Reparations Resource Guide

Background

• "The Case for Reparations" Ta-Nehisi Coates The Atlantic, June 2014.
• “The Rise of the Reparations Movement” Martha Biondi, Radical History Review 87:5-18. (2003)
• WHYY: The Reparations Debate: Should the descendants of slaves be paid reparations by the federal government? Proponents of this idea say that the effects of slavery are still relevant today, and that the American government should provide some form of additional support to offset these disadvantages. Opponents either balk at the idea that slavery still affects African-American communities, or see the concept as an impractical political non-starter. The Democratic candidates for president are weighing in, many of whom have expressed interest in considering the idea. Today on the show, we’ll talk about reparations and the politics around them with Princeton assistant professor of African American studies KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR, and ADOLPH REED Jr., professor of political science and economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Racial Equity Tools for Community Reparations-This site provides links related to reparations and how they might be applied to remedy the consequences of enslavement and the subsequent disadvantages that have accumulated over time to people of color as a result of U.S. government policies.

International Institutions and Resources

• An Appeal to the World (1947). On October 23, 1947 W.E.B. DuBois, on behalf of the NAACP, presented this petition drafted by a group of historians and legal scholars to the United Nations. The petition described the major grievances of African Americans against the United States including their origins in the U.S. Constitution. The petition is considered one of the first organized efforts to focus on human rights issues within the United States.
• We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief From a Crime of The United States Government Against the Negro People (1951)
• World Conference Against Racism, Durban Declaration (2001)
• Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC)-In 2013 Caribbean Heads of Governments established the Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC) with a mandate to prepare the case for reparatory justice for the region’s indigenous and African descendant communities who are the victims of Crimes against Humanity (CAH) in the forms of genocide, slavery, slave trading, and racial apartheid.

National

• National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC)-NAARC’s Preliminary 10 Point Reparations Program-2015--A Document for Review, Revision and Adoption as a Platform to Guide the Struggle for Reparations for People of African Descent in the U.S.
• H.R.40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act
  • "Making Good on the Broken Promise of Reparationsby Katherine Franke, New York Review of books

Pittsburgh Organizing

Peoples Campaign for Reparations and Black Self-Determination- This Pittsburgh-based initiative is leading a series of community forums on this theme to help organize and build a Reparations Commission for Black residents of Pittsburgh. The Campaign is seeking a City Council resolution to establish a Commission to develop proposals for reparations for Black residents in our region, along with an official apology. It is working to build alliances among diverse groups in the city to build political will to address historical harms in order to realize justice and equity for Pittsburgh's Black community.