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July 2023 Newsletter
Issue #77
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The making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.
In the past half century, a dozen or more nations, as well as numerous international organizations, companies, and universities, have considered or enacted programs of reparation for past wrongs -- including for slavery in the Americas. Sometimes redress has been sought through legal means, other times by material or financial repair, and still other approaches have been symbolic.
Reparations have included truth telling, making apologies, direct financial payments to individuals, community investments, establishment of trusts, return of land, job training, housing or
educational assistance and more.
About 20 million African Americans report their ancestors were enslaved in the United States.
It is estimated that the U.S. benefited from over 222 million hours of forced slave labor, or the equivalent of roughly $97 trillion worth of work, between 1619 and 1865. At the end of the Civil War Union leaders issued Special Field Order 15 which promised formerly enslaved families "40 acres and a mule" -- a promise that was never fulfilled.
In 1989, House Resolution 40 known as the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, was first introduced in the the House of Representatives. This bill would establish a Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans. The commission would examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. 196 Representatives have co-sponsored the bill, but it has never received a full vote in the House.
Reparation Precedents in the U.S.
In 1946 Congress created the Indian Claims Commission to pay compensation for land that had been seized by the U.S. government. The commission paid out about $1.3 billion to 176 tribes or nations --not individuals -- the equivalent of less than $1,000 for each Native American in the United States at the time the commission dissolved in 1978.
The Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 offered compensation for property that had been lost during the internment Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. About $37 million was paid to 26,000 claimants. In 1988 Congress voted to extend an apology and pay $20,000 to each survivor of the internment. More than $1.6 billion was paid to 82,219 eligible claimants.
In 1997 the U.S. issued an apology and paid $10 million to 600 surviving victims and the descendants of the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
In 2015 the city of Chicago paid $130 million in lawsuit settlements to over 125 survivors and their families --mostly African-American men from the city’s South Side -- who had been tortured by former police commander Jon Burge from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. In addition, the city promised to waive tuition to city colleges, require curriculum materials in Chicago public schools about the crimes and to build a public memorial.
In 2013, North Carolina became the first state in the country to set up a fund intended to compensate the surviving victims who were sterilized under a decades-long eugenics program. $10 million was set aside for 7,600 victims were largely poor, disabled and African-American.
In 1994, Florida became the first state to pass a reparations law acknowledging a need to confront racist violence that government officials failed to stop. The law set aside $2 million for those who survived the massacre of black residents in Rosewood Florida in 1923.
In 2019, the city of Evanston, Illinois, passed a resolution to address “the historical wealth and opportunity gaps that African American/Black residents” face, particularly when it came to
housing discrimination. In the first phase of the program, the City Council estimated that about 400 qualifying Black people would benefit from the $25,000 housing voucher program, which could be used for down payments or home repairs. The program is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. and seen by advocates as a potential
national model.
The state of California recently completed a study on reparations which recommends a formal apology to the descendants of people enslaved people in the U.S. as well as reforms linked to health care, housing, education and criminal justice.
Reparation Precedents Outside the U.S.
In 2022 Germany agreed to one of its largest financial reparations packages ever for the world’s remaining Jewish Holocaust survivors — including a $12 million emergency fund for 8,500 survivors who remain in war-torn Ukraine. The entire package is worth a total of $1.2 billion and will be disbursed next year, mostly to help cover health care costs of an aging and dwindling population of survivors. It will also for the first time fund Holocaust remembrance education. It is estimated that Germany has paid over $90 billion in reparations for crimes against humanity during World War II.
From 1995 to 2003, South Africa established The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that operated after the end of apartheid. The TRC held 2,000 public hearings and heard testimony from over 21,000 survivors and received 7,112 amnesty applications. In 2003, South Africa offered to pay a one time payment of around $4,000 to each of the 18,000 survivors who testified before the TRC.
Faith Responses
The 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church urged the whole church to take a major stride forward by passing Resolution C019 (Establish Response to Systemic Injustice) and allocating $2 million to fund this ministry.
