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Maryland State Bar Association Annual Meeting June 1, 2021

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Maryland State Bar Association Annual Meeting June 1, 2021 THE FORGOTTEN 40 ACRES: HOW INHERITANCES, REAL PROPERTY AND TAXES CONTRIBUTED TO THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP AND HOW TAX POLICY CAN HELP REPAIR IT Maryland State Bar Association Annual Meeting June 1, 2021 Sarah Moore Johnson Raymond C. Odom Birchstone Moore LLC Northern Trust Washington, DC Chicago, IL This material is for information purposes only. The views expressed are those of the author(s) as of 06/01/2021 and not necessarily of Northern Trust or its affiliates and are subject to change without notice. The Northern Trust Company does not provide legal advice and does not assume responsibility for any individual’s reliance on the written information within this paper. Each presentation attendee and reader should independently verify all statements made in the materials before applying them to a particular fact situation, and should independently determine both any investment, tax and/or nontax consequences of using any particular technique before recommending that technique to a client or implementing it on a client’s or his or her own behalf. The authors welcomes your questions or comments about these materials. NTAC:3NS-20 THE FORGOTTEN 40 ACRES: HOW REAL PROPERTY AND TAX LAWS CONTRIBUTED TO THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP AND HOW TO REPAIR IT I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 II. Historical Background ............................................................................................................ 2 A. Origin of the 40 Acres Promise ......................................................................................................... 2 1. Slavery ........................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Port Royal and the Sea Islands ...................................................................................................... 5 3. Confiscation Acts and Port Royal Land Auctions .......................................................................... 7 4. Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction .............................................................. 9 5. Sherman Refugees and Special Field Order No. 15 ...................................................................... 9 6. Johnson’s Amnesty Proclamation and Reconstruction ............................................................... 11 7. Southern Homestead Act ............................................................................................................ 13 B. Other Attempts at Reparations for Slavery .................................................................................... 14 1. Reparations in the Colonial Era ................................................................................................... 14 2. The Pension Argument ................................................................................................................ 15 3. House Resolution 40 ................................................................................................................... 16 III. How Real Property & Tax Laws Codified White Supremacy ............................................. 17 A. Black Codes, Radical Reconstruction and Jim Crow Laws ............................................................... 17 1. Black Codes ................................................................................................................................. 17 2. Radical Reconstruction ............................................................................................................... 18 3. Jim Crow Laws ............................................................................................................................. 19 B. Sharecropping, Tenant Farming and Convict Leasing ..................................................................... 19 1. Sharecropping ............................................................................................................................. 20 2. Tenant Farming ........................................................................................................................... 21 3. Convict Leasing............................................................................................................................ 21 C. Racial and Exclusionary Zoning ....................................................................................................... 22 1. Early Racial Segregation Ordinances ........................................................................................... 22 2. Buchanan v. Warley .................................................................................................................... 22 3. Exclusionary Zoning .................................................................................................................... 23 4. Federal Government Involvement .............................................................................................. 24 D. The New Deal and Redlining ........................................................................................................... 25 1. Home Owners’ Loan Corporation ............................................................................................... 25 2. Federal Housing Administration ................................................................................................. 26 i NTAC:3NS-20 E. GI Bill and Restrictive Covenants .................................................................................................... 27 F. “Anti-Tax” Movement Entrenches White Supremacy .................................................................... 29 1. Property Tax ................................................................................................................................ 29 2. Income Tax .................................................................................................................................. 30 3. Tax Expenditures ......................................................................................................................... 31 4. Capital Gains ............................................................................................................................... 31 5. Estate Tax .................................................................................................................................... 31 6. State and Local Tax ..................................................................................................................... 32 IV. Prior Examples of Reparations ......................................................................................... 32 A. Holocaust Victims ............................................................................................................................ 34 B. Post-Apartheid ................................................................................................................................ 36 C. Native Americans ............................................................................................................................ 39 D. Internment of Persons of Japanese Descent During World War II ................................................. 40 E. Analysis of Reparations Examples ................................................................................................... 41 V. Options for Reparations in the U.S. ..................................................................................... 42 A. Federal Level - Estate Tax as Funding Source ................................................................................. 42 1. Jeffersonian Ideals Apply to Reparations Argument .................................................................. 44 2. Estate Tax as an Egalitarian Wealth Reallocation System .......................................................... 46 3. Measuring Damages through the Racial Wealth Gap Lens ......................................................... 50 4. Using Swollen Fortunes to Pay for Stolen Inheritance ............................................................... 51 5. Charitable Contributions Create Public-Private Partnership in Wealth Reallocation ................. 55 B. State and Local Level Funding Sources ........................................................................................... 57 1. State Estate Tax ........................................................................................................................... 58 2. Mansion Tax ................................................................................................................................ 58 3. Real Estate Transfer Tax .............................................................................................................. 59 VI. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 59 ii NTAC:3NS-20 THE FORGOTTEN 40 ACRES: HOW REAL PROPERTY AND TAX LAWS CONTRIBUTED TO THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP AND HOW TO REPAIR IT If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade. But in all the bridges we've made, that is the promise to glade, the hill we climb. If only we dare. It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it's the past we step into and how we repair it. Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb I. INTRODUCTION The story of America’s racial history is inextricably bound up with land and wealth. In the infancy of
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