Repair, Restorative Justice, Recalibration & Reparations
Whenever you hear someone say, "The government will never give African Americans reparations". You have encountered an individual with a limited definition of reparative justice or its historical origins in America.
Reparations were conferred by the commander-in-chief's Proclamations of Emancipation, Amnesty, and Reconstruction, President Abraham Lincoln on December 8, 1863. The features of reparations for chattel slavery started with:
No single charter or speech lays out the goals of Reconstruction (i.e. repair of the emancipated). The goals of Reconstruction evolved in response to changing political, social, and economic conditions, and the Thirteenth Amendment remains the catalyst for its evolution in response to those conditions. This makes the promise of the Thirteenth Amendment in perpetuity.
The American Freedmen Inquiry Commission was the first Government task force to study reparations for the Emancipated. The current array of reparations task forces developing in American cities is the modern exercise of the 13th Amendment in response to changing social, political, and economic conditions impacting American Freedmen that mirror those in the antebellum era. This commission directed Congress to reparate American Freedmen until self-sufficient and self-sustaining (i.e. Freedmen Towns, Freedmen Schools, Freedmen Hospitals, Freedmen Banks, Freedmen Bureau Field Offices, and Freedmen Courts).
Reparations is a term of art, a modern word of common usage, not a law. It is not a presidential war power backed by constitutional amendments and congressional legislation like reconstruction. Reconstruction is reparations - reparations is reconstruction. Reconstruction has never been concluded by presidential proclamation, congressional annulment, or United States Supreme Court ruling. This means America is still in the reconstruction era despite what your history book says.
Reparations were conferred by the commander-in-chief's Proclamations of Emancipation, Amnesty, and Reconstruction, President Abraham Lincoln on December 8, 1863. The features of reparations for chattel slavery started with:
- The American Freedmen Inquiry Commission
- The constitutional amendment abolishing slavery (13th Amendment),
- The Freedmen’s Bureau Act of 1865,
- The Freedmen's Savings Bank & Trust Company Act of 1865
- The Civil Rights Act of 1866,
- The Habeas Corpus Act of 1867,
- Reconstruction Acts of 1867-1868,
- Enforcement Acts of 1870-1871.
No single charter or speech lays out the goals of Reconstruction (i.e. repair of the emancipated). The goals of Reconstruction evolved in response to changing political, social, and economic conditions, and the Thirteenth Amendment remains the catalyst for its evolution in response to those conditions. This makes the promise of the Thirteenth Amendment in perpetuity.
The American Freedmen Inquiry Commission was the first Government task force to study reparations for the Emancipated. The current array of reparations task forces developing in American cities is the modern exercise of the 13th Amendment in response to changing social, political, and economic conditions impacting American Freedmen that mirror those in the antebellum era. This commission directed Congress to reparate American Freedmen until self-sufficient and self-sustaining (i.e. Freedmen Towns, Freedmen Schools, Freedmen Hospitals, Freedmen Banks, Freedmen Bureau Field Offices, and Freedmen Courts).
Reparations is a term of art, a modern word of common usage, not a law. It is not a presidential war power backed by constitutional amendments and congressional legislation like reconstruction. Reconstruction is reparations - reparations is reconstruction. Reconstruction has never been concluded by presidential proclamation, congressional annulment, or United States Supreme Court ruling. This means America is still in the reconstruction era despite what your history book says.