I say, David Horowitz has managed to stir up a real stink lately, hasn’t he, preaching his 10 reasons why reparations for slavery are a bad idea — and racist too.
For the past two years or so, I’ve been following this often heated and controversial issue, and across the nation, most white folks are vehemently against reparations of any sort. Hell, you mention a mere apology for slavery and their shorts get all knotted. I truly believe that there would be another Civil War if the U.S. government ever considered this measure. Please, let me share with your readers why I’m still waiting on my 80 acres and a mule.
On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves. On that very same day, the Homestead Act of 1862 was enacted. Under this act, the U.S. Congress literally gave away 160 acres of land per person or family, free.
For more than 100 years, more than 2 million white Americans received more than 270 million acres of land, and the only stipulation was that they had to “homestead” the land for five years and it would be theirs. Imagine that: 160 acres of land, free. And the settlers didn’t even have to be U.S. citizens to qualify; they only had to be working on becoming citizens. This act, the Homestead Act of 1862, was, to my knowledge, never repealed.
In 1866, another homestead act, possibly known as the Southern Homestead Act, was also enacted by Congress. It stipulated that public lands in the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida be disposed of according to the stipulations of the Homestead Act of 1862. There was no distinction for race or color. Settlers were to receive no more than 80 acres. This act was part of Reconstruction. Some ex-slaves did indeed receive a few Southern acres, which were eventually returned to the pardoned Confederates. In 1876, this second homestead act was repealed. America preferred to keep the freed slaves, my ancestors, as sharecroppers for another 100 years. The rest is history.
The U.S. government could give away 160 acres of land — free, even to noncitizens — but it could not give 80 acres, as enacted, to a people who provided them 200-plus years of hard, free labor. Instead, they gave my people 100-plus more years of hate, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, the KKK, lynchings, segregation, oppression, miscegenation, poverty and more hate. I ask you, would black America — no, would America as a whole — be a better nation if we’d gotten our acres, as promised? Hell, right now, I’d take an acre and a chicken.
P.S. I realize that my chances of you ever printing my letter are about as good as me turning white, but like my dear old father used to tell me (God rest his soul), nothing beats a failure but a try. And besides, I get sheer satisfaction out of knowing that some young, white American on the other end will indeed read this. Peace and love, my fellow Americans; we are all in this together.