reparations

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Lawmakers Back Moves to Atone for Racism

California bills call for issuing an apology and returning seized property, but there's no funding yet

(Newser) - California lawmakers last week passed some of the nation's most sweeping legislation aimed at atoning for a legacy of racist policies that drove disparities for Black people, in areas including housing, education, and health. None of the bills would provide widespread direct payments to African Americans, the AP reports....

Belgium Steps Closer to Returning Colonial-Era Remains

Critics, however, say law draft didn't include input from countries of origin

(Newser) - More than 500 sets of human remains taken from ex-Belgian colonies are currently housed at the Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, including the skull of 19th-century Congolese leader Lusinga Iwa Ng'ombe, who was decapitated in a battle with Belgian troops in 1884. Now, draft legislation is vying to...

Onondaga Nation Takes Land Fight to International Panel

Case seeks return of some New York territory sold in 1788, a claim once rejected by President Washington

(Newser) - The Onondaga Nation has protested for centuries that illegal land grabs shrank its territory from what was once thousands of square miles in upstate New York to a relatively paltry patch of land south of Syracuse. It took its case to President George Washington, to Congress and, more recently, to...

Judge Dismisses Reparations Suit Over Tulsa Race Massacre

Order says city's arguments were persuasive

(Newser) - A judge has rejected a lawsuit seeking reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a case brought on behalf of three survivors of the attack, all over 100 years old. Judge Caroline Wall on Friday dismissed with prejudice the suit trying to force the City of Tulsa and others to...

Group Calculates Climate Reparations for Oil Companies

World's top companies would owe $209B a year, according to One Earth analysis

(Newser) - The top 21 fossil fuel companies are responsible for 36% of global emissions since 1988, according to a new study , which concludes BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, and others should collectively pay at least $209 billion annually in climate reparations. Talk of who should pay climate reparations typically falls to the level...

Missouri Rep Announces $14T Reparations Bill

Reparations efforts are gaining traction, but the idea remains widely unpopular

(Newser) - Legislation introduced by Rep. Cori Bush calls for $14 trillion in reparations to Black Americans. The Missouri Democrat says the legacy of chattel slavery and the discriminatory policies, systems, and laws that came after continues to affect "millions of Black people" today, citing the worse health outcomes and infant...

SF Reparations Proposal Includes $5M for Every Black Adult

Draft plan also includes homes for $1

(Newser) - Payments of $5 million to every eligible Black adult, the elimination of personal debt and tax burdens, guaranteed annual incomes of at least $97,000 for 250 years, and homes in San Francisco for just $1 a family. These were some of the more than 100 recommendations made by a...

Poland's Fight With Germany Over Reparations Turns Nasty

'Disrespectful' Germany aims to 'treat Poland as a vassal state,' Polish minister claims

(Newser) - Poland is appealing to the United Nations for help in securing $1.4 trillion in war reparations from Germany, which describes the issue of reparations over its World War II invasion and occupation of the country as closed. Germany's latest response to Poland's request— issued last year following...

Poland Wants Huge War Reparations From Germany

Government to seek $1.3T, but Germany says the matter is long closed

(Newser) - Poland will seek the equivalent of some $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany for the Nazis' World War II invasion and occupation of the country. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, announced the huge claim at the release of a long-awaited report on the cost...

California Task Force: Reparations Must Be Made

500-page report is hailed as a historic moment

(Newser) - On Wednesday, a California task force released a 500-page report, two years in the making, on the state's historic role in harming Black Americans, from the days of slavery until now—and called for reparations to be made. California is now the first state to have moved forward with...

Calif. Reparations Task Force: Not All Blacks Are Eligible

Group votes to limit reparations to slave descendants

(Newser) - California’s first-in-the-nation task force on reparations voted Tuesday to limit state compensation to the descendants of free and enslaved Black people who were in the US in the 19th century, narrowly rejecting a proposal to include all Black people. The vote was split 5-4, with those favoring a lineage...

Iraq Is Done Paying Reparations to Kuwait

It paid out $52B over 3 decades

(Newser) - Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and its forces were ousted by 1991. In the more than 30 years since, it has been paying reparations to Kuwait, a process that has finally officially finished. The UN commission set up to review the compensation demands and obtain and pay out the money...

White Woman on 40-Day Hunger Strike Over Reparations

'My silence has allowed the systemic racism to continue,' says Rachelle Zola of Chicago

(Newser) - Chicago resident Rachelle Zola believes so strongly in slavery reparations that she's willing to die for them. Did we mention she's a 73-year-old white woman who didn't have a Black friend until 2015? "Am I willing to die for my brothers and my sisters when there'...

Slave Owner's Descendant Pays Reparations

Louisville nonprofit receives 6-figure check

(Newser) - A Louisville nonprofit that helps marginalized people has received a six-figure reparations check from the descendant of a slave-holder. "It is a blessing for us but also definitely owed," says Taylor Ryan, executive director of Change Today, Change Tomorrow. The donation was so unexpected that the organization first...

Denver Addresses 'Wrongs of the Past' With a Gift of Bison

Parks department is giving surplus bison to indigenous tribes over 10 years

(Newser) - The city of Denver was in the game of selling bison. But in a new move, it's opting to gift bison to indigenous tribes across the country as a form of reparations. Denver Parks and Recreation keeps two bison herds descended from a small number of Yellowstone bison, and...

Vote Establishes Commission on Slavery Reparations

House Judiciary Committee advances bill HR 40

(Newser) - A House panel advanced a decades-long effort to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves by approving legislation Wednesday that would create a commission to study the issue. It's the first time the House Judiciary Committee has acted on the legislation, per the AP . Still, prospects for final passage...

City Launches Reparations in a US First

Evanston program addresses housing discrimination

(Newser) - The nation's first government reparations program has been approved, with a promise to distribute $10 million over the next decade to Black residents who suffered housing discrimination or their descendants. The City Council of Evanston, just north of Chicago, voted 8-1 Monday to implement the program, Rolling Stone reports....

Jesuits Promise $100M for Slavery Reparations

Trust will benefit descendants of enslaved people, including those sold by Jesuits in 1838

(Newser) - The Catholic order of Jesuit priests has pledged to raise $100 million for descendants of the enslaved people it owned in what the New York Times reports is "one of the largest efforts by an institution to atone for slavery." The order relied on slave labor and sales...

City Plans Housing Reparations
City Nears First Reparations 
Mar 11, 2021 6:05 PM CST

City Nears First Reparations

Payments would amount to $25K per person, intended for housing

(Newser) - An Illinois city has planned its first reparations to Black residents: $25,000 for housing assistance. The money will go to all Black people who lived in Evanston before 1969 and endured discriminatory housing practices by governments and banks, or who are descended from a Black resident who did, the...

LA County Wants to Right 'Terrible Wrong' Done to Black Family in 1924

Family was forced to give up beachfront land

(Newser) - Los Angeles county officials may return a beachfront property that was seized from a Black family nearly a century ago. Manhattan Beach used eminent domain in 1924 to force Willa and Charles Bruce, the city's first Black landowners, off the land where they lived. The couple also ran a...

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