| Site Index:  Bottom |
Chronologically (newest stories appear first): Be sure to also see More Reparations Facts and News at the bottom of this page. |
Back: Main Reparations Page |
Judge dismisses slavery lawsuit (01/27/04) [Excerpted from the AP story as printed in the Washington Times 01/27/04]
"The lawsuit names companies such as the Lehman Brothers brokerage firm, Aetna Insurance and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, saying they or their corporate ancestors made money off slavery. ... "Andrew McGaan, an attorney representing Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., one of the defendants, said he was 'not surprised at all that the court decided to dismiss.' "He said the judge had agreed 'with what appears to be every ground that we raised.' "... [District Court Judge Norgle] said long-standing doctrine in matters involving political questions 'bars the court from deciding the issue of slavery reparations, an issue that has been historically and constitutionally committed to the legislative and executive branches of our government' "As for the timing, he said, the plaintiffs had failed to show how the wrongs cited in the lawsuit fall within the statute of limitations. ..." Last known link: Reparations Clangor (06/14/01) [From Washington Times Commentary by Walter Williams Sunday, June 14, 2001] "Today, there are increasing numbers of black professionals and scholars advocating reparations for slavery. "Slavery was an abomination. There´s no argument, based on morality, that can justify slavery and its attendant evils. Indeed, were it possible, slave traders and slave owners should be forced to make reparations to those whom they enslaved. A similar case cannot be made for reparation payments to slave descendants. Williams writes that the main argument for "reparations", known as the "vestiges of slavery" argument, is frequently offered as an explanation of "the pathology seen in some black neighborhoods" and that the "vestiges" argument "is simply nonsense when you think about it." Williams goes on: "Illegitimacy among blacks today is 70 percent. Only 41 percent of black males 15 years and older are married, and only 36 percent of black children live in two-parent families. These and other indicators of family instability and its accompanying socioeconomic factors such as high crime, welfare dependency and poor educational achievement is claimed to be the legacy and vestiges of slavery, for which black Americans are due reparations." Williams examines this assumption, below:
Author Williams then writes: "The question raised by these historical facts is: If what we see today in many black neighborhoods, as claimed by reparation advocates, are the vestiges and legacies of slavery, how come that social pathology wasn´t much worse when blacks were just two or three generations out of slavery [as cited above]?" Williams writes: "I doubt whether the reparations gang could develop a coherent theory" explaining why black crime rates today are so much higher, and the rates of two-parent black families is so much lower 35 years after the Civil Rights Act and 35 years after Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. Williams also notes that the War on Poverty, and all it's federally mandated payments, has to date cost the American taxpayer over $6 trillion dollars. Writer Williams concludes by noting that reparations advocates are demanding that these supposedly "compensatory" funds be put into a large account which they (the reparations advocates) will disburse. Of this, Williams says: "For me, that has just as much appeal as the Rev. Leroy´s call for people to send their money to him and he´ll send it to God." [Last known link: http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20010614-97533980.htm] Linda Chavez (05/29/01) [Linda Chavez is the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, and was recently denied the job of George W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor because she helped an immigrant woman and her family. She is a frequent commentator on issues such as racial preferences, especially in education.] "If it were possible to wipe out the legacy of slavery by writing a big, fat check, I'd be all for it. ... Imagine, a one-time payment that would solve family breakdown, poverty and homicide among young, black males. ... It's just more of the same liberal cure-all: Let government redistribute money from one group to try to solve the problems of another. "... the real impetus behind the reparations campaign is the grievance industry -- that group of professional guilt-mongers who hope to enrich themselves by claiming to represent the downtrodden. "... 140,000 Union soldiers died to expiate slavery, so to suggest that no white Americans ever suffered for the sins of slavery is simply wrong. "... Paying the descendants of slaves a monetary settlement today, more than 135 years after slavery ended, will do nothing. Nor is it possible to determine who should receive payments and who should pay them. Some African Americans are descended from persons who came to the United States long after slavery was abolished, including the thousands of Haitians, Dominicans and other Caribbean immigrants of the last 30 years. These person's ancestors may have been slaves in their native land, but should the United States have to pay for the sins of all slave-owning nations? "More importantly, why should Americans whose ancestors did not benefit from slavery, or who may not even have lived in the United States at the time slavery existed, have to pay for these sins? Indeed it is a new variation on punishing the sons for the sins of the fathers to insist that all whites who live in the United States today must compensate all blacks who happen to live here now. Most whites are not descended from slave-owners. Nor are they the beneficiaries of ill-begotten gains from slavery..." [Last known link: http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/chavez.htm] S.F. State newspaper won't run ad on reparations (03/28/01)
