It is painfully obvious after reading the longform essay "The Case for Reparations" from Ta-Nehisi Coates at the Atlantic, something must be done to investigate the lasting, systemic consequences of centuries of legalized slavery, segregation, oppression, and social isolation of black Americans in the US.

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced HR40 in every Congress since 1989. http://conyers.house.gov/index.cfm/reparations

Coates articluated the obstinance toward this legislation as follows:

"A country curious about how reparations might actually work has an easy solution in Conyers’s bill, now called HR 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. We would support this bill, submit the question to study, and then assess the possible solutions. But we are not interested."

And

"The popular mocking of reparations as a harebrained scheme authored by wild-eyed lefties and intellectually unserious black nationalists is fear masquerading as laughter. Black nationalists have always perceived something unmentionable about America that integrationists dare not acknowledge—that white supremacy is not merely the work of hotheaded demagogues, or a matter of false consciousness, but a force so fundamental to America that it is difficult to imagine the country without it."

Many people don't know exactly what they can do and how they can help in this cause. So, I have started a petition so that the least of us may be counted.

The full article can be found here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/