Amnesty International USA

WHEREAS, Amnesty International was founded as a grassroots organization for the purpose of securing basic human rights for people worldwide; and

WHEREAS, the removal of Africans from their homeland, the subsequent enslavement without compensation in the United States, and the mistreatment of their descendents since that time represent one of the most grievous violations of human rights, and

WHEREAS, January 5, 1993, Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 40 to the House of Representatives, calling for the establishment of the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans, “acknowledging the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery in the United States from 1619 to the present day,” for the purpose of submitting a report to Congress for further action and consideration with respect to slavery’s effects on African American lives, economics, and politics;

WHEREAS, at the conclusion of the Civil War, the plan for the economic redistribution of land and resources on behalf of the former slaves of the Confederacy was never enacted; and

WHEREAS, the failure to distribute land prevented newly freed Blacks from achieving true autonomy and made their civil and political rights all but meaningless; and

WHEREAS, conditions comparable to “economic depression” continue for millions of African Americans in communities where unemployment often exceeds 50 percent; and

WHEREAS, unabated narcotics trafficking and gang killings as a result of these economic realities can be traced to the broken promise that each slave would receive “forty acres, fifty dollars, and a mule”; and

WHEREAS, William R. Vaughan timely secured the introduction of nine bills starting in 1890 in succession to the Congress, none of which ever became law. All of the bills were identical; each providing a pension to ex-slaves based on a scale. Ex-slaves 70 years and older were to receive an initial payment of $500 and $15 a month; ex-slaves 60-70 years would receive $300 and $12 a month; ex-slaves 50-60 years would receive $100 and $8 a month; and those ex-slaves less than 50 years old would not receive an initial payment, but a $4 a month pension; and

WHEREAS, the economic gains that were temporarily experienced by the Black middle class following the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 have been seriously eroded by the failure to enforce the same and by the Supreme Court’s attack and the U.S. House of Representatives’ attack on affirmative action; and

WHEREAS, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and conservative scholar Dr. Shelby Steele have both contended that the danger facing civil rights in America is not the absence of law, but failure to enforce existing laws;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED:

(1) that Amnesty International USA support the discussion and study of reparation for African Americans;

(2) that Amnesty International USA petition the President, Vice President, and the United States House of Representatives to support the passage and signing of H.R. 40; and

(3) that a written copy of this resolution be delivered to the President and Vice President of the United States.