MDDM related, black/white slavery

[Doug Millison]

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/ns/story.jsp?floc=FF-PLS-PLS&id=404809893&d
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US Black Demonstrators Demand Slavery Reparations

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A few thousand black demonstrators rallied on the
Mall in Washington on Saturday to demand that the U.S. government pay
blacks reparations for slavery and decades of discrimination.

"I want to go up to the closest white person and say, 'You can't understand
this, it's a black thing,' and then slap him, just for my mental health,"
Charles Barron, a member of the New York City Council, told the crowd.

The demonstrators, numbering about 2,000 to 3,000, came from all parts of
the United States, many traveling by bus from as far away as Texas. With
the U.S. Capitol in the background, they chanted "Black power!
Reparations!" and "Start the Revolution!"

"Apologize White America," said a sign carried by one demonstrator.

Barron, a self-proclaimed "elected revolutionary," said if the government
did not act swiftly he personally would storm the Treasury Department and
take the money for reparations.

Black activist Louis Farrakhan told the crowd, "America owes the black
people a lot for what they've endured."

"We need land for political independence, we need millions of acres,"
Farrakhan added. "We need payment for 310 years of slavery, of destruction
of our minds and the robbery of our culture."

The United States, torn apart by the Civil War, abolished slavery in 1865.
Some people argue that even 137 years after abolition, blacks still suffer
from the vestiges of slavery.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, urged blacks to press
their elected representatives in Congress to deal with the issue of slavery
reparations.

"We want reparations -- not next century, not 10 years from now, but now,"
Conyers said. "These wrongs can only be corrected in the House of
Representatives, only Congress can do what we want now. All congressmen
ought to be here today."

Conyers has backed legislation that would require the House of
Representatives to study slavery's effects on blacks.

Demonstrators said blacks deserved "long overdue" reparations, noting
compensation won by Jews in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust and
Japanese-Americans for their internment by the United States in camps
during World War II.

The turnout was smaller than the tens of thousands of demonstrators
forecast by organizers of the "Millions for Reparations" movement. But
those who traveled to Washington said they believed the rally would make a
difference.

"You have to really make some noise just to be heard," Edna Russell, who
traveled from Denver, told Reuters.

Kobina Abew, an American citizen from Ghana dressed in a colorful African
gown, said, "It's going to be very effective. It's going to bring a
solution to this problem, I believe."



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08/17/2002 18:43