Ogletree says: 'Slave reparations go beyond money Movement is about recognition'

• Originally published in the Times-Picayune on 4/16/2004 [here]
  

Professor: Slave reparations go beyond money
Movement is about recognition, he says
    Reparations to the descendants of African slaves isn't just about money, one of the foremost authorities of the burgeoning movement told an audience at Tulane University's Law School on Thursday. Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree Jr. said he doesn't believe every African-American should receive a check for the pain and suffering of their ancestors. The money should be placed in a trust fund to assist the poorest of the poor, he said, adding that economics, education and health care should be top priorities.

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Many descendants simply want recognition of the tremendous sacrifices and contributions African slaves made to the United States and an apology, he said. What makes the issue so divisive is the word reparations itself, Ogletree said.

"It's the word that turns most people off, not the goals that are at the end of the word," Ogletree said.

Ogletree's arguments still didn't convince Uptown resident Marcello Paoletti.

"I don't see how the taxpayers of today should be punished for events that happened a long time ago," Paoletti said.

Today's Americans did not participate in slavery and are not benefiting from it economically, he said.

Ogletree opened up the topic for a frank discussion with the audience after speaking at Tulane Law School's annual Dreyfous lecture series on civil liberties and human rights.

"The debate about race is just starting, each of us has an

obligation to participate in it," Ogletree said. "We are a very strong nation that should confront the issues of race if we are going to move forward."

Ogletree, 51, is considered one of the nation's most respected legal scholars and one of the leaders in the reparations movement. Ogletree is co-chairman, along with Randall Robinson, of the Reparations Coordinating Committee, a group seeking reparations for descendants of African slaves.

But Ogletree admitted that reparations would probably never be resolved in the courtroom.

"Litigation is the least effective way to solve this problem," Ogletree said. "I think it takes moral and political courage to do it."

Most of Ogletree's lecture was dedicated to a recent lawsuit the scholar and several others filed on behalf of a black business district known as Greenwood in Tulsa, Okla., once considered the African-American version of Wall Street until a race riot in 1921 destroyed the community.

White people "destroyed all the businesses and burned them to the ground," Ogletree said. "Then they went to the homes."

In short order, 100 to 300 African-Americans were killed and their bodies were never found, Ogletree said.

In February, Ogletree said, he appeared before a federal court in Tulsa to argue in favor of reparations for the surviving victims and their descendants. In March, a federal judge ruled that survivors cannot seek reparations because the statute of limitations in the case had expired.

On April 1, Ogletree said, he appealed the ruling and is hopeful that the appeals court will reverse the decision.

Ogletree said the judge wrote that the suit should have been filed in 1969 because he saw that as a period when the survivors could have been treated fairly under the law without fearing retaliation based on racism.

"The judge ruled in our favor in four of the five legal issues, and we are convinced that his decision to cite 1969 . . . is arbitrary and capricious," Ogletree said.

Other communities share horror stories similar to Greenwood's, and as the debate on reparations continues, more cases will come to the forefront, Ogletree said.

Ashley Wicks, a 24-year-old Tulane Law student, said she welcomed Ogletree's frankness in discussing race.

"During the whole lecture, I was leaning forward in my seat," Wicks said. "He was very honest. When a lot of people talk about race they want to sugarcoat it to avoid offending others. He made you really think about the way things are, the way things were and they way things should be.