[INDEX |
NATIONAL
|
WORLD
|
PERSPECTIVE
|
COLUMNS
|
MONEY
|
ENTERTAINMENT
|
HEALTH
|
TECH
|
LETTERS
|
SUBSCRIBE]
FinalCall.com News
National News
Activists undaunted at Kerry's opposition to reparations, launch petition drive to deliver million signatures to Congress
By James Muhammad
Updated May 10, 2004 - 6:50:00 PM
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Presidential candidate John Kerry may say he doesn't support reparations for slavery, but his position might change when the “street heat” of the reparations movement is applied, and when a million signatures of a newly launched petition drive is delivered to Congress, outraged organizers contend.
Responding to a student's question on the issue while speaking at Howard University recently, the Democratic Party's nominee said he opposes the idea of compensating Blacks for slavery because it might divide the nation and would “not heal any wounds.”
“I personally do not believe that America is going to advance if we go backwards and look to reparations in the way that some people are defining them,” he said.
The statement drew immediate reaction from Dr. Conrad Worrill, chair of the National Black United Front and co-convener with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Ndaba reparations process.
“What does he mean that it would divide the nation and not heal wounds?” Dr. Worrill asked. “Isn't America already divided over Iraq, over this country's unconditional support for Israel? America is divided on who to select for the next president. This is political rhetoric.
“But more offensive to Blacks should be that he wouldn't tell the Jewish community that he doesn't support reparations for them; he wouldn't tell gays he's against gay marriage. But he tells us he doesn't support reparations without even discussing it with us. We should be outraged.”
In a recent message at Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Min. Farrakhan told a national audience via the Internet that Blacks should consider holding their votes if the presidential candidates don't address the Black community's agenda.
Ajamu Sankofa, national secretary of NCOBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America), told The Final
Call that Mr. Kerry's statement is not surprising, in that rich liberal Whites have always felt comfortable in defining the agenda of Black people.
lot of the students cheered Kerry in general, and that's because we've been conditioned to accept the lesser of two evils,” Ms. Sankofa said. “We must continue to put pressure on the presidential candidates and those running for Congress. At the Democratic National Convention, the issue of reparations cannot be pushed off the table.”
Dr. Worrill said the Ndaba's recently launched grassroots effort to gather one million signatures of Blacks demanding reparations is gaining momentum and will culminate when the petitions are delivered to Congress days before the November presidential election.
The effort is reminiscent of an occasion in 1898 when activist Callie House delivered 600,000 signatures of Blacks and their supporters to Congress demanding “pensions” for former slaves and their descendants.
“The signing of petitions is important from a historical standpoint, but also in terms of where Blacks are today on the political
scene. Reparations is not a question of Republican versus Democrat. It's a question of what is in the best interest of Black people in America,” said Dr. Worrill.
Ndaba, meaning "big sit down," is the process by which a coalition of reparations organizations have recently been communicating to inform each other of their efforts and possible united strategies.
In addition to the petition drive, another strategy is to request written statements from presidential candidates on their position
on reparations, which Dr. Worrill said is still demanded, despite Mr. Kerry's “verbal dance” at Howard University.
He said the reparations movement is the natural result of the legacy of the unrelenting Black liberation struggle—from the anti-slavery movement to the movements against legalized segregation and for civil rights. The objectives of impacting the legislative and judicial branches of government to eradicate years of segregation under the law have been accomplished, he said, but the question of repair has never been answered. So, the issue becomes, what else should Blacks be pursuing, he commented.
“It is now believed that the unifying issue for Black people is the demand for repair, which involves the totality of what reparations mean,” he said, adding that there are two components to the process.
Internally, healing must take place from self-help initiatives and building and repairing institutions for economic, educational
and social advancement, he said, explaining that Jews finance their own institutions, are philanthropic and prepare rights of passage for their children, while at the same time demanding reparations for wrongs perpetuated against them.
Externally, a debt is owed for more than two centuries of working for free and another 100 years of racial discrimination under the law and the impact that has had on Blacks, he said.
“Why should we forget the millions lost in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the many more lost on plantations, and we're still being impacted by destabilization tactics by the government such as the influx of crack cocaine,” Dr. Worrill said. “The petition campaign is an organizing instrument for our people to participate in the process.”
The goal of Ms. House's grassroots “National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief Bounty and Pension Association” was to organize Black voices to force the government to provide pensions to ex-slaves and their families. The government came against Ms. House and others fighting for compensation for slavery, finally convicting her of fraud after a 10-year investigation.
Following her year-and-a-day jail term, Ms. House went on to fund “a class-action suit against the United States” in 1915, which eventually was dismissed.
“If in 1898 our people could amass 600,000 signatures to petition the government, it seems we should do no less today. This petition campaign is an organized instrument for our people to participate in the process,” Dr. Worrill said.
The petition can be obtained on the Internet at www.nbufront.org.
