#ReparationsNow #DescendantsOfUnitedStatesChattelSlavery

Knowledge is power!

America would not be the country it is without the slave labor provided by Negro bodies. This website was created to make this knowledge accessible for all and to be a template for fellow states to file resolutions supporting the U. S. Government, making our people whole, in solidarity with Washington State. These harms have occurred consistently to Black American Negro communities, from 1776 to present day! When we know better, we must do better!

History: Negro is what our ancestors were called and what our government recognized them as.

Action: Today we are their American descendants and socially identify as we choose.

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The Condensed Resolution

Reparations for American Descendants of Negro Slaves

Please take and edit for your respective state to start the movement for federal reparations through your local congressmen and senators.

WHEREAS in 1619 thousands of the victims of the TransAtlantic  (slave/slaves/slavery) trade more commonly referred to as “Negroes” began arriving involuntarily to the territory that would eventually be known as the Americas. They were forced into servitude and declared enslaved property within the 13 colonies;¹ 

WHEREAS in 1789 the Constitution of the United States of America was solidified while Negroes were still considered human property by leaving their status up to individual states;² the sale and acquisition of Negroes as slave laborers/property in interstate and intrastate commerce resulted in more than 450,000 Negroes trafficked between 1619 and 1808;³ an estimated 4 million Negroes were granted full rights as citizens through the 13th Amendment’s prohibition of retaining and using humans as slaves.⁴

WHEREAS slavery in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of cultural heritage, kinship ties, language, religion, life, liberty and  the pursuit of happiness, denying citizenship rights and compensation for their forced  labor;⁵ 

WHEREAS unpaid slave labor helped build the American economy, creating vast wealth that (Negroes) and their descendants were  barred from.¹

Slavery Across the Country

WHEREAS America’s southern states became the economic engine producing tobacco, cotton and sugar cane that was empowered by the stolen labor of Negroes to the extent that by the start of the Civil War, the South produced 75 percent of the world’s cotton and created more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation;⁶ 

WHEREAS it is a common misconception that slavery was confined to the Confederate South, rather than a national one. The erasure or marginalization of the Northern Negro experience and the centrality of the business of slavery to the Northern economy allows for a dangerous fiction that the North has no history of racism to overcome. It also feeds into a false narrative that Negroes were not part of the founding of the Northern colonies, but they were;⁷

WHEREAS many tend to think that the North has no need to redress institutional racism or work toward reconciliation. In other words, contemporary racial disparities are not grounded in history, but are rather a reflection of poor personal choices or even worse, innate inferiority. So fully understanding how and why the institution of slavery is central to American history shapes how the American Negro is seen today;⁸

The Economic Impact of Slavery

WHEREAS slavery was enormously profitable. The cotton trade alone constituted over half of the nation’s wealth 50-60 percent of the value of the nation’s total exports, helping pay for imports from abroad. And slave labor provided the raw material for Great Britain’s textile mills, helping stimulate the world’s early industrialization. Slave-produced commercial crops required a host of middlemen to sell and transport them to markets and to finance and supply the slave-owning planters. Southern cities such as New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, and Memphis and northern ports such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia depended heavily on the southern trade. Northern farmers and manufacturers found ready markets for their products in southern towns and cities, but especially on the southern plantations;⁹

WHEREAS the products of slave labor stimulated the nation’s economic development, the slave South itself remained primarily agricultural and did not experience the urban and industrial growth that took place in the North;⁹

Special Field Orders No. 15

WHEREAS after the U.S. Civil War, on January 12, 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with a group of Negro community leaders, consisting of Negro Baptist and Methodist ministers from Savannah, Georgia and they were asked “what do you want for your own people?.” They replied, “the way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land;¹⁰ 

 WHEREAS on January 16, 1865, Special Field Order, No. 15  was a military order issued during the American Civil War, by General William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi of the United States. The Special Field Orders #15 were fully enforceable by wartime law. They had the authority of General William Tecumseh Sherman, the US Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, as well as the Republican President of the United States Abraham Lincoln.

