Could Reparations For African Americans Help Reduce Violence

• Robert Drea
• Reparations activist Conrad Worrill: “What happened to African people has never been repaired.”

In 2002 a group of African-Americans filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago demanding restitution from JP Morgan Chase, Aetna, CSX, and other corporations with links to slavery before the Civil War.

That changed in May, when the Atlantic published “The Case for Reparations,” the provocative and deeply reported article by Ta-Neisi Coates. It showed millions of readers that the issue wasn’t rooted in an abstract philosophical argument but in specific, widespread, and ongoing discriminatory policies, particularly in housing.

The reparations movement in that aspect of its strategy took a big hit.

As a result of that, we sponsored a reparations forum at Chicago State in April. We webcast the event and more than 6,000 people watched and about 800 attended. Our purpose was to use the occasion to reintroduce the reparations.

Individuals. I am. And we’re having meetings to discuss it.

But we’ve heard the counterarguments: “I wasn’t around back then—I didn’t have anything to do with slavery.”