Reparations advocates spoke Tuesday at Kennedy-King College in Chicago, Illinois, arguing that the federal government has a “moral” responsibility to reparate black Americans for slavery.
An attendee waited in the hallway with dozens of students outside the University Theater auditorium waiting for the event to begin.
Grace, a student at Kennedy-King College, told Fox Digital News she was eager to meet her professor, Dr. Daniel Davis.
“I’m doing African American 101 with Professor Dr. Davis,” Grace said. She continued, “I’m here to be more advanced than my ancestors. I haven’t had a class in over forty years, but I’m enjoying the day.”
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Davis, a faculty member in the social sciences department at Kennedy-King College and one of four speakers leading the reparations dialogue panel, teaches African American studies.
The event, titled “Setting the Agenda: Conversations on Reparations,” was moderated by Dr. Ted Williams III, chair of the Department of Social Sciences at the Kennedy King School, who posed several questions about reparations to the panel to spark discussion.
Illinois African Descendant Citizen Reparations Commissioner (ADCCRC) Williams asked the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Brooks about America’s “moral” obligation to address reparations.
“I think that’s an important distinction because one of the things I always say is absolutely the idea of reparations and repairing this country is definitely a municipal and government conversation. It’s definitely a numbers conversation about money,” Brooks said.
“But there are also ethical issues,” he said.
Brooks is the pastor of Lawndale Christian Church in Chicago.
“A lot of people want to talk about restoration, but we don’t want to talk about the truth,” Brooks said. “So repair is more than just an inspection, it’s an acknowledgment of the harm that was done. So tell the truth before you fix it, before you start talking about what check you’re going to write or how you’re going to fix it, can you admit that you did it?”
The panel discussed the importance of reparations to students and the public.
ADCRC Chairman Marvin Slaughter, Jr. said slave labor contributed “seven quadrillion dollars” to the United States.
Citing a study he conducted in 2022, Slaughter told Fox News Digital that the “seven quadrillion” figure comes from the lack of a 24-hour-a-day wage for enslaved people because they “had no time to be free.”
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Advocates spoke to dozens of students at an event at Kennedy-King College titled “Setting the Agenda: Conversations on Reparations”
(Getty Images)
“The total value is a little hard to calculate, but we see that in 1839 alone we contributed the modern equivalent of $6.2 trillion. That was just one year!” he added.
Davis was shocked by the number.
“Just hearing those numbers, it tells such a crazy story, but I’ve never heard that number before. I don’t doubt it at all, but seven quadrillion dollars, we own most of this country, the vast majority of this country, without reparations or some form of compensation for all this free labor. And the value that we add to this country,” Davis said.
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The “Greetings from Chicago” mural lights up a street in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood on March 30, 2018.
ADCRC released a report in March laying out the state’s history of hurting Black Illinoisans. The ADCRC released what it calls the “first comprehensive, evidence-based” report examining “how slavery and its remnants caused historical harm and continue to create inequities for Black people in Illinois.”
The report, “Narrative: A History of Racial Injury and Injustice Against Black People in Illinois,” was prepared by the commission to trace “racial injustice from colonial enslavement and early statehood to Reconstruction, Jim Crow, urban renewal, and mass incarceration.”
Williams also mentioned that local officials in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, paid $25,000 in compensation to people of black descent affected by housing discrimination.
“We want the government to be accountable for the ancestors who enslaved us and for the disparities that we see in maternal and infant mortality, education, educational attainment, wealth, everything. They’re responsible for all of those things,” Slaughter told the students.
Slaughter continued, “Beyond admission, admission without restitution, without paying for the crime, that’s nothing. So, you need to compensate the people who directly experienced the harm, and if those people are no longer alive because you waited for them, you need to compensate their descendants. Finally, closure, making sure you don’t repeat the harm is critical.”
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Following the event, several students were interviewed by Fox News Digital.
Leonte Fraley is a native of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, a graduate of Kennedy-King College and very active in the community. He launched Reach, Teach, Pray (RTP), a Chicago-based nonprofit youth development organization whose mission is to “empower underprivileged youth.”
“I went to this event to learn more about reparations. This event was very helpful and I felt like it was educational about our past and letting us know that we can move forward,” Fraley told Fox News Digital.
Winden, a current student at the school, told Fox News Digital that he heard about the incident from professors Davis and Williams. Wynden wanted to get into the industry and wanted to be a part of the HVAC industry.
“Sometimes I feel like we’re not organized and we have to be organized. It’s like, if you’re in a game and your shoe comes undone and the other guy’s shoe doesn’t come undone. You’re more likely to lose the game because you can trip and fall,” Winden said.
Original source of the article: Chicago reparations advocate says federal government morally owes slave labor ‘$7 trillion’