The Sea Islands and 330 miles of coastline from Charleston, South Carolina to the Saint John’s River in Florida 30 miles back from the Sea was to be given as spoils of war to Negro families so that the injustices of slavery might be addressed and reparations could be made. This would enable these families to build a future for themselves with their skills and labor. We the people of Washington State fervently and unequivocally support a federal reparations program to address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1776 and 1964, and legal segregation and accrued disadvantages for descendants of slavery;¹¹

Rescinding Special Field Order 15 From the Negro Soldiers Was Treasonous

WHEREAS after John Wilkes Booth assassinated President of the Union, Abraham Lincoln, Special Field Orders #15 turned out to be a short-lived promise for Negroes. Despite the objections of General Oliver O. Howard, the Freedmen’s Bureau chief, U.S. president Andrew Johnson overturned Sherman’s directive in the fall of 1865, after the war had ended, and returned most of the land along the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida coasts to the confederates who had originally owned it. thus empowering and eventually paying reparations to the slave owners for loss of their Negro slaves.^{11, 12}

Repair the Debt Owed

WHEREAS the median wealth of a white family is $188,200 and the median wealth of a Negro descendant family is $24,100, a difference $164,000; This wealth gap was intentionally created by slavocracy-minded organizations such as the Knights of the Golden Circle, who became the Order of the American Knights, and finally the Order of the Sons of Liberty before going underground. Their number one objective was to advocate that the new territories should be annexed by the United States, in order to vastly increase the number of slave states and thus the power of the slave-holding Southern upper classes would be strengthened;^{17, 18, 14}

WHEREAS Americans have received compensation for historical injustices before, including Japanese Americans interned in concentration camps during World War II; Alaskan Natives for land, labor and resources taken; survivors of police abuses in Chicago; Negroes and their Descendants were victims of the massacre and burning in Rosewood Florida by a murderous white mob, and may we never forget all this happened on land that was taken from indigenous tribes unjustly. Those tribes were eventually given land back for the wrongs the United States government had committed;¹⁶

Systemic Discrimination

WHEREAS since our nation’s inception, inequality and discrimination, as well as differences in power structures and opportunities have been forced upon American Negroes when it came to the Slavocracy-minded White settlers. Those white passing individuals who rose to power are responsible for the wealth gap between Negroes and their peers across the country to this day ;¹⁷

WHEREAS the New York City “anti-draft” riots of 1863 harnessed antipathy towards ending slavery due to its economic impact on the nation’s financial center, targeted New York’s Negro communities with lynchings, and created extensive homelessness among the Negro communities population for which there was no recompense foreshadowing future assaults on Negro communities across America};^20,  

WHEREAS following WWII and the stated universal eligibility of the G.I. Bill, Negroes and their Descendants were subjected to segregationist policies in its implementation due to the deference given to Southern states to exercise their ‘state’s rights’ to exclude Negroes and their Descendants veterans from educational opportunities, employment opportunities, and banking loans for both business and land/home ownership.¹ 

WHEREAS There are a broad spectrum of racial disparities that have threatened Negro communities during and after the ratification of the 13th amendment, such as— limiting voting rights, denying equal access to employment, housing, public benefits, and education and disparities in the criminal-justice system. The disparities within the criminal-justice system have been some of the most egregious, it is imperative that criminal-justice reform evolves into the civil rights issue of the 21st century;¹⁵

Post-Abolition Inequalities

WHEREAS following the abolition of slavery, the American government at the federal level continued to perpetuate, condone, and often profit from practices that continued to disadvantage Negroes; these practices included sharecropping, convict leasing, black Codes, Jim Crow laws, organized riots, unequal education, unequal access to power, mass incarceration, and unequal access to global civic programs and agendas. Civic organizations were able to operate while openly discriminating against Negroes and still have a nontax exempt status and disproportionate treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system;^26,27

WHEREAS today the median wealth of white households is 2 times that of Negroes and their Descendants. This form of divide and conquer has been strategically implemented by dominant groups to keep this oppressive power structure running exactly how it was designed to run to reassure that those in power today will stay in power tomorrow;¹

WHEREAS restitution for Negroes and their Descendants in the United States is estimated at least 15 trillion in cash payments, endowments, annuities, trust accounts or other investments that will improve the well-being of those Negroes and their descendants who were harmed. In Washington State this payment would be approximately $124 billion, double the entire 2022 state budget. The U.S federal government is culpable for its actions regarding slavery and the many other atrocities and injustices noted throughout history against Negroes and their descendants;²¹

WHEREAS in Washington State and nationwide Negroes continue to experience evictions, foreclosures, and homelessness at statistically far greater rates than their peers in any demographic throughout the US;²²

