WASHINGTON (NNPA) -- The National
Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) held its 11th Annual
Reparations Conference with an endorsement from the African American Holiday
Association (AAHA). It was a weeklong event that ended on Juneteenth (June
19). The conference included a Reparations Compensation Rally at the Lincoln
Memorial, and a march from the Frederick Douglass Center to the U.S. Capitol.
"The movement toward apologizing
for the enslavement holocaust period is growing," explains co-creator and
founder/director of AAHA Handi Kendi. He notes the uniting of the Chiefs
and Queen Mother's houses of Skins and Stools (both symbols of leadership)
in 1994 in a ritual of empowerment, the spring 1995 apology of the Southern
Baptist Convention that requested forgiveness of their racism, the 1996
Holy Day of Atonement represented in the Million Man March, the recent
apology of Benin (formerly Dahomy during the 17th century slave era) for
its part as a major supplier of Africans to White exporters, and the forthcoming
apology by U.S. Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio) for enslavement as examples of
the rising momentum of the reparations movement.
"The collective efforts towards atonement
will then make us all a whole people again," says Kendi.
At the conference, NCOBRA's leaders
discussed rationale for action, and brought attention to HR40, reintroduced
to Congress by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) a bill that would make
reparations and atonement reality.
NCOBRA developed strategies for filing
a class action lawsuit against the U.S. government, while building a stronger
backbone with the election of 62 Economic Development Commissioners, representing
nine states and 23 cities across the nation to assist in the push for atonement
and reparations.
"The Thirteenth Amendment says they
must abolish slavery and all of its vestiges," said Adjoa Alyetoro, Chair
of NCOBRA's Legal Strategies. "The federal government has yet to complete
this task."
NCOBRA will utilize the amendment
as leverage to not only sue for capitol but also community improvements,
and bring changes to the federal government.
"We are poised to conduct hearings
throughout the country," according to NCOBRA co-chair Hannibal Afrika.
"We will not only discuss the quantity and quality of the disbursement,
but also the mechanism."