Sharpton, a likely (if longshot) contender for the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nomination, embodies an impassioned, determined mindset on the part of many African Americans who feel cheated by America's history, particularly its legacy of slavery. For this group of black activists, a solid and vocal presence in the overall civil rights movement for many years, patriotism has never come easy and acceptance of their country's heritage hasn't come at all.
There is no question that slavery is one of the greatest tragedies in world history, and it still exists in certain nations to this day. Nevertheless, slavery remains a uniquely bitter part of America's legacy, with cultural (and, many argue, economic) effects that linger to this very day. For many black Americans particularly embittered by the legacy of slavery, the answer to remedying any lasting effects and rebalancing the scales lies with the growing movement for slavery reparations.
The concept of reparations for slavery stems from the Civil War years, when Union military leaders, perhaps most notably General William T. Sherman, made a promise of "40 acres and a mule" to African Americans who fought the Confederacy. The promise was not fulfilled, when President Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, revoked the order and Congress declined to take up the issue. Though none of the original Americans who would have benefited from the "40 acres and a mule" pledge survive, their descendants have not forgotten.
Harvard Professor Charles J. Ogletree, co-chairman of the Reparations Coordinating Committee, says that the "legacy of slavery and discrimination in America is manifested in well-documented racial disparities in access to education, health care, housing, insurance, employment and other social goods." According to Ogletree, the goal of the reparations movement is to "bring American society to a new reckoning with how our past affects the current conditions of African Americans and to make America a better place by helping the truly disadvantaged."
Opinions vary as to how reparations should be collected and distributed, but Ogletree's view is that the money should not "focus on payments to individuals," but rather "on the poorest of the poor, financing social recovery for the bottom-stuck and providing an opportunity to address comprehensively the problems of those who have not substantially benefited from integration or affirmative action."