"Golden Gate Xpress editors voted 14-7 Monday to reject the advertisement by columnist David Horowitz. Horowitz's ad argues, among other things, that no one group is responsible for slavery and that blacks should be grateful that Americans warred to end the slave trade. This week's vote came after weeks of debates. "Editors were mindful of the uproar the ad caused on other college campuses, including protesters storming newsrooms at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and stealing papers from news racks at Brown University. At UC Berkeley, the editor recently apologized for running the ad. Earlier this month, someone stole all newspaper ads from a San Francisco State editor's mailbox, leaving behind a vague threat and calling the staff racist. Horowitz, considered a political provocateur, sent the ad to 52 college campuses nationwide; at least 27 have rejected it. "I don't feel it's censorship not to run the ad. It's censorship if we ignore what he's saying," said Niema Quiet, the paper's features editor. Nic Roethlisberger, a student reporter who couldn't vote on the issue, accused editors of bowing to public pressure. "People are cowering. They're afraid of being labeled" racists, he said...." (Based on the 3/28/01 story by Kim Vo of the San Jose Mercury News) [Last known link http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/education/stories/sjslavead_20010328.htm ]Brown University Newspaper Reprinted Over Student Protest (03/18/01)
Brown Daily Herald editor Patrick Moos said "It's not our place to decide which political views can be published in the paper. We want to publish everyone's views." "In a statement today, Brown interim president Sheila Blumstein backed the paper's decision to run the ad and said the theft would be investigated. She urged students to avoid a greater confrontation. "The full-page ad is headlined "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea and Racist Too." "At a meeting on Thursday with the student coalition, the [Brown University] paper's management said it would not give the groups a free page of advertising as demanded, and it refused a request to donate to a campus minority fund the $725 paid by Horowitz. "The next day, angry students began removing the free paper from newsstands. They also went to the newspaper's office to try to take the remaining 100 copies of the paper but were rebuffed. That prompted the paper to seek help from police in distributing reprinted editions of the paper today." (Excerpted from the AP story in the Washington Post Sunday, March 18, 2001; Page A08.)[Last known link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20683-2001Mar17.html ] Coalition seizes nearly 4,000 copies of Herald (posted 03/17/01)
The quota-coalition's statement read as follows: "We are using this action as an opportunity to show our community at Brown that our newspaper is not accountable to its supposed constituents," the flier read. "It is a newspaper run by Brown-student opportunists and careerists who are completely unaccountable to the University's aims and its student body." … "This is the worst possible thing the coalition could have done, both to themselves and to free discourse at the University," said Carl Takei '02, president of the Brown ACLU. "I am saddened and very upset with their actions." "Stealing the paper isn't conducive to a constructive dialogue, which is what we need right now," said Megan Zwiebel '03, secretary of the Brown ACLU. The seizure of the newspapers came in response to a controversial advertisement The Herald printed in its March 13 issue. The ad was purchased by David Horowitz, the president of the conservative Center for the Study of Popular Culture and the author of "Hating Whitey." The ad lists 10 reasons why Horowitz feels the payment of monetary reparations for slavery is a bad idea. Horowitz sent the ad to 46 other college newspapers, and his campaign has received national press in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, among others." [Last known link: http://www.browndailyherald.com/stories.cfm?S=0&ID=4192]Student group coalition protests decision to publish Horowitz ad (posted 03/17/01) By Andy Golodny Herald Staff Writer -- "A coalition of some 15 campus groups met with editors and business staff of The Brown Daily Herald Thursday night to demand the newspaper compensate them for publishing a controversial advertisement. The meeting came after some 60 students visited The Herald's offices Wednesday night to demand to speak with The Herald's leadership. Thursday night's meeting was called to discuss the concerns members of the coalition had with The Herald's decision to run an advertisement opposing slavery reparations." [Last known link: http://www.browndailyherald.com/stories.cfm?S=2&ID=4172] Protest targets ad in Brown University newspaper (posted 03/17/01)
5.34 a.m. ET (1329 GMT) March 17, 2001 BOSTON (AP) -- "Brown University
students stole the entire press run of an issue of the Brown Daily Herald in an apparent
protest of an ad that appeared in an earlier issue denouncing reparations for slavery.
