I have written several articles Racism and Slavery. A list of links have been provided at bottom of this article for your convenience. This article will, however address different aspects on Racism and Slavery. I have written several articles on postings related to politics. A list of links have been provided at bottom of this article for your convenience. This article will, however address different aspects on these political events.

Slavery is a horrific, irremovable stain on US history. But Americans disagree on how to handle its legacy.While nearly 75% of black respondents in an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll said they believe the US government should pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved black people, just 15% of white participants supported the idea.Overall, about 29% of the people questioned support reparations, or payment to African Americans whose family members were slaves, according to the poll conducted in September of nearly 1,300 black, white and Hispanic Americans. Reparations have been adopted as a talking point among Democratic presidential hopefuls. But there’s little consensus among average Americans.

The underwhelming support for reparations is most evident among the white people who were questioned, and just over half — 54% — said they believe the history of slavery continues to impact black Americans “a great deal.”Meanwhile, 83% of black respondents said slavery still deeply affects them.More — but still less than half of those polled — said the government should issue an official apology for slavery.Age was indicative of participants’ beliefs, too: Those over 60 were the least likely age group to support reparations at 16%, compared to 45% of 18- to 29-year-olds.

The US government is split on reparations

The renewed interest in reparations was the impetus for this poll, Jennifer Benz, research scientist and deputy director of the AP-NORC Center, told CNN.The government has taken small steps toward formally addressing the concept this year. The House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing on reparations on Juneteenth, the June 19 holiday that celebrates the end of slavery.But the day before the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he opposed paying reparations, arguing that “none of us currently living are responsible” for what he called America’s “original sin.”Many Democratic candidates for president have voiced support for reparations, but few of them have explained how they’d implement it or what forms it would take. Marianne Williamson is one of the only candidates to propose direct cash payouts to descendants of slaves, suggesting up to $500 billion in payments.While the poll can’t account for differences in beliefs among different race and age demographics, Benz said that over time, as the demographics that support reparations occupy a larger segment of the population, “support may also continue to increase” for those measures.

The legacy of slavery

To supporters of reparations, the idea that slavery’s impacts are not widely felt some 150 years after it was abolished is a pervasive myth.Slavery has molded institutions like capitalism, health care, culture and politics and created persistent wealth gaps between black and white Americans, said Chuck Collins, author and program director at the Institute for Policy Studies.

“People say ‘slavery was so long ago’ or ‘my family didn’t own slaves.’ But the key thing to understand is that the unpaid labor of millions — and the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws, discrimination in mortgage lending and a race-based system of mass incarceration — created uncompensated wealth for individuals and white society as a whole,” he told CNN in April.Collins said he’s found that the median wealth of a white household is 41 times greater than the median wealth of a black family — $147,000 versus $3,600.”Immigrants with European heritage directly and indirectly benefited from this system of white supremacy. The past is very much in the present.”

What could reparations look like?

There’s no equation for reparations, but various academics, lawyers and activists have guessed — based on formulations on the total value of slave labor to the US economy over about 250 years — that the payments would fall anywhere between $17 billion and $5 trillion.It’s unclear who or what would pay for reparations, but some have suggested that federal and state governments, private companies and wealthy families who owned slaves could be made to pay, since all supported and benefited from slavery.

Reparations could take on different forms, too: They could be delivered as land or through special social programs instead of direct payment, and some politicians have discussed developing tax credits for low-income families and “baby bonds” to pay for children’s college tuition, but neither of those measures would be exclusive to black families.Some institutions have already taken measures to repent for ties to slavery: Seminaries in New Jersey and Virginia have pledged millions of dollars in reparations to the descendants of slaves who worked on their campuses.

I am not going to spend a lot of time on this subject, because I frankly don’t think it deserves a lot of time. My belief is that history is just that. We need to learn from it, so we stop repeating the same mistakes, but to expect today’s society to be held responsible for actions of ancestors is insane. Slavery ended over 150 years ago. While it was terrible, it was an institution not only reserved to the U.S. It was practiced all over the world for thousands of years. All races were guilty of this practice. Of course if you ask somebody if they want hundreds of thousands of tax free dollars they are going to say yes. hell I would. So do I blame African Americans from wanting this money, of course not. But am I going to pay for it, hell no. This could bankrupt our country. Besides nobody alive in this country was a slave in the south, nor were their parents and their parents for that matter. You would have been born in the early 1840’s or 1850’s to have been affected by this practice. You would also, have to have lived in the South. So what about northern blacks that were never touched by slavery, do they deserve these reparations as well? I have included a list of the last remaining slaves and when they died. Frankly any born in 1860 or later, were just too young to be truly affected by slavery. But they have to be included for the sake of thoroughness. Peter Mills died in 1972 and he was the last one. In 1971 Sylvester Magee died, he can legitimately be considered the last true slave to die, because he was supposedly born in 1841. This would have made him a 130 years old, which is highly unlikely, because that would mean he lived 8 years longer than the oldest verified person, Jeanne Calment who was 122 years and 164 days old when she died in 1997. So he may not have been truly affected by slavery as well. So I think you get my point, who gets the money because everybody who was affected by slavery has been dead for 50 or more years.

