Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001
Black Activists Discuss Reparations
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Black Americans seeking reparations for the enslavement of their ancestors are looking for more than money, one man contributing to a government study said Friday.
``Reparation is not necessarily the question of monetary return,'' Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National Black United Front, said at a conference at one of the nation's oldest historically black universities.
``Reparation means repair _ repairing our minds, our spirits, our institutions, and our families.''
Worrill was among 100 people from across the country who came to Fisk University for a conference held by he Race Relations Institute. The institute hopes to get Congress to study the impact slavery has had on generations of blacks.
``I don't care if we win or not,'' Worrill said. ``All I want to do is get into court. Then it will start something in this country and get in the minds of our people.''
The government issued formal letters of apology and $20,000 in reparations to Japanese-Americans interred during World War II, but Congress has repeatedly balked at proposals for reparations to blacks whose ancestors were kept in slavery.
Referring to reparations made to Holocaust victims, Worrill said, ``We've learned something from the Jewish people, and we'll never forget what happened to us.''
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has called for a commission to examine slavery's legacy and possible compensation during each of the last 12 congressional sessions.
Nashville is among about a dozen cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Dallas, Washington, and Baltimore, that have urged Congress to pass Conyers' bill this year.
Remo Circo, a retired history teacher and one of about 40 whites at the conference, said he might agree to reparations but believes ``there are other less divisive things that can be done to improve race relations.''
He suggested funding programs that encourage education and family responsibility.
``For white people, it hits a raw nerve. African-Americans are seen as a threat, unlike American Indians or the Japanese. (Whites) are angry because we remind them of what their ancestors did long ago,'' said Ray Winbush, chairman of the Race Relations Institute.
The Fisk conference follows the first National Reparations Convention, held two weeks ago in Chicago.
Some activists there called for free financial aid, education and medical care with no taxes for the next half century. One suggested million-dollar payments for blacks who want to leave the country. A group of attorneys also discussed plans for a class-action lawsuit in pursuit of reparations.
Enslavement of Africans in America began in the early 1600s and continued until the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865. Newly freed slaves were promised 40-acre parcels and the loan of a federal mule in 1865, but President Andrew Johnson went back on the pledge.