Industrial Disparities

WHEREAS Washington State in 2023 the Cannabis industry is booming, but the Negro community is still being disenfranchised by disparities locking them out of the lucrative industry. A very uneven 81% of these Cannabis companies are owned by white business owners, while only 4% are owned by Negroes. Other disturbing statistics show that of the 4% that are owned by Negroes those locations are placed strategically in inconvenient locations with low to no traffic which makes profit margins significantly diminish. These statistics become even more unnerving when we take into account how many times the Negro communities were specifically targeted for marijuana after the 1994 crime bill was implemented. Which only flooded Washington State prison institutions with Negroes for actions that are today in Washington state considered non criminal / medicinal.²³

WHEREAS Washington State has been home to violent Ku Klux Klan activity, and our direct neighbor Idaho has active and nationally recognized Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazi/white supremacist chapters;²⁴

WHEREAS Washington State is named after the first President of the United States, who was himself a slave owner;²⁵

A Demand for Justice

WHEREAS reparations are not solely a symbolic act — they are a demand for justice. Reparations do not hold current citizens responsible for the sins of their forefathers, they right an atrocious wrong and serve as an economic amends for past injustices and persistent disparities, making one race or person feel guilty or ashamed; and

WHEREAS the average value of land per acre in Florida is $34,900, in Georgia $30,000, and in South Carolina $22,100. A basic average of these three values in $29,000. Field Order 15 promised prime coastal, agricultural, and river access land, and as such we add a 25% premium to this average value to produce an acreage value of $36,250 in today’s economy. 40 acres of land at $36.250 has a cash value of $1.45 million US dollars. This reparation shall compensate each qualifying individual (head of household) a one-time MINIMUM cash payment of $1.45 million dollars, qualification to be based on lineage as a direct descendant of an enslaved Black American Negro, through clear documentation or through blood testing. This is a codified race based solution to what is and has been a codified race based harm.^{11,30,31,32,33}

California Task Force Executive Decision

After grappling with the minimum payment over the last 12 months, and using the data we collected in 2022, we came up with the 1.45 million dollar figure as the minimum cash payment. However, The Negro Collective has decided that number is simply too low for the harms incurred.

After further conversations, we the Collective agree with the California Task Forces final recommendation of the cash payments being in the amount of $5 million dollars per Descendant of American Chattel Slavery .We are still baffled by the fact that Amos Brown disagreed with that very fair and calculated suggestion. Speaking on behalf of the San Francisco NAACP, Dr. Brown stated their organization rejects the $5 million recommendation. He and the NAACP are instead calling for the city to “redirect their focus onto education, jobs, housing, healthcare and a cultural center for blacks”.

We the Negro Collective do not understand how often times the people we are fighting look just  like us and they are sitting in positions of power. Legacy organizations like the NAACP, NAARC, NCOBRA, and The Urban Leagues, and any other organization aligning with a BIPOC/flat blackness or Boulé ideologies do not represent the Black American Negro Freedmen. In closing, we would like to let all of our people know State reparations are working against true reparations for our people. The federal government is liable for the harms done to our ancestors and the harms that are continuing to happen to our people today.³⁴

WHEREAS reparations are driven by the need for the atonement and redemption of America. Reparations are about conciliation and propelling us toward a more just and equitable future: Now, therefore, be it:

Resolved, by (__________________) AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION II:

(________________)  strongly urges the United States Congress and the President of the United States to recognize the term Negro instead of “African American” in the examination of the legacy of slavery and recommendations for redress;

SECTION III:

(______________) recommends the Act’s title be amended to read, “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for Negroes and their Descendants.
As a result of this study, reparations should only be awarded to individuals who are direct descendants of persons who were enslaved in the United States;

SECTION V:

that federal reparations legislation should direct a commission to produce a report with the following characteristics: 1) the bill should direct the commission to identify Descendants of Slavery in the U.S. as the eligible recipients; 2) the bill should direct the commission to develop plans that set elimination of the racial wealth gap as a core target; 3) the bill should direct the commission to ensure that its plans prioritize direct payments to eligible recipients; and 4) the bill should direct the commission to designate the federal government as the party responsible for making the payments;

SECTION VII:

(_____________) recommends that upon passage of this bill and subsequent signing into law by the President of the United States, that the commission’s work be completed and delivered to the President no later than 365 days from signing, and further than the implementation of the commission’s recommendations be acted on no later than 90 days from delivery;

