Ally Action Project Week 26: Studying Reparations

We wanted to take a closer look at the HR40 bill before Congress, as the year is winding down, this represents 31 years of not passing this bill and 158 years of denying former slaves and descendants any reparations. Other countries have attempted to compensate after atrocities. The Israeli government reported in 2005 that the cost of the Holocaust to the Jewish people was between $240B-$320B. Germany has paid over $80B in reparations as of 2012. South Africa offered $3900 to each victim of apartheid who testified to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2003. This represents $85M in reparations from SA.

America has paid reparations to the 120k Japanese-Americans after they were forced into internment camps in the US during WWII. Congress has granted reparations twice for this; the Japanese-American Claims Act of 1948 for $38M and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 for $1.6B.and various states have made payments for the practice of sterilizing citizens. Various America states have also paid for the practice of sterilizing citizens, for the Tuskegee experiment, and for the race riots in Rosewood, FL.

After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act paid reparations to slave owners, up to $300 per slave that was freed. The slaves and descendants have received nothing thus far. The abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison said 1833, “If compensation is to be given at all, it should be given to the outraged and guiltless slaves, and not to those who have plundered and abused them.”

The HR40 bill hopes to establish a commission to study and develop Reparation proposals for African-Americans as a result of slavery and the after effects. Educate yourself on the latest version of the HR40 bill that has been languishing in some form in Congress for 31 years.