Judge says No to Slavery Reparations

Descendants of U.S. slaves will not be receiving reparation checks any time soon. A federal judge served a blow to the modern slavery reparations movement by tossing out a lawsuit on Wednesday that asked corporations that reaped profits from slave labor to pay up. In a 104-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle said slavery has caused "tremendous suffering and ineliminable scars," but an attempt by slave descendants to seek reparations "more than a century after the end of the Civil War and the formal abolition of slavery fails."

"It is undisputed that Congress has taken the initiative to deal with issues arising from the slave trade in the decades after the Civil War. Congress has considered and rejected Representative Conyers' calls for the establishment of a commission to study the effects of slavery. . . . This district court will therefore not substitute its judgment for that of Congress on the matter of slave reparations."

Judge Norgle wrote that the plaintiffs in the case had to prove they were personally injured by slavery, adding that a genealogical tie to slaves is not enough to show that injury. He also ruled the lawsuit was brought too late and, citing long-standing legal doctrine, Norgle argued that a decision over reparations isn't proper for the courts. It's an issue that should be decided by the president or Congress, he said.

Norgle said the plaintiffs failed to show that they had experienced any "concrete and particular" suffering that wasn't true of African Americans in general. He also said those suing failed to allege any conduct by the 17 defendants that personally affected any of the plaintiffs.

Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National Black United Front, denounced the ruling as the product of "conservative, right-wing, judicial, political decision-making." He scoffed at Norgle's contention that plaintiffs had not proved personal injury from slavery.

"Judge Norgle is just a liar; he is exercising his political ideology," Worrill said. "We did prove it. It is a question of whose eyes are interpreting the facts. His eyes are the eyes of a racist."

You can read more about this here, here, here and here.

Comments

[Ray Brandt]

I have followed this situation for sometime and have had these thoughts regarding the lawsuit. If there would have been a lawsuit (I would have been opposed to it) and the prosecution would have won, my position would have been that the descendants of the Union Army soldiers that gave up their lives to abolish slavery should be compensated for making the ultimate sacrifice to help get rid of that awful thing, slavery. None of my descendants had anything to do with slavery, at least as far back as we have been able to go. They all came from Germany and Sweden after the Civil War. I had nothing to do with slavery. I would have fought on the side that was against slavery. I'm not so sure that people of today suffer as a direct result of what happened 150 years ago, but I am not one that would have been a slave so maybe I don't really know. I maybe don't know since I haven't "walked in their shoes".
That lawsuit just doesn't make any sense.

[Paul K. Graham]

As someone who studies black family history in the South, I have wondered how the pro-reparations groups actually plan to distribute the money if they prove that they have a legal right to it. In many cases, it is impossible to actually legally prove a direct descent from a specific slave -- then you have to prove the economic impact in real terms ($). This judge is correct to say that there is no legal framework on which a judicial decision on reparations can be made. Also, calling people who have a logical and legal reason not to agree to a specific type of reparation "conservative, right-wing" and "racist" really isn't going to answer any questions or solve any problems. It's just going to make people less likely to want to deal with you.

Here are some questions to think about.

If descendants of slaves who worked for the railroad can get money out of the successor companies (a private corporation), can the descendants of one of the slaves my great-great-great-grandfather owned sue me (a private individual)?

Also, as a "white" person, what if I can prove that I had a black slave ancestor who worked for the Georgia Railroad, now CSX? Can I get reparations for the economic harm done?

If I have a black ancestor who was a free person of color, am I entitled to reparations, seeing that "free blacks" weren't really free and did not have all the economic rights of free whites?

If my white ancestor deposited money in the Freedman's Bank, am I entitled to reparations because of the economic harm that befell them after the bank collapsed? Remember, between 5% and 8% of all depositors to the bank were white.

If I can prove that my white ancestor could not get a job because all the employers in an area used slave labor, am I entitled to reparations since the ancestor was negatively impacted by slavery?

As long as "reparations" is framed as a transfer of cash from one group of people to another, it will go nowhere. Also, even if reparations are paid by the U.S. government, will money be paid to the millions of blacks who have come to this country from Africa, the Caribbean, South American, and Europe, since the end of the Civil War?

Before these groups start suing or lobbying Congress for some abstract thing called "reparations," maybe they should sit down and come up with specific plan to present to the American people and get a real conversation started. They may be surprised to find that some of us would be happy to talk through this if someone didn't yell "racist" every time they are criticized.

[Chris Dunham]

Setting aside the legal arguments, what a boon it would be to professional genealogists if reparations were granted. Both black and (as noted before) white Americans would be eager to establish descent from an enslaved ancestor--not to mention the many Liberians whose ancestors were "repatriated" to Africa. Imagine the scam artists who would crawl out of the woodwork, each with a meaningless "CG" after his name.

Of course, since not all African-Americans are descended from slaves, a schism could arise in the black community between those entitled to reparations and those not entitled. Just what any civil-rights movement needs: disunity.

[Chad Milliner]

Chris is wrong in calling the "CG" postnomial meaningless. The CG (and other) postnomials granted by the Board for Certification of Genealogists, and the "AG" postnomial granted by the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) are granted only after a rigorous process of testing.

In the case of ICAPGen, you have to have already had many hours of experience doing genealogical research before you can even APPLY to be tested. The testing process itself involves taking eight hours of written tests (all of which must be passed with a score of 90% or higher) and then a couple of hours of oral interviews. And then you have to agree to abide by strict ethical standards -- exactly the same standards as those of the Board for Certification of Professional Genealogists.
I have earned the AG postnomial and know many professional genealogists with the CG postnomial. No one with the CG postnomial that I know is a "scam artist". Why would they be? They have worked too hard to earn the postnomial to risk loosing it by violating the ethical standards they agreed to abide by.

http://www.icapgen.org/
http://www.bcgcertification.org/

[Chris Dunham]

I didn't say, or mean to imply, that the CG is meaningless now, or that any professional genealogist now working is a scam artist. The designation would become meaningless if there were a great financial incentive to adopt it fraudulently, and little incentive for clients to confirm accreditation (how many patients bother to check the certifications of their doctors?). When used by someone only pretending to be a professional genealogist, the designation would be meaningless, wouldn't you agree?

