A Bibliographical Resource[i] on U.S. (and other) Reparations
Compiled by Dr. James Lance Taylor, Professor
Books
America, Richard F. Paying the Social Debt: What White America Owes Black America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993.
Beckles, Hilary. Britain's Black Debt: Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Slavery and Native Genocide. Cave Hill, Barbados: University of West Indies Press, 2015.
Berry, Mary Frances. My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2006.
Brophy, Alfred L. Reparations: Pro & Con. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Brooks, Roy L. Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Darity, William and Kirsten Mullen, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020.
Hakim, Ida. The Debtors: Whites Respond to the Call for Black Reparations. Red Oak, Ga: CURE, 2005.
Henry, Charles P. Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations. New York: New York University Press, 2007.
Flaherty, Peter, and John Carlisle. The Case against Slave Reparations. Falls Church, Va: National Legal and Policy Center, 2004.
Feagin, Joe R. Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations (2000).
Martin, Michael T., and Marilyn Yaquinto. Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States: On Reparations for Slavery, Jim Crow, and Their Legacies. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.
Miller, Jon, and Rahul Kumar. Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Patterson, William. We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to The United Nations for Relief for Relief from A Crime of The United States Government Against the Negro People. New York: Civil Rights Congress, 1951.
Robinson, Randall. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. New York: Dutton, 2000.
Salzberger, Robert P. and Mary C. Turck, eds. Reparations for Slavery: A Reader. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004.
Schedler, George. Racist Symbols and Reparations: Philosophical Reflections on Vestiges of the American Civil War. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998.
Schuchter, Arnold. Reparations: The Black Manifesto and Its Challenge to White America. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1970.
Torpey, John. Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Walters, Ronald W. The Price of Racial Reconciliation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2009.
Winbush, Raymond A., ed. Should America Pay? Slavery and the Raging Debate Over Reparations. New York: Amistad, 2003.
Scholarly Articles:
Aiyetoro, Adjoa and Adrienne D. Davis. "Historic and Modern Social Movements for Reparations: The National Coalition for Reparations in America (N'COBRA) and its Antecedents." Texas Wesleyan Law Review (May 31, 2010; revised October 20, 2014).
“African Americans and Movements for Reparations: Past, Present, and Future.” Journal of African American History 97 (Winter-Spring, 2011). Special issue dedicated to the memory and scholarly legacy of Dr. Ronald W. Walters.
Allen, Robert L. “Past Due: The African American Quest for Reparations.” Black Scholar 28 (Summer 1998): 2-17.
America, Richard. “Reparations and the Competitive Advantage of Inner Cities.” Review of Black Political Economy 24 (Fall 1995-Winter 1996): 193-206.
_____. “The Theory of Restitution: The African American Case” in Boston, Thomas D., ed. A Different Vision. Volume 2. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 154-62.
____. “Reparations and the Media: A Slanted Arena for Discussions of Slavery Recompense.” Extra! May/June 2002: 21-22.
Baraka, Amiri. “The Case for Reparations.” Black Collegian 29 (October 1998).
Berry, Mary Frances. “In Search of Callie House and the Origins of the Modern Reparations Movement.” Journal of African American History 91 (Summer 2006): 323-327.
Berry, Mary F. “Reparations for Freedmen, 1880-1916: Fraudulent Practices or Justice Deferred?” The Journal of Negro History, 57.3 (1972): 219-230.
Bolner, James. “Toward a Theory of Racial Reparations.” Phylon 29 (1968): 41-47.
Brock, Gregory J., et al. “State of the Art: The Cost of Being Black-White Americans’ Perceptions and the Question of Reparations.” Du Bois Review 3 (September 2006): 261-297.
Brooks, Roy L. Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
_____., ed. When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice. New York: New York University Press, 1999.
Brown, Jeffery M. "Deconstructing Babel: Toward a Theory of Structural Reparations," 56 Rutgers Law Review. 463 (2004).
Brown, Robert S. “The Economic Basis for Reparations to Black America.” Review of Black Political Economy 21 (Winter 1993): 99-110.
_____. “The Economic Case for Reparations to Black America.” American Economic Review 62 (1972): 39-46.
Burroughs, Todd Steven. “1921 Tulsa Race Riot Survivors Denied Reparations.” Crisis 112 (July-August 2005): 11
Bush, Lawrence and Jeffrey Dekro. “Jews and the Black Reparations Campaign.” Tikkun 15 (July 2000): 12.
Campo, Shelly, M. Somjen Frazer, Teresa Mastin. “In Black and White: Coverage of U.S. Slave Reparations by the Mainstream Black Press.” Howard Journal of Communications 16 (July-September 2005): 201-223.
_____. “Predicting and Explaining Public Opinion Regarding U.S. Slavery Reparations.” Howard Journal of Communications 15 (April-June 2004): 115-130.
