PART ONE

A NATIONAL STRATEGIC
REPARATIONS PLAN
2006-2010
The Documentary Result of
THE NATIONAL REPARATIONS CONGRESS
Held in Compton/Los Angeles, California
MAY 28-31, 2004

PRESENTED AND COMPILED BY
THE REPARATIONS UNITED FRONT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WWW.REPARATIONUNITEDFRONT.ORG

(310) 967-5871
www.reparationunitedfront.org

THE REPARATIONS UNITED FRONT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REPRESENTING THE PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR THE NATIONAL REPARATIONS CONGRESS PRESENTS
A NATIONAL STRATEGIC REPARATIONS PLAN
2006-2010

I. RUF '04: In order to be effective and credible, any action plan---a battle plan, architectural plan, educational growth and development plan, etc.--- must have, at minimum, the five components immediately listed below:

A. A clear view of the relevant issue/problem to be dealt with or corrected.

B. A fairly accurate depiction of what has been attempted before, if anything, to deal with this issue/problem.

C. Why dealing with this issue/problem is necessary.

D. An operational definition of the issue at hand.

E. Specific steps to take to handle/correct the issue or problem.
CONTENTS OF A NATIONAL STRATEGIC REPARATIONS PLAN (NSRP)

I. Rationale For the Plan
II. Five Principle Goals For The National Reparations Effort
III. The Operational Definition Of Reparations for African Americans
IV. Broad Tactics For Short-Term Goals
1. Youth/Students

2. Churches/Mosques

3. Black Fraternal and Social Organizations

4. Education

(a) Public/Charter

(b) Higher Education

5. Community-based Organizations

6. Entertainment Industry

(a) Record Industry

(b) Movies/T-V/Cable

(c) Pro Athletes

7. Business Community

8. Legal Community (Including the Black Political Prisoners Issue)

9. Legislative/Governmental Community

10. Mass Media V. Broad Tactics For Long-Term Goals

VI. Needs And Resources To Achieve Effective Implementation And Success Of This Plan

I. RATIONALE FOR THE PLAN At this historical time towards the end of 2004, the Reparations Movement needs to move to the level of regional and national strategic reparations plans.

Why?

As long as the primary aim of the Reparations Movement is actually to achieve reparations, the momentum forward towards that goal will either be through divine intervention (usually called accidents, miracles, or dumb luck) or through carefully thought-out strategic steps by Reparations Movement organizers and planners.

Spiritual intervention will occur, whenever it does, in its own timing and is not in our control. The strategic implementation of group tactics is.

For the past five years or so, we have had hundreds of meetings, Town Halls, gatherings, sit-downs, conferences, and one congress to engage reparationists in discussions of what needs to be done, who needs to do it, and how it needs to be done. We have had over fifteen mass market books, more than five hundred printed articles, and at least twenty websites publicly distributed that deal specifically with aspects of the African American Reparations Movement, and, frequently, with the International Reparations Movement.

During this time, we have filed over twenty-five new reparations cases nationwide and have not yet achieved a single legal victory, including the flagship Tulsa (Greenwood), Oklahoma case. The nine cases brought to the Chicago federal district court in a consolidated package, including a California state case, were dismissed early in 2004. Eight of the cases were amended and re-considered, but as of December of the same year, the attorneys for the cases fully expected them to be rejected again by the same judge. The California case, brought on the basis of slavery and its legacy being an unfair business practice, sought to be remanded and will probably be adjudicated separately in 2005. Hopes for success are very dim since in November, 2004, California voters substantially weakened the unfair practices law. Additionally, according to a recent N'COBRA study by Wautella and Kibibi, we have gotten more than twenty-eight city councils and at least three state legislatures to pass public resolutions which support U.S. Congressman John Conyers' H.R. 40 bill to study the reparations issue. Still the bill languishes in obscurity, continually left off the agenda of the House Judiciary Committee on which Mr. Conyers sits as the senior member. The bill is barely alive and is essentially on life support with less than fifty congressional sponsors and no companion bill pending in the Senate.

