Dispute brewing in Pine Bluff, Ark., over reparations resolution
Monday, August 16, 2004 at 01:54AM
TheSpook
A resolution supporting payment of reparations to
black people damaged by the effects of slavery and segregation laws has
become an issue for the Pine Bluff City Council. The council approved
the resolution last November, but Mayor Dutch King never signed it. The resolution supports a bill in the U.S. House of
Representatives, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. The bill,
which has never made it out of committee since it was first offered in
1989, would seek funding to explore the possibility of paying
reparations to black people. Kirby said the ordinance should come
before the council for a first reading on Monday. King said last month
that he didn't
sign the resolution because he disagreed with its language. The
resolution says that "African-Americans have received from the U.S.
Government and its predecessors, since at least 1619, only ongoing
contempt and relentless racism. The U.S. Government should
make a
formal acknowledgment of the Holocaust of African captivity,
enslavement and subsequent terrorism during a century of legally
sanctioned Jim Crow." [more 
]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.