Update on the Reparations’ Movement

‘Righting wrongs’: Congress is taking another look at reparations for slavery

(Update 3/4/2021)

Legislation focusing on how the U.S. can apologize for slavery and make reparations to the descendants of slaves is getting renewed attention in Washington, sparked by a groundswell of support after last summer’s nationwide racial protests.

A House committee debated a bill Wednesday that would direct more than a dozen experts to examine how the U.S. government supported slavery from 1619 to 1865 and created laws that discriminated against formerly enslaved people and their descendants.

The commission could recommend remedies, including compensation and education  of the American public on the legacy of slavery.

“How can a nation truly heal if it takes no action toward acknowledging the full scope of pain and addressing the punctured wounds of racism?” said Dreisen Heath, a researcher and advocate from Human Rights Watch. “We are at a defining moment in U.S. history and reparative justice for the legacy of slavery demands facing the fierce urgency of now.”

Heath was among eight experts and advocates who testified Wednesday before a House subcommittee on House Resolution 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act. The bill would need to be passed through the committee before it can be debated and voted on by the full House.  

The debate over reparations for Black Americans began not long after the end of the Civil War.  The bill to study the issue was first sponsored by former Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan in 1989, and he reintroduced the bill every session until he retired in 2017.

Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, the resolution’s new sponsor, reintroduced the bill in 2019 and again in January. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., filed a companion version of the bill last April.

“Economic issues are the root cause for many critical issues impacting the African American community today,” Lee said when introducingthe bill last month. “Truth and reconciliation about the ‘original sin of American slavery’ is necessary to light the way to the beloved community we all seek.”

Black Americans are almost twice as likely to live below the poverty line as white Americans and on average are paid less than their white peers, no matter their profession or education, according to recent census data. Black people are also less likely to own a home than other racial and ethnic groups, a key asset for building wealth. 

Lee on Wednesday cited a recent study by Harvard Medical School researchers that found reparations could have public health benefits for Black people and the entire nation. Researchers’ model for Louisiana showed that greater equity between Black and white people might have reduced COVID-19 infection transmission rates by up to 68% for every person in the state.

Opponents of the bill called it divisive and argued that present-day Americans should not be held responsible for the consequences of slavery, which was ended by the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865.

Eight experts and advocates testified for three hours Wednesday before the House subcommittee on House Resolution 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.

Witnesses including E. Tendayi Achiume, a law professor at UCLA, and Kathy Masaoka, co-chair of the Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, said that reparations committees have international and domestic precedent including the commission that compensated Japanese Americans who were put in internment camps after World War II. 

“The highest standard of reparations is needed to adequately address over 400 years of atrocities and compounded and concretized injuries that this community endures,” Kamm Howard, national male co-chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, said. “No quick fix, no singular action or tweak here or there in existing policy will do. America must engage in full reparations.”

California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber Weber testified about California’s efforts to form a commission to study reparations modeled after the one outlined in HR 40 and urged other states not to wait for the federal government to act. California is the first state to adopt legislation that requires a study of how the state could provide reparations to Black residents and the descendants of slaves.

Rep. Cori Bush shared personal stories of family members who were denied access to the assistance from the GI Bill, which provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans, because of their race.

“The violence my family withstood from one generation to the next was not isolated,” Bush said. “It was systemic, it was structural, it was political backed by legislations passed by this very body to deny descendants of enslaved people economic and social opportunity.”

Reparations bill gets new attention amid BLM protests:Could other nations provide a blueprint?

Graphics:These 12 charts show how racial disparities persist across wealth, health, education and beyond

As racial justice protests following the death of George Floyd heated up across the country last year, officials in cities including Providence, Rhode Island, and Asheville, North Carolina, proposed measures to examine the impact of slavery and help atone for it, including reparations. 

Two witnesses, attorney and radio host Larry Elder and former professional athlete Herschel Walker argued against the need for reparations. Elder said that he believes the disparate outcomes in areas including policing and poverty experienced by African Americans are not caused by racism. Walker said better education for African Americans is needed, not reparations.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell previously rejected reparations for slavery in part because it would be hard to know whom to pay.

Asked about reparations ahead of the 2019 hearing, McConnell said, “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea.”

Rep. Tom McClintok echoed that sentiment at Wednesday’s hearing.

“I can’t imagine a more divisive, polarizing or unjust measure than one that would by government force require people who never owned slaves to pay reparations by those who never were slaves,” McClintok said.

The cost of compensating Americans who descended from slaves for the legacy of bondage and subsequent racial oppression could be as much as $13 trillion, according to an estimate by historian Kirsten Mullen and economist William Darity of Duke University.

Mullen and Darity calculated that, out of an approximate 45 million Black Americans, about 40 million would be eligible recipients of these funds if eligibility is based on whether their ancestors were enslaved in America. 

That would result in payments between $300,000 to $350,000 per person. 

Other estimates have placed the cost even higher. A study published in June estimated the total cost of slavery and discrimination to African American descendants could be nearly $19 trillion in 2018 dollars.

