Reparations or compensation for the ills and devastation of enslavement, apartheid, and racial and pigmentation oppression is a controversial and contentious topic.
There is no denying enslavement took a horrific toll on the lives, psyche, and physical conditions of people of African descent in this country. It is only natural that Black people would seek redress for the privation and exploitation we suffered and endured for centuries, but the ruling oligarchy is unwilling to–even address the issue, and they mean to keep the issue suppressed and out of public consciousness except when and where it suits their agenda.
One of the first Africans in America to call for relief and restitution for enslaved Africans was Callie Guy, who was born around 1861 into enslavement in Rutherford County near Nashville, Tennessee. At the age of twenty-two, she married William House, and together they had five children. Mrs. House worked as a washer woman and seamstress to support her family after her husband died. According to some records, Mrs. House did get some school learning.
Mrs. House was influenced by a pamphlet she read in 1891 entitled Freedmen’s Pension Bill: A Plea for American Freedmen, which intrigued her, and she became hooked on the idea. She collaborated with Isaiah Dickerson to form the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association in 1894. Dickerson had worked with a white newspaperman named William Vaughn, who advocated reparations for ex-enslaved persons. Vaughn felt reparations would stimulate the Southern economy.
But House and Dickerson broke with Vaughn and went out on their own, traveling throughout the South advocating for pensions for formerly enslaved Blacks as a means to support them in their current condition. House and Dickerson organized chapters on the local level throughout the South that functioned like mutual aid societies. A member of the local organization paid dues, and the money was used to care for the sick and disabled and bury the dead. These were perilous times for Blacks as white violence, intimidation, and oppression were systematically tolerated, sanctioned, and encouraged throughout the nation.
uraged throughout the nation.
On the national level, the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association held conventions, and elected officers lobbied for federal legislation in support of pensions for formerly enslaved persons. House’s campaign was a grassroots movement; it received little attention or support from African-American leaders like Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. DuBois, while many whites felt threatened by the prospect of Blacks seeking payment for their labor during a time when anti-Black passion and rhetoric were being manipulated and shaped into white supremacist legislation and societal behavior.
**********
Thank you for reading an excerpt of Junious Stanton’s article on scoopusamedia.com. To read more of the article, “Calie House: Reparations Pioneer,” please subscribe to Scoop USA Media. Print subscriptions are $75.00 and online subscriptions (Print, Digital and Vizion) are $90. (52 weeks/1 year)
