Reparations is a Battle Cry: The Radical Roots of the Reparations Movement in the United States

Contemporary Black political discourse has recently engaged several differentpropositions and models seeking to actualize reparations for chattel slavery in the United States as a major political project. On September 30, 2021, the state of California established the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans after the ratification of Assembly Bill 3121.1 As reparations has entered mainstream political discourse, it is important to historicize the contemporary movement and the organizations leading the discussions regarding reparations. This project will begin with tracing back the reparations movement to some of the first recorded demands of financial restitution made by formerly enslaved Africans in the United States. Furthermore, this project will explore how demands of reparations for slavery and racist oppression have evolved in the contemporary social-economic and political landscape. This project will investigate the political ideologies and frameworks that influenced the demands crafted by leading theorists and advocates for the reparations movement during the 20th century