Slavery enriched white slave owners and their descendants, fueling the country’s economy while suppressing wealth building for those enslaved. In 1861, the value placed on cotton produced by enslaved Black Americans was $250 million, and the country generated more than $3 billion in total value due to the labor of enslaved Black Americans. Jim Crow segregation, anti-Black practices like redlining, and other discriminatory policies in criminal justice and education robbed Black Americans of the opportunities to build wealth that was afforded their white peers. The United States has yet to compensate descendants of enslaved Black Americans for their labor, nor has the federal government atoned for their lost wealth from anti-Black housing, transportation, and business policies. Today, the average white family has roughly 10 times the amount of wealth as the average Black family. White college graduates have over seven times more wealth than Black college graduates.  

Making the American Dream an equitable reality demands the same nation that denied wealth to Black Americans to restore that wealth through reparations to their descendants in the form of individual cash payments in the amount that would close the racial wealth divide. Additionally, reparations should come in the form of wealth-building opportunities that address racial disparities in education, housing, and business ownership.  

The Bible contains many examples of generational reparations. Most notably, in the book of Ezra King Darius uses his power to provide reparations to the descendants of exiled indigenous peoples within his nation. Although the original acts of conquest occurred before Darius’ birth, he recognized his responsibility and passed a law decreeing that taxes be paid to restore the indigenous people and their descendants (Ezra 6:1-12). 

Congress must pass federal legislation to begin the process of federal restitution and nationwide reparations. Tell your member of Congress to cosponsor and pass H.R. 40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, H.Con.Res. 44 – Urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation, and H.Res. 414 – Reparations Now Act, as a step towards accountability, justice, and true freedom.

The effort to secure reparations for Black Americans builds upon the historic civil rights movement, led by the prophets Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In the last few months of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. founded the Poor People’s Campaign, which organized 2,000 poor people from southern and northern states to congregate in Washington, D.C. to meet with government officials to demand jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage, and education. Every year, the Poor People’s Campaign mobilizes a rally in Washington, D.C. to continue this legacy and fight inequality.