Herald staff members Thursday physically restrained a mob of students who tried to force
their way into the newspaper's office and destroy the remaining 100 copies of the paper
that carried the ad. … The newspaper issued a statement Thursday about its actions.
"We understand that the advertisement contains content that some may find
disconcerting,'' the statement said. "But we will not apologize for printing a
legitimate advertisement that may offend some of our readership.'' … "I think
there's a fine line between free [Last known link: http://www.foxnews.com/national/0317/d_ap_0317_26.sml] Protest rips ad in Brown paper (posted 03/17/01)
By Shannon Tan, Globe Correspondent, 3/17/2001 PROVIDENCE -- "Angry students stole
the entire press run of yesterday's Brown Daily Herald, escalating a fiery debate over the
student daily's publication on Tuesday of an advertisement denouncing reparations for
African-Americans. Herald staffers physically restrained a mob of students who tried to
force their way into the daily's newsroom to destroy the remaining 100 copies of
yesterday's paper. As the protesters pounded on the [Last known link: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/076/nation/Protest_rips_ad_in_Brown_paper+.shtml] Debate Rages Over College Papers' Decisions To Run Anti-Slavery Reparations Ad (03/07/01)
"Students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison marched to the office of the Badger Herald, denouncing the paper as a "racist propaganda machine" for running an ad paid for by conservative columnist David Horowitz titled "10 Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea — and Racist, Too." "This week's protests followed similar actions at campuses in California last week. The Daily Californian, the student paper at the University of California at Berkeley, apologized on its front page for running the ad after protestors removed papers from racks across campus and staged a heated protest at the paper's offices. The part Horowitz's ad that really incensed the quota-sympathizers pointed out two facts that the racial lobby does not want known: (a) blacks in America have the highest standard of living of any descendants from Africa in the entire world; and (b) blacks in America have already received trillions of dollars in the form of racial quotas, job preferences, contract set-asides, and welfare benefits. Associated Press reports that Mr. Horowitz tried to run the ad in 21 college papers but only four believed enough in free speech to accept the ad. Minority students and their sympathizers in California, Wisconsin and on other campuses were "offended" by the facts presented in Mr. Horowitz's ad, describing it as "hate speech". The editors of the papers which ran the ad have been branded as racists and bigots by the student racial lobbyists. The editor of the Daily Californian, a minority himself, completely caved in to the racial lobbyists. AP quotes editor Hernandez as saying that running the ad made his paper into "an inadvertent vehicle for bigotry". Horowitz chastised the paper for censorship and for retreating from principles of free speech. (Based on the AP story as published by FoxNews) [Last known link http://www.foxnews.com/national/030701/slave_reparations.sml ] Connerly Criticizes Berkeley for Refusing Anti-Reparations Advertisement (03/08/01)
"To censor David Horowitz’s ad against slavery reparations as a form of "bigotry" is as ominous as the accusations of "Communism" which were often used to intimate and silence unpopular opinion a half century ago. (By the way, I happen to agree with Mr. Horowitz’s position on reparations, which is shared by millions of Americans.) ... while I don't necessarily agree with all of [Horowitz's] points of contention, there is nothing in the ad that offends the First Amendment so much that the Daily Cal has to cave in to a bunch of racial extortionists and become apologists for exercising freedom of the press." -- Signed: Ward Connerly" (Excerpted from FrontPageMag.Com 03/08/01 letter by Ward Connerly) [Last known link http://frontpagemag.com/columnists/connerly/wc03-08-01.htm ] Lawyers planning suit for African-American slave reparations (11/04/00)** (Associated Press) — "A powerful group of civil rights and class-action lawyers who have won billions of dollars in court is preparing a lawsuit seeking reparations for American blacks descended from slaves. "The project, called the Reparations Assessment Group, was confirmed by Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree and appears to be the most serious effort yet to get American blacks compensated for 244 years of legalized slavery. Lawsuits and legislation dating back to the mid-1800s have gone nowhere. "We will be seeking more than just monetary compensation,'' Ogletree