REPARATIONS Rally Planned

The intellectual and political underpinnings of the Reparations cause are expected to gain international attention as a result of a late summer rally and forum planned for the nation's capital.

Dr. Conrad Worrill, historian and chairman of the National Black United Front (NBUF), and State Sen. Donne Trotter (D-16th), told the Chicago Defender Editorial Board Friday that the August 17 event is intended to precipitate action on behalf of the century-old movement.

"It's another step. The Reparations Movement has become a mass issue today, not a recent phenomenon," Worrill said.

He and Trotter expect the event to become a watershed moment in the Reparations Movement.

Col. Eugene Scott, Defender publisher, said he is concerned about perception of the issue in the community.

"Many don't understand that in Washington, somebody is always protesting something. What you are doing is creditable and honorable," Scott said, adding that he is concerned about the conceptual framework of the movement.

Worrill said NBUF inspired the Millions for Reparations Mass Demonstration to demand Reparations from the U.S. government on the 115th anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey, who in the 1920s led one of the greatest mass movements in history for African liberation.

Calling for continued momentum in the organizing efforts stemming from last year's Durbin, South Africa World Conference Against Racism, Worrill said now more than ever African people must stand united in demands for Reparations in America.

In a published manifesto, Worrill said African Americans joined people around the world in demanding that the trans-Atlantic slave trade be declared a crime against humanity and that Reparations is owed to African Americans.

Scott pointed to a subtle psychological aspect of support for the concept.

"What I hear from the people is that they must feel it or it hasn't happened. You can `feel' capital assistance to small business, for example and what I see as Reparations is another form of affirmative action, or efforts taken by America to make itself whole," he said.

Worrill said the commitment to achieve that result exists.

"In Gary, Indiana, in 1992, the National Black Political Convention attracted 10,000 Black people and they adopted a resolution in support of Reparations," he said.

"In 1972, at the first African Liberation Day in support of armed struggle against Portugal, 60,000 people demanded Reparations," he said.

Scott said that part of the Defender's mission is to clarify the many misconceptions about what Reparations is about.

"A clear understanding will mobilize the people and once the people are for it, the people will move," he said.

Trotter put the issue in practical terms.

"Looking at the wealth of this country, which was attained on the backs of free labor, Reparations is part of the necessity that we become partners," he said.

First, Trotter said, it is necessary that the U.S. government construct an infrastructure upon which people have the opportunity to build their lives.

"Dollars should go to an environment in which you can learn and gain insight into what has been taken from us," he said of Black Americans.

"I'm proud to be a part of the Reparations Movement and it is important that we be resourceful together, so it is successful," he said.

Worrill said that an aspect of the movement that is essential to its success is reconnecting young people to the history of African Americans.

"This disconnection of history results when a generation doesn't know what the previous generation experienced," he said.

In his book, "NBUF, Genocide, and the Reparations Movement," Worrill writes that historical perspective is required to continue the movement's momentum.

The Reparations cause, he writes, emerged with "the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief Bounty and Pension Assn. in the late 1890s. According to the research of Mary Berry, Sister [Callie] House organized a Black mass movement demanding Reparations from the 1890s to 1915.

"Berry reveals that `working through meetings, literature and traveling agents, the organization successfully developed membership across the South'" and in five northern states.

Trotter said his work as a lawmaker and that of U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) adds continuity to the movement formed by Berry.

"I have submitted legislation to expose to the people of Illinois some of the atrocities that have happened to us and how they have been covered up," he said, adding that his initiatives augment Conyers' annual proposal, made since 1989, seeking Congressional hearings on Reparations.

"This country has made it convenient for us to forget, but my legislation and the movement exemplified by the [August] rally, keeps the memory of economic slavery alive," Trotter said, adding that it is important for the press "to make no distortions of our intent."

Scott asked for a summary of the August event's objectives and for "the end result of Reparations."

"Our central objective is to mobilize grassroots, everyday Black people to attend the rally to educate themselves and to address the issues," Worrill said.

"This is not about individuals receiving checks in the mailbox.

"Damages should be put into a fund -- for health, education, and for housing opportunities for Blacks -- but something that does not get discussed is that before any such allocations, we have the responsibility to repair our families and our institutions," he said.

Photograph (Dr. Conrad Worrill)