Should there be reparations for slavery? Two views on whether the U.S. should provide compensation for the past suffering of slaves.

• Author: Aiyetoro, Adjoa A.
• Position: Debate

YES The United States must acknowledge the horrors of slavery and apologize for it and the government-supported terror inflicted on African-Americans after slavery.

Reparations are a remedy for a past wrong. In this context, reparations include acknowledgment of the injury, an apology for it, and some kind of compensation. Victims of the Nazi Holocaust and Japanese-Americans interned in camps during World War II have received reparations.

Enslaved Africans were brutalized, raped, killed, forced to work for free, separated from their families, and denied the right to learn to read and write. U.S. law allowed all of this.

Conditions for most enslaved Africans were only slightly better after slavery was abolished. Most were freed with no money. Many could not find work. For almost 100 years, most African-Americans lived in segregated communities with poorer services and facilities than white neighborhoods.

Segregation became illegal in the 1960s, yet the vestiges of slavery continue. Predominantly African-American communities receive fewer resources than predominantly white communities for schools and hospitals. Studies show African-Americans are discriminated against in employment, housing, and education, and often receive harsher punishments than whites for the same crimes.

Official acknowledgment of and reparations for slavery and its continuing vestiges will make real the promise of the 13th Amendment and help heal a racially divided society.

--Adjoa A. Aiyetoro

Assistant Professor of Law

University of Arkansas, Little Rock

NO The idea of reparations for African-Americans was first suggested in 1829. The latest drive for reparations has been inspired by the compensation received by Jews and Japanese-Americans for atrocities visited upon them during World War II.

But...