Opening the Door to Reparations for Black Americans
Asmara Sium and her son Khalab Blagburn, 13, attend a hearing on reparations for slavery in Washington. Sium came to the hearing with Khalab because he became interested in the reparations movement after participating in a school debate advocating for reparations. (Yehyun Kim, USA TODAY via Reuters).
In 1987, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America — N’Cobra — spearheaded efforts to place reparations on the national radar, continuing the centuries-long struggle to realize reparations for Black people in the United States. In 1989, Representative John Conyers of Detroit became N’Cobra’s congressional champion by bringing the call for reparations to the floor of the House of Representatives. A congressional veteran whose career began with his election in 1964, Conyers came of age during the congressional sessions that passed more progressive bills — on issues of civil rights, healthcare, and the federal funding of education — than all previous congressional sessions combined.
Conyers’ radical stake…
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