Push For U.S. Slavery Reparations Continues In Newark

NEWARK, NJ — The group behind Newark’s massive George Floyd protest continues to demand reparations for slavery in the United States.

Last week, the People’s Organization For Progress (POP) hosted a virtual program on “Reparations For Slavery In The United States” in recognition of Black History Month.

The group helped to draw an estimated 12,000 people to Newark for a peaceful protest on police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May 2020.

• See related article: They Helped Lead Newark's George Floyd Protest; What's Next?

“We held this program as part of an ongoing effort to educate the public about and build support for reparations for African-Americans, and related legislation currently being discussed at the federal and state levels,” said POP chair Lawrence Hamm, a former U.S. Senate candidate.

That legislation includes H.R. 40, a federal bill that would establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery.

Although it was first proposed in 1989 by Rep. John Conyers Jr., the current version of the bill is still in the first stage of the legislative process. It was introduced into Congress on Jan. 4.

The bill has reportedly gained the tentative support of President Joe Biden. No Republicans have signed on to H.R. 40 yet, but more than 160 Democrats have. It stands a 55 percent chance of being enacted according to Skopos Labs.

Panelists at the POP’s Feb. 18 Zoom meeting included Omowale Clay (December 12th Movement), Kelly Harris (director of the Africana studies program at Seton Hall University), Nichole Nelson (policy analyst at the Newark-based New Jersey Institute for Social Justice), Atalaya Armstrong (Trenton Branch NAACP) and Akil Khalfani (director at the Africana Institute, Essex County College).

“The POP demands reparations for the descendants of those who were enslaved in this country,” Hamm said, adding that the group also supports the call for a reparations executive order by President Biden, as well as state and local reparations legislation.

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Other panelists at the meeting offered similar sentiments.

“They will study us or allow us to study ourselves into perpetuity for chump change if we let them,” Clay said. “If we want reparations, we have to fight for them.”

Harris said that interest in U.S. slavery reparations has continued to increase over the past 20 years.

“The H.R. 40 hearings reflect the increasing interest and the push to not only study reparations, but to discuss remedies,” Harris said.

According to Armstrong, reparations aren’t a “gift” – they’re a debt that’s owed. And it’s time to cut a check, she said.

“If we are to move forward and be the great nation that we have a desire to be, it is imperative that we right the wrongs of the past,” Armstrong said.

Khalfani, who ran for Congress in New Jersey’s 10th District last year, underscored the need for an international perspective on reparations.

“There is a global call for reparations (repair) from the enslavement, torture, torment and abuse of African Americans and African people around the world,” Khalfani said. “To realize the demand for reparations, the U.S. examination and implementation of it must be tied to this wider call for the healing from white supremacy, colonization and enslavement of African people on the African continent and in the diaspora.”

Nelson spoke to the connection between “reparations for slavery and racial inequality.”

“There is a direct line from slavery in America to the cracks of structural racism in our foundation today, including in New Jersey, where we face some of the widest racial disparities in the country,” Nelson stated.

She highlighted reparations bills currently before the New Jersey Legislature, A711 and S322 which would create a “New Jersey Reparations Task Force” to make reparations proposals for the harm caused by the state’s role in slavery and systemic racial discrimination.

The state bills have also gained support from the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus and the United Black Agenda coalition, who held a news conference on Thursday to urge legislators to pass them.

• See related article: Newark Residents March For Slavery Reparations (WATCH)
• See related article: Watch Sen. Cory Booker Of NJ Speak About Slavery Reparations

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