N'COBRA, the most recognizable reparations group in the USA, has had at least five annual conferences during the period, and several special gatherings, including two important leadership roundtables . The NDABA series of reparations leadership meetings, called the "Great Sit-downs," were created by Dr. Conrad Worrill of the National Black United Front, in association with Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and has been held at least four times, twice in 2003, and twice in 2004. Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman's National Reparations Convention has also met annually since 2000, and the Reparations United Front of Southern California, in association with the Compton College BSU and the NRC National Planning Group, produced and held the first National Reparations Congress, which was a gathering of reparations activists from across the U.S., in the early summer of 2004. The Millions for Reparations committee, spearheaded by Viola Plummer of the December 12th Movement and Conrad Worrill of NBUF, held a national reparations rally in Washington, D.C. in August, 2002, and numerous other organizations have held panel discussions, Town Halls, Teach-ins, Black History Month lectures, etc., to spread the Reparations Movement word.

But with notable exceptions, the Black Church remains uninterested and uninvolved in the Movement. The traditional civil rights groups, with the exception of the local Political Action Committees of the NAACP, have eschewed any real commitment to or involvement in the Movement. Similarly, American youth and students, except on scattered occasions, have thus far not been motivated by or interested in the Reparations Movement to any significant degree. The Masons, Shriners, Elks, Eastern Stars, Black fraternities and sororities, and most Hollywood celebrities, except Transafrica Chairman Danny Glover, have shown little knowledge and given virtually no attention to the Movement, save the snide jokes of Cedric the Entertainer in "Barber Shop," and Chris Rock in his monologues.

A Black political movement, once achieved, cannot be sustained with the continued absence of the above components. Some advocates say that the Movement currently needs a charismatic, M.L. King-like leader; some say there must be a single, credible reparations organization that can be depended on to take us forward. These ideas, while critically important, are for another document.

Here, the point is made that one of the central components necessary for this stage of the Reparations Movement is a set of regional strategic plans with common principles and goals, and a single, unifying national strategic reparations plan. There have been great and profound speeches made, some brilliant ideas and projects offered and discussed by well-meaning reparationists, and a few activities actually carried through to completion, like the NDABA's grass roots petition campaign to Congress, and N'COBRAS's Black Fridays, and the Year of Black Presence, among others. But what is crystal clear when contemplating all that has been said and done in the last five years of this Movement is that while there has certainly been a great deal of talk accompanied by a number of important visions of things to come, there has been very little evidence of organized, strategic follow through.

The Reparations Movement currently hovers at another of its many crossroads. An increasing number of committed and dedicated Western States' activists who have invested a lot of time, money, energy and thought to the Movement are now constantly in high frustration mode and they cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. Many of them are thinking of moving on to other things and issues.

To help us re-invigorate them and provide an impetus for choosing the right path forward and to avoid the road to perdition, it is clear that the Movement must now have many more reparations chess players and less folk who merely talk a good game. At this critical time, there must be the coming to the fore of the strategic planners and organizers.

The following document, which is unequivocally a product both of the National Reparations Congress held in Los Angeles/Compton, California in May, 2004, and the flow of ideas discussed at the N'COBRA Leadership Roundtable in June, 2004, in Washington, D.C., and the two NDABAs held in Houston, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland in 2004, is the NRC National Strategic Reparations Plan. It is a five–year roadmap to be implemented regionally to accomplish the reparations goals of the African American population. We expect each region of the country to do its part, and the accumulated total should be the overall reparations victory that Black folk in this country, and in the world, deserve.

II. FIVE PRINCIPAL GOALS FOR THE NATIONAL REPARATIONS PLAN
All activity, projects, tasks and efforts identified in this reparations plan are to ensure the accomplishment of the following principal goals:

1. The raising of the level of consciousness concerning reparations to a critical mass of African Americans in each region of the USA---to wit, each reparations group in various parts of the country should dedicate itself to ensuring that reparations will be on the lips and in the conversations of all Black folk in the organizing realm of that group.

2. The organization, coordination and implementation of selective economic boycotts to gain bargaining leverage concerning reparations.

3. The planning, coordination and implementation of a national legal strategy.

4. The planning, coordination and implementation of a broader political/legislative strategy than H.R. 40 alone.

5. The establishment, coordination and implementation of regional Slave Remembrance and Restitution Funds that will eventually merge into a national SRR Fund.