October 25, 2003
Black Reparations Times Volume 1, Issue 3 October 25, 2003 REPARATIONS: A HISTORY OF N’COBRA’S LEGISLATIVE FRONT By Nkechi Taifa, Esq. Co-Chair Legislative Commission N’COBRA Undisputably, the 21st cen- tury brings renewed vigor to the forward thrust for reparations for African Americans on many fronts – litigative, legislative, and grassroots. This brief history will focus on activities surrounding the legislative thrust for reparations, of which, to date, the National Coali- tion of Blacks for Reparations in America has been in the forefront of shaping and molding. The struggle for reparations for African descendants in the United States has proliferated since Rep. John Conyers’ initial introduc- tion on November 20, 1989 of House Resolution 3374, the “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Dorothy Lewis, Quincy Jones, Kibibi Tyehimba, and Min. Abdul Khadir Act.” N’COBRA, founded earlier, Muhammad - May 21, 2003 following AYBP Lobbying for HR-40 on Capitol Hill was instrumental in the drafting of this legislation, working very closely with then Conyers’ staffer Gregory Moore in fashioning the bill. It was stra- tegically decided that the bill would closely follow the model of the Japanese American Redress Act in calling for the creation of a federally chartered commission to study the impact of slavery and post-slavery discrimination and make recommendations to Congress on its findings and, if appropriate, redress. Despite some differences of opin- ion as to the efficacy of this more conservative methodology of calling first for a study commission, N’COBRA rallied its human resources in support of HR 40, as opposed to a demand for actual reparations.
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