WHY IT IS NEEDED: The impact of African-Americans being excluded from participating in the United States politically, economically, and socially to the same degree as their white counterparts since the first indentured servants arrived in North America in 1619 are still being felt today.  Unpaid African slave labor was used from 1619 until 1865 to help develop the United States into what is now the most economically prosperous nation in the world.  The ancestors of African-Americans have a debt owed to them by both the state and federal governments who allowed slavery to exist as well as by the plantation owners who benefited from their unpaid labor.  It is difficult to put a value on what was lost for African Americans in terms of culture, language, religion, identity, and place of origin, as well as what contributions African-Americans might have made in other areas of US society had their ancestors immigrated willingly to the United States instead of by force.  While it might be somewhat difficult to determine which specific individuals benefited from slavery (other than “white people,” in general), it is not difficult to assess who is responsible for allowing it to continue.  To be certain, the federal government and the southern slave states made it possible for the continued existence of our “peculiar institution."

HOW IT WILL BE DONE: We propose a General Reparations Fund of $300 billion dollars that will be drawn from the current $690 billion dollar military budget to pay restitution to all African-Americans living in the United States today (born on or before January 1, 2010).  Each African-American (currently estimated at 36 million people or roughly 12% of the US population) that can show that they are the descendants of African slaves through birth certificate, oral tradition, or some other reasonable form of identification will be provided with a check of $1000 dollars per month for the next twenty years.   At the end of the twenty year time span the General Reparations Fund will be discontinued.