Repair REPAIR Redeeming the Promise of Abolition Katherine Franke © 2019 Katherine Franke Published in 2019 by Haymarket Books P.O. Box 180165 Chicago, IL 60618 773-583-7884 www.haymarketbooks.org
[email protected] ISBN: 978-1-60846-626-9 Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International (www.ingramcontent.com). This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund. Cover design by John Yates. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available. For Janlori and Maya Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Land and the Question of Reparative Justice in the Sea Islands Chapter 2 Black Self-Governance at Davis Bend Chapter 3 The Ongoing Case for Reparations Chapter 4 Reparations Today Acknowledgements Notes Index Introduction “The past is all that makes the present coherent, and further... the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.” —James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (1955) The sea islands of Georgia and South Carolina are stunningly beautiful. Travel + Leisure magazine describes the area in this way: “On South Carolina’s once-isolated Sea Islands, Gullah is still spoken, African traditions are carried on, and salty marshes perfume the air.” The high-end travel magazine delights in the telling of a magnificent tour with a local preacher of the tidal and barrier islands on the Southeastern Atlantic coast. “‘Welcome to the best place on God’s earth,’ says the man behind the wheel of the gray 1985 Oldsmobile….