IT WAS LATE September when Bea Gaddy, the 2nd District Democratic city councilwoman, rose on the floor of Baltimore's legislative chambers and introduced a resolution that's bound to please some and befuddle, astound and infuriate others.
"I introduce this bill this evening because it's long overdue and at the request of my constituents," Gaddy said.
The resolution calls on the U.S. Congress to consider the issue of whether reparations should be paid to African-Americans because of the slavery their ancestors had to endure and the discrimination descendants of those slaves faced well into this century, making conditions for many blacks slave-like in all but name. It is similar to resolutions drafted across the nation, including one by Rep. Bobby L. Rush, a Democrat from Illinois.
Jerome Graham-Bey sat in the visitors' section, a few rows behind Gaddy's desk. With his maroon fez perched proudly atop his head, he shuffled through some bumper stickers he and a cohort had brought to council chambers for the occasion.
"40 Acres and a Tractor" the bumper stickers read, an obvious update of the phrase "40 Acres and a Mule," popular among black reparationists.
The saying dates from the Civil War, when Rep. Thaddeus Stevens introduced a House of Representatives resolution calling for newly freed slaves to receive 40 acres of land. The resolution has been transmuted in the oral tradition of Afro-America as a government promise to give black families 40 acres and a mule.
Stevens' resolution didn't have the force of law and does not amount to a federal promise to blacks. But clearly Stevens' proposal is exactly what the U.S. government should have done immediately after the Civil War. It would have spared the country much grief and trouble, on the racial front, in later years.
Now, black reparationists insist it's pay-up time for the government. Official promise or no, it's time, they say, to do what should have been done in 1865. And, some of them stress, it's not just a money issue.
"A lot of people need to be educated as to the word itself," Graham-Bey said about the term "reparations" as he stood in the hallway after the council had adjourned. "I'm not talking about the monetary aspect. We can't be reparated financially. I'm looking at the damage that's been done to our people. It's deeper than the financial part."
How does Graham-Bey define reparations?