said. "We want a change in America. We want full recognition and a remedy of how slavery stigmatized, raped, murdered and exploited millions of Africans through no fault of their own.'' "Ogletree said the group, which includes famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, first met in July and will hold its fourth meeting in Washington D.C. later this month. "This country has never dealt with slavery. It is America's nightmare. A political solution would be the most sensible but I don't have a lot of faith that's going to happen. So we need to look aggressively at the legal alternative,'' Ogletree said. Harvard's ultra-liberal Charles Ogletree indicated that the group's lawsuit will be directed against the federal government, state governments, corporations, and other institutions that allegedly have benefited from slave labor. "Ogletree said the Reparation Assessment Group includes attorneys [Johnnie] Cochran and Alexander J. Pires Jr., who won a $1 billion settlement for black farmers who claimed discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Richard Scruggs, who won the $368.5 billion settlement for states against tobacco companies; Dennis C. Sweet III, who won a $400 million settlement in the "phen-fen'' diet drug case; and Willie E. Gary, who won a $500 million judgment against the Loewen Group Inc., the world's largest funeral home operators. "Also in the group is Randall Robinson, president of the TransAfrica Forum, a think tank specializing in African, Caribbean and African-American issues. Robinson recently wrote the book "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks,'' which argues for reparations." Supporters of the reparations boondoggle cite recent, largely irrelevant, noncomparable cases where groups have been compensated in cash for discrimination by governments. For example, the Reparations Support Group cites the $20,000 award granted by the U.S. to the Japanese-Americans who were interred in concentration camps in the U.S. during World War II. Reparations advocates fail to acknowledge that the Japanese-Americans who received the $20,000 award were direct "still living" victims of the government's discrimination. This is not the case in the proposed "slavery reparations" debacle. Many generations -- and trillions of dollars in welfare payments and minority set-asides and racial preferences in the U.S. -- have already been awarded to "blacks" in this country.
Many citizens and politicians also argue that it isn't fair for taxpayers and corporations
who never owned slaves to be burdened with possible multibillion dollar settlements. (AP,
via FoxNews, based on the Associated Press story 11/04/00 by Paul Shepard) The Coming Reparations Boondoggle (0619/00) Despite the lunacy of the idea, reparations are on the way. "Should we pay money damages -- reparations for slavery -- to today's African-Americans? At first glance, such a massive redistribution of wealth seems like nothing more than any other crackpot scheme that will go nowhere -- but this movement is steadily gaining ground. The cities of Detroit, Cleveland, and Dallas have officially endorsed slavery restitution, and the Chicago City Council last month passed a resolution urging Congress to push forward with reparations. "... Detroit Rep. John Conyers has vowed that reparations will be the first legislative item he will pursue if Democrats regain the House this fall. Conyers, who has introduced reparations bills every year since 1989, is the ranking member on Judiciary and will become its Chairman if the elections go south for the GOP. "Grassroots groups are also quickly organizing across the country. The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), a lobbying umbrella group with dozens of local chapters, has drafted a blueprint for federal "down payments" on reparations that they plan to move through the courts and congressional legislation. [In this paragraph, author Brett M. Decker uses sarcasm in referring to the 'racist nature of criminal justice' in this country.] "Because black criminality is the fruit of a white conspiracy throughout history to keep persons of color down, Lewis's group demands the release of all "political prisoners" jailed for activities while members of the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, or any other black-separatist group. "But none of these questions really matter because political power, rather than justice, is the name of this game. The reparations movement has powerful friends. During the Democratic primary debate at Harlem's Apollo Theater last February, Vice President Al Gore and his then-opponent Bill Bradley flatly refused to condemn reparations when the issue was posed. The jam-packed auditorium hooted and hollered its support when the issue was broached.