As several witnesses and lawmakers pointed out Wednesday,  the bill does not mandate payments. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler noted in his opening statement that many involved in reparative justice efforts today are focused on community-based programs and “righting wrongs that cannot be fixed with checks alone.”

It’s possible that the bill could pass the Democrat-controlled House, but the bill needs the support of at least 10 Republicans in order to advance in the Senate which is unlikely.

But the idea has entered the political mainstream. During the presidential primary race, Democratic candidates including Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Julián Castro voiced their support for reparations but offered few other details.

List of last surviving slaves

Name	Image	Birth	Death	Notes and References
Peter Mills		October 26, 1861	September 22, 1972	Born in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and died after a pedestrian accident in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sylvester Magee		(May 29, 1841)	October 15, 1971	Unverified and purportedly died at 130 years old in Columbia, Mississippi.
William Casby		January 19, 1857	August 17, 1970	Photographed on March 24, 1963 by Richard Avedon in Algiers, Louisiana with multiple generations of his family.
Mary Hardway Walker		1848	1969	Purportedly lived to at least 120 years old; she had a child who died in his 90s, according to the family Bible on ancestry.com. She moved from Union Springs, Alabama to Chattanooga, Tennessee where a newspaper article was published about her learning to read in 1966 at age 116.
Josephus		pre-1865	after August 28, 1963	listed in a bulletin for Martin Luther King Jr.‘s 1963 March on Washington as supposedly the last surviving American slave.
Alfred “Teen” Blackburn		April 26, 1842	March 8, 1951	One of the last surviving American slaves who remembered slavery, and one of the last Confederate pensioners; resided in North Carolina.
Eliza Moore		1843	January 21, 1948	One of the last verified surviving American slaves; resided in North Carolina.
William Andrew Johnson		1859	1943	Last surviving slave of a U.S. President (Andrew Johnson); visited Franklin Roosevelt at the White House in 1937.
Adeline Dade		1853	December, 1941	Possibly one of the last living former enslaved people in New York State
Harriet Wilson Whitely		March 15, 1855	April 26, 1941	The last living former slave in Fairmont, West Virginia
Matilda McCrear		1857	January 1940	The last known survivor of the Clotilda in 1859–1860, the last trans-Atlantic slave ship to arrive in America from Africa
Redoshi		1848	1937	The next to last known survivor of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to arrive in America
Cudjoe Lewis		1841	July 17, 1935	One of the last survivors of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to arrive in America
Perry Lockwood		ca. 1844	1929	allegedly one of the last living former slaves in lower Delaware, died at age 87
Reuben Freeman		c. 1835	c. 1915	One of the last slaves in Somerset County, New Jersey; lived in Somerville; was enslaved to William Annin of Liberty Corner Likely other later survivors because final slaves were not emancipated until 1865 in New Jersey.
David Hendrickson		1799	1900	allegedly the last living former slave sold “on the block” in New Jersey Likely other later survivors because final slaves were not emancipated until 1865 in New Jersey.
Louise Tritton		ca. 1780	1891	one of the last living former slaves in Connecticut, and oldest person in New Haven
Adjua D’Wolf		1794	1868	Possibly the last surviving enslaved person in Rhode Island. Adjua was brought from Africa to Bristol in 1803 and enslaved to the D’Wolf family, a family of slave traders,  after new enslavement was made illegal in Rhode Island. and her death in 1868 was noted in several newspapers around the country, including in the South.  James Howland (1758-1859) was also one of Rhode Island’s last legal former slaves, and was enslaved until 1842 D’Wolf and Howland are likely not the last slaves, due to RI’s gradual emancipation with several legally enslaved people still listed in the 1840 census, and likely enslaved until the 1843 RI Constitution banned all slavery.
Hannah Kelley		ca. 1760	January 15, 1864	died at 103 years old in Cross Creek, Pennsylvania as possibly the last living former slave in Pennsylvania, formerly owned by John Gardner of Jefferson. (unlikely to be the last slave in the state since gradual emancipation for all didn’t occur until 1847)
Margaret Pint		1778	1857	purportedly the last living former slave in New York; She was born into slavery in Westchester County. Likely not the last living former slave, because final emancipation in New York did not occur until July 5, 1827.
Venus Rowe		ca. 1754	1844	purportedly one of the last living former slaves in Massachusetts, resided in Burlington, Massachusetts

So why stop with the slaves? What about all those northern soldiers who fought in the War between the states to free the slaves? Shouldn’t their families be eligible for reparations from the black families that were freed? I know why don’t we give everybody reparations for having to listen to Obama’s speeches when he was president. I am still traumatized by them. See what I am getting at, once you start going down this path, there is no coming back.

Resources:

cnn.com, “Nearly 75% of African Americans support reparations for slavery. Only 15% of white Americans do, a poll says,” By Scottie Andrew; en.wikipedia.org “List of the last surviving American slaves,” By Wikipedia editors,”usatoday.com, “‘Righting wrongs’: Congress is taking another look at reparations for slavery,” By N’dea Yancey-Bragg;

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