Resolution for The Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposal for African Americans

WHEREAS, In 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2016, 2019, and again in 2022, the NAACP has stated and reaffirmed financial reparations for African Americans and those of African descent in the United States who are descendants of slavery and the Jim Crow Era; and

WHEREAS, America owes Black descendants of slaves reparations for hundreds of years of slavery. Enslavers kidnapped and enslaved Africans from 1619 to 1866. During slavery, enslavers murdered, beat, raped, tortured, and terrorized enslaved Africans for hundreds of years. Enslavers robbed enslaved Africans of their original languages, cultures and religions; and 

WHEREAS, The United States government legalized, sanctioned and profited from the enslavement of Africans and plantation owners profited from the suffering and enslavement of Africans. Enslaved Africans labored on cotton, sugar, and tobacco plantations for centuries without any compensation thereby enriching plantation owners and their families. The profits from cotton made the United States one of the leading economies in the world; and 

WHEREAS, During the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery only in the rebellious Confederate states. The proclamation excluded states not in rebellion. In addition, the proclamation excluded parts of the Confederacy under Union control. Slavery was not fully abolished until the Reconstruction Era when the Federal government enacted laws through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution allowing Black men the right to vote, providing guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law; and 

WHEREAS, Other groups have received reparations including, seventeen (17) American Indian Tribes received $492 Million in 2008, settling a century old Treaty agreement and Japanese Americans who were subjected to forced internment during World War II received reparations. Unfortunately, the United States of America has never paid reparations to Black descendants of slaves; and 

WHEREAS, According to Duke University professor William Darity, Jr., Black descendants of slaves in America are owed up to $12 trillion in reparations. 

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP reaffirms its previous resolutions supporting reparations, and urges Congress to pass the Congressional Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.