Cha-Jua, Sundiata Keita. “Slavery, Racist Violence, American Apartheid: The Case for Reparations.” New Politics 8 (Summer 2001): 46-64.
Chinweizu, “Reparations and A New Global Order: A Comparative Overview” Second Ple-
nary Session, Pan-African Conference on Reparations, Abuja, Nigeria (Apr. 27, 1993).
Chisolm, Tunneen E. “Sweep Around Your Own Front Door: Examining the Argument for Legislative African American Reparations.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 147 (January 1999): 677.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations”, June 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/.
_____. “How Racism Invented Race in America The Case for Reparations: a Narrative Bibliography.” The Atlantic (June 2014).
Cooper, Allen. "From Slavery to Genocide: The Fallacy of Debt in Reparations Discourse." Journal of Black Studies, vol.43, no.2, pp.107-126.
Daniels, Ron. "Reparations: It Is Now or Never." The Final Call, March 15, 2000.
Darity, Jr. William. “Forty Acres and a Mule: Placing the Price Tag on Oppression” in Richard F. America, ed., The Wealth of Races: The Present Value of Benefits From Past Injustices 11, 1990.
Davis, Adrienne D. “The Case for Reparations to African Americans.” Human Rights Brief: Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, A Legal Resource for the International Human Rights Community, volume 7, issue 8 (Spring 2000).
Davis, Angelique. "Apologies, Reparations, and the Continuing Legacy of the European Slave Trade in the United States." Journal of Black Studies, vol.45, no.1, May 2014, pp.271-286.
Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction In America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880 (1935).
Dymski, Gary A. “Illegal Seizure and Market Disadvantage Approaches to Restitution: A Comparison of the Japanese American and African Cases.” Review of Black Political Economy 27 (2000): 49-80.
Feagin, Joe. “Documenting the Costs of Slavery, Segregation, and Contemporary Racism: Why Reparations Are in Order for African Americans” Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal, Vol. 20, 2004, p. 49-81.
Franklin, V.P. "Commentary--Reparations as a Development Strategy: The Caricom Reparations Commission." The Journal of African American History, vol.98, no.3, Summer 2013, pp.363-366.
Fullinwider, Robert K. “The Case for Reparations”. Report From the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy 20 (2000) (2):1-8.
Harrington, Michael and Arnold S. Kaufman. “Black Reparations: Two Views.” Dissent 16 (1969): 317-320.
Henry, Charles P. “The Politics of Racial Reparations.” Journal of Black Studies 34 (November 2003): 131-152.
Hopkins, Kevin. “Forgive U.S. Our Debts? Righting the Wrongs of Slavery.” Georgetown Law Journal, volume 89, number 8 (August 2001): 2531-2556
Jeffries, Judson L. “Juneteenth, Black Texans and the Case for Reparations.” Negro Educational Review 55 (April-July 2004): 107-115.
Karenga, Maulana. "Reaffirming the Rightfulness of Reparations: Repairing Ourselves and the World". Los Angeles Sentinel, June 20, 2006, p. A7.
Kornweibel, Theodore, Jr. “Railroads, Race and Reparations.” Souls 5 (Summer 2003): 23-32.
Kull, Andrew. “Rationalizing Restitution”, 83 California Law Review. 1191–1242 (1995).
Lancaster, Donald Aquinas Jr. “The Alchemy and Legacy of the United States of America’s Sanction of Slavery and Segregation: A Property Law and Equitable Remedy Analysis of African American Reparations.” Howard Law Journal 43 (Winter 2000): 171-212.
Lechter, Elaine Allen. “We Are Demanding $500 MILLION in Reparations: The Black Manifesto, Mainline Religious Denominations, and Black Economic Development” in Journal of African American History 97 (Winter-Spring, 2011). Special issue dedicated to the memory and scholarly legacy of Dr. Ronald W. Walters.
Lecky, Robert S. and H. Elliott Wright, eds. Black Manifesto: Religion, Racism, and Reparations. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969.
Lyons, David. (2004) “Corrective Justice, Equal Opportunity, and the Legacy of Slavery and Jim Crow,”
Marable, Manning. “Should America Apologize for Slavery?” About Time 26 (February-March 1998): 15
Matsuda, Mari. “Looking to the Bottom: Critical Legal Studies and Reparations. In Crenshaw, Kimberle, ed. Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. New York: New Press, 1995.
Magee, Rhonda V. “The Master’s Tools, from the Bottom Up: Responses to African-American Reparations Theory in Mainstream and Outsider Remedies Discourse.” Virginia Law Review 79 (May 1993): 863-916.
Michelson, Melissa R. “The Black Reparations Movement: Public Opinion and Congressional Policy Making.” Journal of Black Studies 32 (May 2002): 574-587.
