Article by Vincene Verdun
This Article examines issues related to reparations to African Americans for injustices caused by the removal of Africans from their native lands, their enslavement, and their subsequent subjugation to de jure and de facto discrimination, which maintained a caste system that promoted white supremacy. Reparations to African Americans is not a new issue. Efforts to provide reparations to ex-slaves began prior to Abraham Lincoln's emancipation proclamation and have continued unabated through our current time. There have been five major waves of political activism that promoted reparations since the emancipation of slaves: 1) the Civil War-Reconstruction era; 2) the turn of the century; 3) the Garvey movement; 4) the civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s; and 5) the post-Civil Liberties Act era beginning in 1989.
About the Author
Vincene Verdun. Associate Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University College of Law.
Citation
67 Tul. L. Rev. 597 (1993)