Specific Episcopal dioceses have set aside funds for racial reconciliation. For example, the Diocese of Georgia has committed 3% of an unrestricted endowment to help create a center for racial reconciliation. The Diocese of Texas, has allocated $13 million to long-term programs benefiting African Americans. The Diocese of New York unveiled a $1.1 million reparations initiative in November 2019 and the Diocese of Maryland created a $1 million reparations fund to finance programs supporting Black students, nursing home residents, small-business owners and others.
racial discrimination.”
In 2020 66% of Georgetown University students voted to create a reparations fund by increasing tuition by $27.20 each semester. This money will be used to benefit the descendants of 272 slaves sold in 1838 to save the school. The slaves were sold for $115,000 or equivalent to $3.3 million today. At the time a semester’s tuition for a full-time student was $27,720 and there were about 7,000 undergraduates, so the fee would raise about $380,000 a year for the fund. (Georgetown has an endowment of about
$1.8 billion)
Scriptural References
An example of offering reparation in the New Testament is the story of Zacchaeus who is so overwhelmed by the grace of God that he is compelled to make restitution with those he cheated: “If I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Other examples include: Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ezekiel 33:15; Proverbs 6:30-31
Making amends ultimately heals the actor. It may feel counterintuitive because of all we've been taught about "making a mistake" and all of the shame we carry. Still, ultimately, our accountability, empathy, and making things right helps us grow, learn and heal. When we harm others, we harm ourselves in the process, and rationalizing or defending only makes us feel worse. It causes us to feel a more profound shame as it pulls us from our humanity and connection — accountability and making amends help us heal the other, which allows us to
forgive ourselves.
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The History of Reparations
A PBS video featuring Danielle Bainbridge, who looks at reparations -- both in the U.S. and other places around the world. Focuses primarily on African Americans and the "40 acres and a mule" promise made at the end of the American Civil War, but also includes reparations made by the the U.S. government to Native Americans for the loss of their land, Japanese Americans for their internment during the Second World War, men deliberated infected during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as well as the city of Chicago payments to torture victims of Detective Burge. Also includes international examples such as Germany after the Nazi era and South Africa at the end of apartheid. Describes different types of reparations and ideas what they might look like today. Watch now.
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Repair for Historical Harms: Global Models for Questions of Reparations
A panel discussion that addresses reparations historically and in the contemporary world, with particular attention on the issue of reparations to Black Americans. Moderated by David W. Blight, Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center and Sterling Professor of History, Yale University.
Panelists include:
- Pablo De Greiff Senior Fellow and Director of the Transitional Justice Program at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice of the School of Law, New York University,
- Leslie Harris, Professor of History at Northwestern University,
- Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, 18th Congressional District of Texas
- Tom Steyer, Founder, NextGen America voter mobilization organization; 2020 Democratic presidential candidate; co-chair for Governor Newsom’s 2020 Business and Jobs Recovery Task Force
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The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American
Catholic Church
By Rachel L. Swarns. The story of a group of Catholic priests who in 1838 sold 272 enslaved people to save their largest mission project, what later became Georgetown University. Follows one family through nearly two centuries of indentured servitude and enslavement illustrating how the Church relied on slave labor and slave sales to sustain its operations and to help finance its expansion. Also shines a light on the enslaved people whose forced labor helped to build the largest religious denomination in the nation. Read more.
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The Risk of Being Woke:
Sermonic Reflections for Activists
By Curtiss Paul DeYoung. A collection of reflections written following the murder of George Floyd, to provide spiritual sustenance for the activist soul. Reacting to high-profile police-involved Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) deaths locally and nationally, the author turns to the Bible for inspiration to continue the work for justice, urging activists to remain spiritually awake as they strive for positive social change. Read more.
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EcoActivist Testament: Explorations of Faith and Nature for Fellow Travelers
By H. Paul Santmire. Written for those who are at the front lines of discipleship in this era of planetary emergency, especially for those who sometimes feel spiritually isolated or exhausted. In this forthright and plainspoken book, the longtime Christian ecojustice activist and well-known ecological theologian, inspired by the witness of Saint Francis of Assisi, tells a personal story as he explores the riches of a biblically informed theological vision of God’s love for the whole creation. Read more.
