Ever since the end of slavery, Africans in America have been hoping for and seeking reparations, for wrongs done against Black people for centuries.
Initially, after the US Civil War ended, Africans were offered 40 acres of land, and a mule to work the land they had worked without pay for centuries.
The promise was never realized.
The great abolitionist and religious leader, Sojourner Truth (can. 1797-1883), who was once a captive, called for reparations, saying, “America owed to my people some of the dividends…. I shall make them understand that there is a debt to the Negro people, which they can never repay. At least, then, they must make amends.”
From the day these words were first uttered, to this day, the voices of Black people called for reparations. It may surprise some, but the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. added his voice to the call.
In his 1963-’64 book, Why We Can’t Wait, King wrote: “No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation, for the exploitation and humiliation of the Negro in America down through the centuries. Not all the wealth of this affluent society could meet the bill. Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages” (p. 169).
King may not have said the word, ‘reparations’, but he certainty stated the idea.
Recently, the Movement for Black Lives issued a platform of issues important to Black well-being. Among the issues raised? Reparations for descendants of African captives.
Even more recently, a United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, working for the past 6 years, has concluded that US slavery was a “crime against humanity,” and the US government should pay reparations to the descendants of those humans who were wronged. The UN experts met with members of half a dozen US government agencies, including the departments of Health & Human Services, Labor, and Justice. They visited several major American cities, North, South, East and West.
Reparations may have come of age, after 2 centuries of being ignored and shunned.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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