I submitted my final Spring 2023 term paper yesterday – hooray! It is titled “Reparations for African Americans, Next Steps” for “HSCE 5101: Examining the Case for Reparations for African Americans.” This class was led by Professors Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins, III and Dr. Ronald D. Burris of Berkeley School of Theology, at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. The 19 page paper begins:
“This is a shifting time of change in the potential for reparations to African Americans, especially where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the last few months, the governments of the State of California and the City and County of San Francisco have both been considering major financial reparations proposals on which legislation may be developed, with details being discussed almost daily in both the progressive and conservative news media. One group wrote on the California task force, ‘In addition to remedying the lingering effects of slavery, the report seeks to compensate black Californians for five categories of harms: housing discrimination, mass incarceration, unjust property seizures, and the devaluation of black businesses and health care.’ Other cities and states have made the national news discussing or acting on reparations, and a national bill supporting reparations has just been submitted in the U.S. Congress. In introducing this new legislation calling for $14 trillion in reparations, Representative Cori Bush said, ‘The United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people.’
Despite the inherent lack of perspective in responding to very current events, in this paper I present four well known reparations cases and then propose next steps to achieve practical and sustainable reparations for African Americans. The course of action I propose will be based on some of the work that is already being done, as well as addressing gaps where more efforts are needed.”
The World War I poster above (“Colored Man is No Slacker“) is from my mother’s art collection, in the Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson Charitable Art trust – and is mentioned in my paper.
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