Making Amends for Slavery? More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, the federal government is debating what, if anything, it owes to the descendants of enslaved people.

• Author: Grise, Chrisanne

Soon after the Civil War officially ended on April 9, 1865, Union Armies marched through the former Confederacy to ensure that millions of people enslaved in the South were free, at least in principle.

Ever since then, the question of whether to compensate those who had been enslaved, or their descendants, has hung over the United States. The federal government originally set aside land to divide among newly freed black people--a promise later known as "40 acres and a mule." After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, however, his successor, President Andrew Johnson, rescinded the order, giving nothing to those who had been enslaved.

The debate over reparations for African Americans has continued over the centuries, but the idea has recently started gaining momentum--though it's still highly controversial. A reparations bill that's been introduced in Congress every year since 1989 finally got a hearing in 2019, and some colleges and institutions that once benefited from slavery have begun to offer financial benefits to descendants of enslaved people.

The federal government has never formally apologized for slavery. In 2008, the House of Representatives passed a resolution that acknowledged the "injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow." And in 2009, the Senate passed a similar apology. But no single bill has made it through both houses of Congress and to the president's desk for a signature.

Opponents of reparations--which includes a majority of Americans, according to most recent polls--argue that the country has already done away with the racial injustices of the past and that reparations, in any case, would be too complicated. But supporters argue that slave labor helped build the American economy, creating vast wealth that most African Americans have never shared in.

The argument for reparations may be gaining traction now because of today's technology, says William A. Darity Jr., an economist at Duke University and a leading scholar on reparations. Social media has called attention to police violence against unarmed black people, he says, and many activists have used their online platforms to advocate for reparations. Others say the nation has waited too long already and must make amends.

"There's been a realization that more is needed to move us toward a more just society," says Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. "The country cannot progress as long as the stain of segregation and slavery still hangs over us."

Who Would Qualify?

The idea of compensating those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the government is nothing new. But there's no exact template to follow when it comes to reparations--although certain groups of Americans have gotten them before (see "Who Has Received Reparations?" fating page). In fact, while enslaved people never got reparations, some slaveowners did, a long time ago. In 1862, President Lincoln signed a bill that paid slaveowners in Washington, D.C., who were loyal to the Union up to $300 for every enslaved person they freed.

The situation would be complicated for African Americans seeking reparations today. About 47 million Americans identified as black or African American in the last census; the majority are descended from those who were enslaved in the U.S., but others are more recent migrants from Africa or elsewhere, making it harder to narrow down who would qualify.

Darity suggests two requirements for reparations: having at least one ancestor who was enslaved in the U.S. and having identified oneself as African American on a legal document for at least a decade before the approval of any reparations. The 10-year rule, he says, would help screen out anyone trying to cash in. He estimates that roughly 30 million Americans might be...