250 years of slavery (12 generations)

90 years of Jim Crow (at least 4 generations)

60 years of Separate but (not) Equal

35 years of state-sanctioned housing discrimination known as redlining

Ongoing racism and discrimination that exists today

Since the first enslaved Africans were brought to America over 400 years ago to build the colonies and then a new nation, their descendants have been dehumanized, pillaged, raped, murdered, and subjected to every possible injustice. This legacy is a crime against humanity that continues to this very day.

A few historical facts:

• Slavery fueled America’s economy. In 1860, enslaved descendants of Africans who were stolen from their homeland were valued at over $3 billion. Conservative estimates value the unpaid slave labor at $50 trillion.
• In 1862, slave owners in Washington, DC, were paid ($300 per slave/roughly $7,600 today) from the public treasury for the loss of their slaves when slavery was abolished.
• In 1865, America breached Field Order 15 which granted 400,000 acres of land to formerly enslaved Blacks in 40 acre lots.

At the most basic level, for three decades, Congress failed to pass H.R.40, which would only study and develop reparation proposals. The time for action is NOW. One of the earliest accounts of a formerly enslaved person petitioning for reparations was in 1783 by Belinda Sutton. "[T]he year 2022 marks the first year the United States will have been an independent nation for as long as slavery lasted on its soil. No current-day adult will be alive in the year in which African-Americans as a group will have been free for as long as they have been enslaved. That will not come until the year 2111." Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

This petition supports National comprehensive systemic reparations to Black descendants of American chattel slavery that eliminate the wealth gap, are direct payments to recipients, and are made by the Federal government because the Federal government is the capable and culpable party. Hear from the leading scholars on American reparations, Sandy Darity, Jr. and Kirsten Mullen, in this podcast and in their book, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans In the Twenty-First Century

A comprehensive National program for reparatory justice would include acknowledgement of this crime against humanity, redress to fundamentally change the conditions of structural, racial economic inequality, a rigorous and accurate curriculum integrated into schools telling the story of America’s history, and action to create an AntiRacist America.

Additional support for reparations include: draft revised version of H.R.40/S.40 H.R."1865," Testimony for HB1201​, Why we need reparations​, What Is Owed​, Resurrecting the Promise of 40 Acres: The Imperative of Reparations for Black Americans​, What Reparations Would Look Like​, There is No Middle Ground On Reparations, and the Case for Reparations. See also, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson as "Exhibits A&B" to the case for reparations.

America has never taken responsibility for or stopped this ongoing Crime Against Humanity. With this petition we are trying to get the attention of the American people, the US Congress, the President, and state legislatures to uphold America’s promise for African Americans to receive reparations. 

Black people deserve better! America deserves better! Please help us start to right this wrong! Stand with and stand up for humanity! Please sign this petition! Reparations for African Americans Now!