission. The bill, which has
been introduced every year since
1989, has failed to win much
support outside the caucus, but
Conyers remains optimistic.
"The time is ripe now to push
for a galvanizing of national
efforts to put the reparations
movement and H.R. 40 at the
top of the American agenda," he
said. "The president's recent ini
tiatives on American race rela
tions underscore the longstand
ing domestic imperative of heal
ing and repairing the suffering
from the legacy of slavery and its
continuing effects on African
Americans today."
N'COBRA and the NAACP
also back the bill, which will be
discussed in St. Louis as a pre
cursor to an international forum
in Ghana in August.
"There'll be studies, but the
entire black world should get
reparations," Stewart said.
"Politically, if that person is
black in the way they're treated -
like being stopped for driving
while black - they should be eli
gible."
N'COBRA, which is out to
recruit 1 million new members,
stresses that reparations aren't
necessarily about money. Free
health care, education and tax
exemptions could also be part of
the deal. Another progressive
group, the Moorish Movement,
insists that the Emancipation
Proclamation signed by Presi
dent Lincoln in 1863 is only one
of three provisions for the newly
freed slaves. In addition to free
dom, the Moors say Lincoln pro
vided a congressional represen
tative for every 30,000 African
Americans, property in what is
now the U.S. Midwest and $100
for every U.S. slave in 1863 -
about 4 million - paid at 6 per
cent interest beginning in 1900.
The cost to the American gov
ernment, needless to say, would
be astronomical.
"Where would the U.S. gov
ernment find the money to pay
everybody," Almasi said. "Our
country would be bankrupt in
months. It would decimate our
system by all the people who
would immigrate here to take
advantage of reparations."
Stewart is amazed that some
blacks oppose reparations much
like the 1950s and '60s when
African Americans questioned
the wisdom and methods of civil
rights. Once legal discrimination
was abolished, everyone benefit
ed, which she says woqld likely
happen if blacks are compensat
ed.
"They're going to be the first
folk to get iivhtje/to get theirs,"
Stewart said. "There'll always be
those naysayers who say we
should be picking cotton or be in
segregated sections."
Conymr*
Briefs
from page A2
P
serious cereal pest in southern
Somalia, threatens the entire crop
of the main "Gu" season. This
crop is still at a yourig stage.
The report of the Food Securi
ty Assessment Unit of the World
Food Program and the Food and
Agriculture Organization warns
?<* of major food shortage in Soma
lia if the invasion is not stopped.
The worm outbreak was first
reported ip late April in Rwanda
and Burundi, followed by Kenya,
Uganda and Tanzania. The
worms have destroyed thousands
of hectares of cereal crop in these
countries.
"Should a serious outbreak
occur in Somalia, given the
absence of a government, there
would be no time available for the
international community to orga
nize and latrhch interventions
before irrevocable damage, poten
tially of a very large scale, occurs
to the 1999 Gu season crop," the
FSAU report says. - Judith
Achieng for IPS
Renowned saxophonist dies
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -
Ernie Wilkins, an American-born
composer and saxophonist who
played with Count Basie, Dizzy
Gillespie and Lionel Hampton,
died Saturday of a stroke. He was
79.
Born Ernest Brooks Wilkins
Jr. in St. Loitis, he got his big
break in 1951 when trumpeter
Clark Terry recommended him to
Count Basie.
In the late 1950s, Wilkins
joined Dizzy Gillespie's band, and
later went on to write for Tommy
Dorsey and Lionel Hampton.
Though Wilkins won wide
acclaim for arranging and com
I
posing, he never lost his love for
playing sax. In the 1960s, he and
Terry recorded "One Foot in the
Gutter," which features a four
minute solo by Wilkins.
Wilkins moved to Copen
hagen in 1980 and started his own
orchestra, Ernie Wilkins and His
Almost Big Band.
He also was guest conductor
with several other bands. The list
of musicians he worked with
included Earl Hines, Sonny
Rollins, Milt Jackson, Sarah
Vaughn, Lena Home and Quincy
Jones.
Wilkins retired in 1991 after
suffering a stroke.
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Associated Press
photo by Doug Mills
Praiidant Clinton
moott with Mitt
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National Quoon
Soteily Conoy of
Ctfrttdmn, N.J., in tho
Roto Gordon of tho
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and vidoo-gamo
makort to "thow
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to markot thoir
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