If reparations were ever granted, there would be an incentive to misuse the postnomial, and thus cheapen its value for all who bear it. I have met people who use "Ph.D.", though they haven't satisfied all the requirements of the degree. Fake degrees and doctorates are easily obtained on the Internet. Why would "CG" be any less vulnerable?

[T. Kennedy]

The North won the Civil War and slaves were freed to accept personal responsibility and make their way in the world. The first generation to become citizens usually has a difficult time establishing their families in this country, but one has only to turn on the television to see how far blacks have come. I have two great, great grandfathers from Northern New York who would have prefered to stay home with their wives and raise their children rather than face lives suffering from permanent disabilities resulting from diseases acquired while fighting for someone elses freedom in the south. Fifteen children in our lineage had to get by in their father's absence. That law suit was just another example of a few people trying to get something for nothing and I'll bet that if they had won, sharing the settlement with blacks outside their own group was the farthest thing from their minds. If their hard working ancestors knew what they were doing, they would be spinning in their graves. SHAME ON THEM!

[J. L. Haining]

Look at it this way: If it weren't for the "slave trade" in this country their descendants would not exist,period, let alone in the most free, most democratic nation on earth. Moreover, many of the "black" people I know are part "white". The "white" part should not get any "reparations", right?

[Chris Laurel]

"Low brow, high stakes, crack smoke, black folks...."

I was always against Slavery Reparations. The mere execution of paying them out boggles contemplation. Do I think African-Americans as a class deserve them, though? Yes. Without doubt. We have continually beat that community down. They know we know this. We laugh at Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle because we know they are right. "It's funny, because it's true." But once we turn off the TV or leave the theater, we go back to the status quo, the Prozac, the lifetime of unending therapy sessions we need to help us deal with the fact our society is rotting from the inside out. It's not just our leaders; it's the people who elect them.

It's not just our leaders who barely debate the merits of destroying and rebuilding an entire country, but almost immediately debate the merits of rebuilding one of our own [black] cities? One of the most unique and culturally relevant places we have in this country? It shocks me. I question if this is the kind of society that listens to our forefathers anymore, or if we just listen to their words spun into lies. What has become of us? Do people ask themselves questions like this anymore? $1 billion dollars a day, and most of those fighting and dying are minorities, too. Go figure the white guys running the war never served themselves yet can question everyone else's patriotism. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. And we impeached Clinton over personal indiscretions, ones many of us in our own society are guilty? Remember the conservatives decrying "Travelgate?" That was cronyism and a scandal, and now look at those same individuals. Go figure - Republicans have the same human failings as Democrats. The difference is in the hypocrites who brandish their morality like a weapon at anyone who disagrees with them, or points out their unprincipled actions. It wouldn't frustrate so much if it didn't work. But the American public, in its decay, has suckled up to the hypocrites' teat, hearing what they want to hear, never caring the words rarely translate into principled action.

"Oh, but that's because Things Are Different." No they're not. They never are. I only see history repeating itself.

And we do nothing. We have turned our backs on blacks' problems and we have never kept our word to them. When we finally, reluctantly, started to accept them we said, "Go out there, be equal and good luck." Although we do not want to give them affirmative action or special consideration, or anything more than what everyone else gets in our Darwinian society. Then we wonder why one of their deepest poets was a drug dealer and gangster.

It's because they remember slavery. They remember hundreds of their children and men beaten or hung in the streets of New York City as the Civil War broke out, blamed for wanting their freedom. Isn't that heartbreaking? Even in this city. They remember "40 acres and a mule" which, had we fulfilled that promise, maybe their community would not be in the dire straits it finds itself in today. Instead we freed them, gave them Black Codes, Jim Crow, segregation and ghettoization. Holy Robert Moses! Because of one lousy Supreme Court interpretation, the Bill of Rights was not applied to blacks nationally until the middle of the 20th Century. Barron v. Baltimore. And now the kinds of guys who voted against applying the Bill of Rights nationally will be handing down decisions on our Supreme Court. And I'm not supposed to be frightened? I'm not supposed to yell out about this stuff in class when I hear it?!? Bullshit! A breach of decorum in defense of liberty is no vice, my friends. It's not even a partisan issue. We need to start looking and reading the roots of our country's founding, because it is obvious to me we've forgotten them.

http://accuracyblog.blogspot.com/

[Sinane]

I agree with J.L Haining 100%.
It is plain to see that nothing is going to get done about reparations, at least not with the present, hypocritical, supremest attitude that our government seems to be so famous for. I believe that the Black community as a whole is in dire need of help. Financially, communities are bobmarded with hardships and maybe, just maybe the "40 acres and a Mule" would have turned the present situation 360 degrees in the other direction. The only problem with this way of thinking is that it simply did not happen. There was no lasting attempt for reparation and to be quite frank, there probably never will be.

The Black community needs help, but the most impotant question to ask is, from whome? From the government which has apparently wronged them? its not going to happen, and if it does, not sufficiantly. The reparations made to Native Americans and other groups are laughable at best. has anyone taken a good look at how the Native American peoples are doing? The land given to them is STILL being taken away little by little.

The Government is holding a monetary reparation just above reach of the Black community, and they want nothing more than to grasp it. Plain and simple, it will not happen.