The Rev. M.J. Divine, better known as Father Divine, was one of the earliest leaders to argue clearly for “retroactive compensation” and the message was spread via International Peace Mission publications. On July 28, 1951, Father Divine issued a “peace stamp” bearing the text: “Peace! All nations and peoples who have suppressed and oppressed the under-privileged, they will be obliged to pay the African slaves and their descendants for all uncompensated servitude and for all unjust compensation, whereby they have been unjustly deprived of compensation on the account of previous condition of servitude and the present condition of servitude. This is to be accomplished in the defense of all other under-privileged subjects and must be paid retroactive up-to-date”.
On July 30, 2008, the United States House of Representative passed a resolution apologizing for American slavery and subsequent discriminatory laws.
Some states have also apologized for slavery, including Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, such apologies are a first step, but compensation is also necessary.
If emancipated slaves had been allowed to possess and retain the profits of their labor, their descendants might now control a much larger share of American social and monetary wealth. Not only did the freed men and women not receive a share of these profits, but they were stripped of the small amounts of compensation paid to some of them during Reconstruction.
The wealth of the United States was greatly enhanced by the exploitation of African American slave labor. According to this view, reparations would be valuable primarily as a way of correcting modern economic imbalances.
The group advocates that the US Government, US corporations and individuals who benefited from the labors of former slaves should pay reparations of an undisclosed amount and say that further study needs to be done to find the exact amount, but estimate that the amount may be approximately $8,000,000,000,000 (eight trillion.)Based on the estimated US population for 2008,this amounts to approximately $205,000 per black citizen in the United States. The group also seeks an apology from the entire white race, including those considered “white” in the United States today who came over after the slave movement.
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Dr. Ruby Mae Chapman, The Wisdom Store, Napolean & Ada Moton Chapman Institute, Children’s Advocate, Scholar, Researcher and Writer –
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