TheLoop21.com

Making good on the promise

by Susan Anderson
This is my last blog post for the Reparations Chronicles which gives me a chance to say thank you to TheLoop21.com for giving me the opportunity to write about not the news but about history, and how about how we as a nation are grappling with the wrongs of our past. 

Here’s what I promised in my first post:

Thurgood Marshall: The speech that made history

by Susan Anderson
As we wind down from this year’s July 4 holiday, I am thinking about a 20th century speech that shocked America, because it posed questions about the nation’s founding in equality and slavery.

The U.S. Senate's slavery apology was a long time coming

by Susan Anderson
The apology from the United States Senate on slavery has re-opened the debate over reparations for African Americans. Believe it or not, this apology is the farthest the U.S. government has ever gone to acknowledge wrongdoing toward blacks, and it has a long history.

In 1997, white Ohio Rep. Tony Hall introduced a bill calling for an official apology for slavery to the descendants of U.S. slaves. The bill was sponsored by 12 white members of the House — six Republicans and six Democrats. It was modeled on the 1988 congressional resolution that apologized for the government's internment of Japanese Americans in military-run camps during World War II.

Juneteenth: A true testament to humanity

by Susan Anderson
This week, many of us are celebrating Juneteenth with picnics and public ceremonies. But Juneteenth isn’t just a time to drink red soda water and eat barbecue ribs and potato salad. For 144 years, it’s been a way for African Americans to join with others and remember the slavery our people endured, and their freedom movement. 

Some call it Independence Day for blacks, echoing Frederick Douglass’ 1852 address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Race has major role in NBA, sports history

by Susan Anderson
It’s the middle of the NBA Finals, the championship battle between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic, and an opportunity to remember the fight against segregated professional basketball in America.

A lot of people are familiar with the old Negro Baseball Leagues, but how many have heard about the African American basketball teams known as “the Black Fives” — after the starting five players — or know about black basketball associations pre-dating the NBA?

Since the 1891 start of U.S. basketball, white-owned, professional sports leagues excluded black athletes. As in other areas of life, African Americans formed their own institutions, including professional basketball teams, to showcase their competitive talents, despite racism. 

A solution: Restorative justice in South Africa

by Susan Anderson
We hear a lot in the news about racial conflict, and a lot less about racial reconciliation. But from South Africa to South Central Los Angeles, there are communities engaging in what experts call “restorative justice" to resolve the wrongs of the past and present.

In the U.S., restorative justice has many applications. There are models that seek alternatives to the criminal justice system, and punitive measures that target African American males. There are models that provide opportunities for the victims of racially-motivated crimes to air their pain and receive compensation.

Effects of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot linger

by Susan Anderson
Last November, the month that Americans elected the first African American president, residents of Wilmington, N.C., dedicated a monument to the memory of a violent white take-over of the city in 1898. That was the year that white supremacists orchestrated what has been called “the only government overthrow recorded in U.S. history."

Steps toward reparations for Tulsa riot survivors

by Susan Anderson
The long journey toward reparations for the survivors of the Tulsa, Oklahoma riot of 1921 is one step further since Congressman John Conyers introduced the John Hope Franklin Tulsa-Greenwood Race Riot Claims Accountability Act of 2009 in April. The bill is now in committee.  And, in Los Angeles, on Sunday May 31, a documentary film, Before They Die, will screen to benefit the survivors of the Tulsa riot.

The Rosewood massacre: A nearly forgotten hate crime

by Susan Anderson
Most people don’t know that for at least one hundred years in America the ambiguous term “race riot” actually meant mob attacks by whites against African American people and communities. The long term, national pattern of white violence against blacks is a powerful argument for reparations. Some individual state governments seem to agree.

This week, we’ll take a look at the Rosewood Massacre, and how Florida became the first state in the country to compensate survivors and their descendants for damages suffered from what we would consider today a massive hate crime.

The long history of blacks and the auto industry

by Susan Anderson
The auto industry is in trouble, but blacks who work in the auto sector of the economy, from factory workers to car dealers and parts suppliers, are under a greater threat. Plans by Congress and the Obama administration to rescue the car makers need to take the well-being of the black community into account. That would help shore up middle class stability, while also preserving a significant part of our national history.