Summary


Reparations for African Americans is increasingly an issue for

consideration. The question of reparations dates back to the period of

reconstruction beginning with the proposal of 40 acres and a mule and has been

an ongoing issue ever since then. The idea is not new for African Americans,

many proposals have been made but not one has yet been established.

From a historical perspective, one looks at other groups of people who have

received reparations in the U.S., and wonders why African Americans who have

also suffered in history have not been considered. The U.S. has given reparations

to the victims of Kosovo, Nazi Holocaust, Native Americans, and Japanese

Americans. It is estimated that over 50 million Africans died in the slave trade:

Most died a gruesome death. The US has benefited from the 500 years of slavery



that Africans have worked picking cotton and planting tobacco, however,

ironically blacks can hardly get jobs with these companies today.

During the early 1920’s African American businesses were maliciously burned,

rioted and vandalized. Mobs gathered in black communities, killed many shop

owners and eventually the black economy fell. Unable to protect there

establishments blacks began to work for white employers under unjust treatment.

100 years after slavery in the late 40’s and 50’s African Americans still struggled

to find employment because of discrimination.

In the year 2002 African Americans still are discriminated against when it

comes to buying homes, cars, luxury items, and applying for jobs. Racism is seen

everyday in communities and in the school systems. It can be determined that

African Americans from a historical perspective have not benefited from their

free labor, yet it is obvious that America has.