"All this marks a significant turnaround for the civil-rights movement. Once
dedicated to constructing a so-called color-blind society, many minority groups now seem
not only content with racial separation but actually seem determined to exacerbate the
racial divide for years into the future. After all, reparations would hardly bring the
country together." (National Review, 06/19/00 by Brett M. Decker, editor of the
American Sentinel) Reparations is a hot topic, but no dollars in sight (06/15/00) "Several hundred blacks will gather in Washington this weekend to plot strategy for reparations, a hot topic among some black activists. They want the government to pay them for injuries they say they suffer as a legacy of slavery, which ended 135 years ago. "It's an example of white supremacy and the climate it has created," says Dorothy Lewis, co-chairman of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. The group is hosting the 11th annual Reparations Conference and expects between 300 and 400 people at Howard University. "The conference dovetails with a Sunday rally at the Lincoln Memorial that is themed "The Final Chapter in Black Reparations," the last of five such events that have been held in Florida and Texas. "History may not be kind to such arguments. Historians note that forced servitude has at one time included all races; indeed, the slave catchers in Africa were black and a few blacks owned slaves in America, and many whites came to America as indentured servants, which was little more than a form of slavery that many such servants never escaped. "History is filled with injustices, and if we want to track every one down and, Clinton-like, beat our breasts and apologize, we can," says Myron Magnet, an editor of the urban policy publication City Journal and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. "Or we can focus on the fact that we succeeded in expunging the stain of slavery from our society and passed the heroic Civil Rights Act of 1964, and opened society. To me, the reparation mongers are making themselves part of the problem." "... Others put fanciful dollar amounts on reparations, ranging up to $1.6 trillion, citing [inaccurately] as precedents reparations paid to Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II, or the Indian tribes who received $1.3 billion for land taken from them. "... But even many blacks oppose the very idea of reparations. Some scorn those who seek a payoff. "Thomas Sowell, an economist, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and a newspaper columnist, argues that reparations are based on revisionist history, and "anyone who wants reparations based on history will have to gerrymander history very carefully. Otherwise, practically everybody would owe reparations to practically everybody else."
"Short of establishing racial-classification boards, such as those in South Africa
during apartheid, there might be no conclusive way to determine eligibility for the
payoffs. Since few slaves were legally married, Americans regarded as white might claim a
slave ancestor, and disproving such a claim could be difficult." (Washington
Times, 06/15/00, by Steve Miller) Group seeks reparation for slavery (06/13/00) "WASHINGTON -- Despite stiff opposition and 13 years of failed efforts, a group is continuing to press the federal government to pay trillions of dollars to blacks to compensate them for what it calls the lingering effects of slavery. "... The Washington D.C.-based group contends that the federal government owes about $8 trillion to the descendants of slaves. "The 13-year-old coalition ... plans to raise its profile beginning today with a seven-day conference in the nation's capital and a rally on the National Mall this weekend. "Despite what the coalition calls newfound momentum for its cause, the likelihood that Congress will approve any reparations money -- let alone $8 trillion -- appears slim. "Federal lawmakers have not even acted on a relatively benign piece of legislation that calls for the creation of a seven-member commission simply to study the issue of compensating descendants of slaves. "... It is for the memories of our ancestors, the quality of the lives of the living and the destiny of the still unborn that we work diligently to close this chapter of history in a just way, giving voice not only to the wrong but to the remedy," the coalition says in a mission statement. "... Robinson added that he does not hold living white Americans responsible for slavery, noting that none has legally kept slaves and most abhor that the practice ever existed. "... The coalition, in defense of its request for compensation, noted that the federal government in 1988 issued a formal apology and paid $20,000 each to Japanese-Americans taken from their homes and held in internment camps during World War II from 1941 to 1945. Descendants of the centuries-old American slave trade, which flourished from 1619 to 1865, are as deserving of compensation, the group said. "Not so, countered Stanford University professor Clayborne Carson. The Japanese-Americans compensated under the 1988 Civil Liberties Act were people who actually suffered the indignity of being uprooted in the name of national security following Japan's 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. But the slave descendants seeking recompense are many generations removed from their relatives who toiled under the lash, the U.S. history professor said.
"... At the conclusion of its conference June 20, the coalition said it intends to
file a lawsuit against the federal government to recover compensation for descendants of
slaves." (Houston Chronicle, 06/13/00 by Steve Lash) Additional News Links and Background: OLDER Reparations Stories Johnny Reb, A Game of Racial Envy
(FrontPagemag.com/June 7, 2000) Robert A. George, David Fights the Racial
Goliath: Salon's House Provocateur, (National Review/June 2, 2000) Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Debt Wrong: David
Horowitz is Incorrect. It's Time for the United States to Pay Up for Slavery
(Salon.com/June 5, 2000) David Horowitz, Reparations Are Still a
Bad Idea: Reply to Earl Ofari Hutchinson, (FrontPageMag.com/June 5, 2000) David Horowitz, Ten Reasons Why
Reparations for Blacks are a Bad Idea for Blacks, and Racist Too (FrontPageMag.com/June 5,
2000) END Reparations NEWER Summaries and Links |
| Reparations: More Historic Facts Against Reparations | Reparations: NEWER Summaries and Links | Reparations: OLDER News Summaries and Links | The Censored Anti-Reparations Ad 03-12-01 |