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Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church
By Nijay K. Gupta. Offers evidence from the New Testament that women were actively involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, and as respected leaders. Sheds light on their many contributions to the planting, growth, and health of the first Christian churches. First sets the context by exploring the lives of first-century women and addressing common misconceptions, then focuses on the women leaders of the early churches such as:
- Phoebe, Paul’s trusted coworker
- Prisca, strategic leader and expert teacher
- Junia, courageous apostle
- Nympha, representative of countless lesser-known figures
Points out that they were welcomed by Paul and other apostles, were equipped and trained for ministry leadership, instructed others, traveled long distances, were imprisoned―and once in a while became heroes and giants. Read more.
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Fire and Flood: A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present
By Eugene Linden. A big-picture reckoning with our failure to address climate change. Starting with the 1980s, tells the story, decade by decade, by looking at four clocks that move at different speeds: the reality of climate change itself; the scientific consensus about it, which always lags reality; public opinion and political will, which lag further still; and, perhaps most important, business and finance. Reality marches on at its own pace, but the public will and even the science are downstream from the money. Shows how effective moneyed climate-change deniers have been at slowing and even reversing the progress of our collective awakening. Focuses on the power of key business interests, such as the insurance industry, as a "canary in the coal mine." Fire and flood zones in Florida and California, among other regions, are now seeing what many call “climate redlining.” Argues that those same interests could flip the story very quickly—if they can get ahead of a looming economic catastrophe. Read more.
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Refugee and Immigrant Center for
Education and Legal Services (RAICES)
A nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees. With legal services, social programs, bond assistance, and an advocacy team focused on changing the narrative around immigration in this country, RAICES operates on the national frontlines of the fight for immigration rights. Defends the rights of immigrants and refugees, empowers individuals, families, and communities, and advocates for liberty and justice. Learn more.
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War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine
By Norman Solomon. Exposes how since 9/11 a perpetual state of war that is almost entirely invisible to the American public happened, and what its consequences are, from military and civilian casualties to drained resources at home. Shows how compliant journalists added to the smokescreen by providing narrow coverage of military engagements and by repeating the military’s talking points. Argues that the cloak of invisibility masks massive Pentagon budgets that receive bipartisan approval even as policy makers struggle to fund the domestic agenda. A moral call for counting the true costs of war.
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Wear the Peace
Works to create a world where people going through a daily struggle to get food and clean drinking water becomes nonexistent; where families living in war zones becomes a thing of the past. Provides a list of trusted 501(c)(3) charities that are helping different causes around the world so every purchase gives back to a humanitarian cause. Their mission is to spread peace & love through clothing and contributions. Learn more.
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A Kids Books
A resource from A Kids Company that publishes over 100 books for kids about real-life topics including voting, racism, gratitude, empathy, equality, justice, being inclusive, climate change and activism. Encourages conversations in homes, schools and classrooms all over the world. Their mission is to empower a generation of kids through diverse storytelling. Learn more.
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No Guilty Bystander: The Extraordinary Life of Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton
By Frank Fromherz and Suzanne Sattler IHM. Tells the story of Thomas Gumbleton -- retired Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, who has long served as an outstanding voice and witness for peace and justice in the Catholic Church. From his early opposition to the Vietnam war, his work on the Bishops’ historic pastoral on nuclear weapons, to his peacemaking missions and solidarity with marginalized communities around the globe, and his promotion of reform and renewal in the church, he has offered a prophetic model of faithful discipleship. Read more.
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Important Dates This Month
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Individuals Honored This Month |
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July 2nd
When you hate, the only person that suffers is you because most of the people you hate don't know it and the rest don't care.
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July 2nd
I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust…. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice
but to do better.
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July 5th
The Gospel has to grow little feet.
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July 6th
Love is the absence of judgment.
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July 7th
Peasant people don't have a chance to share in the riches that the planet can offer because some people are taking off so much of the pleasures of this world, and there's only so much to go around.
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July 12th
When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.
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July 18th
No one is born hating another person because of skin color, background, or religion.
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July 25th
Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, 'That's their business, not mine.' Now I know how wrong I was. I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.
Mamie Till, Emmett's mother
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