SECTION VIII:

(_____________) further recommends that anti-Negro hate crime legislation be created that specifically addresses hate crimes directed against the (Negroes and their Descendants) community, as 1) the FBI has identified that anti-Negro hate crimes far exceed hate crimes against any other racial or ethnic group, and 2) anti-Negro hate crimes substantially increased from 2019 to 2020. This bill should be titled Preventing Anti-Negro Hate Crimes Act.28

SECTION VIII:

(_____________) shall transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, to each Senator and Representative from the State of Washington in the Congress of the United States, and to the Governor of the State of Washington;

The only way the Negro community can be made whole is by giving what our ancestors were promised in Special Field Order no. 15.

That contract can only be fulfilled when the U.S Government pays the debt they owed to the American Negroes. Repair can only truly be attained by completing the following demands:

1. Restitution:
   Which should restore the victim to their original situation before the violation occurred, e.g. restoration of liberty, reinstatement of employment, return of property, return to one’s place of residence.
2. Compensation:
   Which should be provided for any economically accessible damage, loss of earnings, loss of property, loss of economic opportunities, moral damages.
3. Rehabilitation:
   Which should include medical and psychological care, legal and social services.
4. Satisfaction:
   Which should include the cessation of continuing violations, truth-seeking, search for the disappeared person or their remains, recovery, reburial of remains, public apologies, judicial and administrative sanctions, memorials, and commemorations.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How can I get involved?

Contact us to learn more about how to get involved and support this movement

Can I support financially to move this forward?

Yes, for now you can support financially through the Change.org petition. The financial support there gets the petition in front of more eyes.

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Reference List

1. Darity, W. A., Jr, & Mullen, A. K. (2022). From Here to Equality, Second Edition: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. UNC Press Books pgs. 16, 126, 177 and 381.
2. https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/constitution.htm 
3. https://www.thoughtco.com/interesting-facts-about-slavery-in-america-2834587 
4. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment 
5. http://www.montpelier.org/learn/slavery-constitution-lasting-legacy
6. https://www.history.com/news/slavery-profitable-southern-economy
7. https://acwm.org/blog/myths-misunderstandings-north-and-slavery/ 
8. https://www.learningforjustice.org/podcasts/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/slavery-and-the-northern-economy 
9. https://faculty.weber.edu/kmackay/economics%20of%20slavery.asp 
10. https://www.investopedia.com/should-america-pay-slavery-reparations-5080415
11. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/shermans-field-order-no-15/
12. https://www.loc.gov/collections/abraham-lincoln-papers/articles-and-essays/abraham-lincoln-and-emancipation/ 
13. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/12/08/the-black-white-wealth-gap-left-black-households-more-vulnerable/ 
14. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
15. https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/racial-inequality-in-the-united-states 
16. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/redress-and-reparations-japanese-american-incarceration
17. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363128469_The_Cumulative_Costs_of_Racism_and_the_Bill_for_Black_Reparations#fullTextFileContent
18. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241874029_The_Functionality_of_Market-Based_Discrimination 
19. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/wealth-disparities-in-civil-rights/barriers-to-racial-wealth-equality/ 
20. https://blogs.shu.edu/nyc-history/2016/12/21/the-draft-riots-final-thoughts-and-bibliography/ 
21. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2020/06/25/five-big-ideas-to-narrow-the-racial-wealth-gap/?sh=35c59de251ac 
22. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/
23. https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/facing-race/washington-cannabis-program-shut-out-black-business-owners/281-319c9559-1733-4556-b702-87f2a48c34d8
24. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/kkk_intro.htm 
25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lolGeorge_Washington_and_slavery 
26. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241874029_The_Functionality_of_Market-Based_Discrimination
27. https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws 
28. https://www.justice.gov/crs/highlights/2020-hate-crimes-statistics
29. https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2021/06/convict-leasing-system/
30. https://www.statista.com/statistics/205053/number-of-black-families-in-the-us/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20there%20were%20about,households%20in%20the%20U.S.%20here
31. https://www.zippia.com/advice/acre-land-costs-each-state/
32. https://www.landsearch.com/price
33. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Field_Orders_No._15
34. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11864425/San-Fran-reverend-helped-devise-plan-hand-citys-black-people-5m-REJECTS-idea-NAACP.html