reparations — Bunk History

Students at an Indian boarding school.

Acknowledgment as Denialism: The Myth of Reparations in the US

What is an apology from the President of the United States worth if reparations do not include cessation of settler colonial violence?

by Ja'loni Owens via Scalawag on December 11, 2024

Tourists at the Trinity site in New Mexico.

Trinity Fallout

The U.S. government’s failure to recognize nuclear Downwinders in New Mexico is part of a broader failure to reckon with the legacies of the Manhattan Project.

by Nora Wendl via Places Journal on June 18, 2024

Sticker showing the slogan: "Reparations Now!" and photo of Tulsa burning.

What’s Really at Stake in The Tulsa Race Massacre Reparations Trial

With over 100 lawsuits dismissed, a last-ditch effort is underway to force the city to put into legal record what happened after that day.

by Caleb Gayle via The Emancipator on May 21, 2024

Olivier Bancoult, center, the leader of the Chagos Refugee Group, stands on Capitol Hill with Roger Alexis, a Chagossian, left, and Philip Ah-Chuen, a Mauritian advisor to the group. They met last week with lawmakers to demand reparations and an apology for the forced removal of thousands of native inhabitants from the Chagos Islands in the 1960s and 1970s to make room for a U.S. military base.

They Were Deported to Build a U.S. Naval Base. Now They Want Reparations.

50 years after native inhabitants of the Chagos Islands were forced out to make room for a military base, a Chagossian leader came to D.C. seeking reparations.

by DeNeen L. Brown via Washington Post on October 8, 2023

Collage of newspaper clippings with three images of Japanese Americans.

What Reparations Actually Bought

The U.S. government’s redress program for Japanese Americans showed that the money matters. But it’s not the only thing that matters.

by Morgan Ome via The Atlantic on June 10, 2023

Image from cover of "Reconsidering Reparations"

Reconsidering Reparations

Reparations must be rooted in a political context that will safeguard rather than erode the gains they make towards justice.

by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò via LPE Project on February 21, 2023

Kris Manjapra standing outside by a wall. He examines the history of when slavery ended, emancipation laws kept the enslaved in bondage—and rewarded the enslavers.

How Slavery Ended Slowly, and Emancipation Laws Often Kept the Enslaved in Bondage

Tufts Professor Kris Manjapra examines the history of the injustice of abolition in the U.S. and abroad and the need for reparations in his new book.

by Taylor McNeil via TuftsNow on June 15, 2022

Graphic of money breaking the chains holding black hands.

There’s No Freedom Without Reparations

A movement to secure payments for descendants of enslaved people rages on.

by Fabiola Cineas via Vox on June 6, 2022

INTERIM ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES A map of slavery laws in the United States, from 1775 to 1865.

A Reckoning With How Slavery Ended

A new book examines the ways white slaveholders were compensated, while formerly enslaved people were not.

by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on April 15, 2022

A group of freedpeople with tools

What Is Owed

William Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen’s case for reparations.

by William P. Jones via The Nation on September 8, 2021

Evanston, Ill., Leads the Country With First Reparations Program for Black Residents

The $10 million initiative will provide housing and mortgage assistance to address discrimination.

by Mark Guarino via Washington Post on March 23, 2021

a pro-Trump protestor climbing scaffolding above a crowd

The Persistence of Hate In American Politics

After Charlottesville, the historian Joan Wallach Scott wanted to find out how societies face up to their past—and why some fail.

by Aryeh Neier via The New Republic on January 27, 2021

An illustration of Black men pulling a platform covered in trash and American symbols.

What Price Wholeness?

A new proposal for reparations for slavery raises three critical questions: How much does America owe? Where will the money come from? And who gets paid?

by Shennette Garrett-Scott via New York Review of Books on January 18, 2021

After Reparations

How a scholarship helped — and didn't help — descendants of victims of the 1923 Rosewood racial massacre.

by Robert Samuels via Washington Post on April 3, 2020

The Case for Reparations Is Nothing New

In fact, Black activists and civil rights leaders have been advocating for compensation for the trauma and cost of slavery for centuries.

by Mohammed Elnaiem via JSTOR Daily on February 27, 2020

Woman descended from enslaved people sold by Georgetown University.

Our Ancestors Were Sold to Save Georgetown. ‘$400,000 Is Not Going to Do It.’

The school has decided how much money we’re owed in reparations.

by Alexander Stockton via New York Times Op-Docs on February 6, 2020

Paintings of a line of people in darkness in chains behind a Black woman in the light receiving a diploma.

Slavery Reparations Seem Impossible. In Many places, They’re Already Happening.

At the local level, reparations for slavery are already being paid all over the country.

by Thai Jones via Washington Post on January 31, 2020

A Personal Act of Reparation

The long aftermath of a North Carolina man’s decision to deed a plot of land to his former slaves.

by Kirk Savage via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 15, 2019

The Tortured Logic of #ADOS

The American Descendants of Slavery movement combines a left-wing critique of America’s founding with a distinctly right-wing strain of xenophobia.

by Hubert Adjei-Kontoh via The Outline on November 21, 2019

An Early Case For Reparations

Two new books tell the stories of people kidnapped and sold into slavery. One of them sued successfully.

by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on October 16, 2019

The Black Woman Who Launched The Modern Fight For Reparations

Her grass-roots efforts shaped the conversation and presented a path forward.

by Ashley D. Farmer via Made By History on June 24, 2019

Paying for the Past: Reparations and American History

Reparations for African-Americans has been a hot topic on the presidential campaign trail, but the debate goes back centuries.

via BackStory on May 24, 2019

The History of Black Women Championing Demands for Reparations

It's a struggle that's been waged for centuries.

by Ana Lucia Araujo via HNN on May 19, 2019

The Consequences of Forgetting

The reparations struggle is about remembering that America was built on slavery, but also about fighting for all working people.

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via Jacobin on May 7, 2019

Elder M. Andrew Robinson-Gaither demonstrates for reparations for slavery.

The Centuries-Long Fight for Reparations

And how black activists won the support of Democratic candidates.

by Ana Lucia Araujo via Made By History on April 28, 2019

LBJ at his desk writing.

A Brief History of Slavery Reparation Promises

Several 2020 presidential candidates have called for reparations for slavery in the U.S.

by John Torpey via The Conversation on April 11, 2019

This Could Be the First Slavery Reparations Policy in America

Georgetown University students consider a fund to benefit descendants of 272 slaves sold by the school nearly two centuries ago.

by Jesús A. Rodríguez via Politico Magazine on April 9, 2019

Making Good on the Broken Promise of Reparations

Ignoring the moral imperative of repairing slavery's wounds because it might be “divisive” reinforces a myth of white innocence.

by Katherine Franke via New York Review of Books on March 18, 2019

Payback

For years, Chicago cops tortured false confessions out of hundreds of black men. Years later, the survivors fought for reparations.

by Natalie Y. Moore via The Marshall Project on October 30, 2018

A Reparations Map for Farmers of Color May Help Right Historical Wrongs

In an effort to address centuries of systemic racism, a new online tool seeks to connect Black, brown, and Indigenous farmers with land and resources.

by Andrea King Collier via Civil Eats on June 4, 2018

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