Morsell, John A. “The NAACP and Reparations.” Crisis 77 (1970): 93-95, 101.
Nixon, Ron. “Peculiar Profits: The Reparations Movement Pursues Slavery’s Blue Chip Beneficiaries.” Mother Jones 30 (July 2000): 17-18.
Ojo, Tokunbo. “Talkin’ ’bout Those Reparations: There’s More than One Way to Look at Compensation for Slavery.” Toward Freedom 48 (February 2000): 20.
Ogletree, Charles. “Reparations for the Children of Slaves: Litigating the Issues.” The University of Memphis Law Review, volume 33, number 2 (Winter 2003): 245-264.
_____. "Repairing the Past: New Efforts in the Reparations Debate in America," Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, vol. 38, no.2, 2003.
Okediji, Moyo. “On Reparations Exodus and Embodiment.” African Arts, volume 31, number 2 (Spring 1998): 8-10.
Osabu-Kle, Daniel Tetteh. “The African Reparation Cry: Rationale, Estimate, Prospects, and Strategies.” Journal of Black Studies, volume 30, number 3 (January 2000): 331-350.
Page, Jennifer. “Reparations for Police Killings”, Perspectives on Politics 17 (4):958-972 (2019).
Posner, Eric A. and Adrian Vermeule. "Reparations for Slavery and Other Historical Injustices". Columbia Law Review, vol. 103, no. 3, April 2003, pp. 689-748.
Reed, Adolph. “The Case against Reparations.” The Progressive 64 (December 2000): 15-17.
Reid, S.A. “Groups Urge U.N. Meeting on Reparations for Slaves’ Kin,” Atlanta Journal &
Constitution, July 13, 2000.
Roach, Ronald. “Fighting the Good Fight.” Black Issues in Higher Education, volume 18, number 19 (November 8, 2001): 28-31.
_____. “Moving Towards Reparations.” Black Issues in Higher Education, volume 18, number 19 (November 8, 2001): 20-24.
____. “Reparations Movement: Should Payments Be Made for Historical Wrongs?” CQ Researcher, volume 11, number 24 (June 22, 2001): 529-552.
Robinson, Alfreda. "Troubling "Settled" Waters: The Opportunity and Peril of African-American Reparations." Boston College Third World Law Journal, vol.24, no.1, Winter 2004, pp. 139-156.
Robinson, Randall. “America’s Debt to Blacks.” Nation, volume 270, number 10 (March 13, 2000): 5-6.
Smith, Mary E. “Clinton and Conservatives Oppose Slavery Reparations” in When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice. New York: New York University Press, 1999.
Torpey, John and Maxine Burkett. "The Debate Over African American Reparations." Annual Review of Law and Social Science, vol. 6: 449-467, December 2010.
Turner, James. “Callie House: The Pursuit of Reparations as a Means for Social Justice.” Journal of African American History 91 (Summer 2006): 305-310.
Waligore, Timothy. Rawls, Self-Respect, and Assurance: How Past Injustice Changes What Publicly Counts as Justice. 2016 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 15 (1):42-66.
Westley, Robert. “Fourteenth Amendment Jurisprudence: Race and the Rights of Groups.” Ph.D. Thesis, Yale University, 1993.
_____. “Many Billions Gone: Is it Time to Reconsider the Case for Black Reparations.” Boston College Law Review 40 (December 1998): 429-476.
Whack, Errin Hanes, “The 'Case for Reparations' is solid, and it's long past time to make them”, May, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/23/the-case-for-reparations.
Zulu, Itibari M. "African American reparations: a selected annotated bibliography." Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 9, no. 5, 1 Aug. 2016, pp. 90+. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A464045469/LitRC?u=googlescholar&sid=googleScholar&xid=cc44359e. Accessed 8 Nov. 2022.
News Reports:
N’COBRA Website: https://ncobra.org/.
N’COBRA report: “The Harm Is to Our Genes”, https://redressnetwork.org/news/ncobra-report-the-harm-is-to-our-genes/2120/.
Stephen Magagnini, “Descendants Suing U.S. Over Slavery”, Sacramento Bee, Apr. 14,
1994, at A1.
Kevin Merida, “Did Freedom Alone Pay a Nation’s Debt?,” Wash. Post, Nov. 23, 1999, at
C1.
Al Swanson, “Analysis: Reparations Fight Will Continue”, United Press Int’l, Jan. 27,
2004, at http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?storyID=20040127-012118-5919r.
Reparations bill gains traction in the House (7-3-19)
Reparations are treated as the cure for inequality — they are not (7-3-19)
Reparations won’t change the past. What about the future? (7-2-19) Con article
Slavery reparations could carry a $17 trillion price tag (19)
Reparations are not enough. Official racism lasted much longer (6-24-19)
Reparations economics 101 (6-23-19)
There is no middle ground on reparations (6-18-19)
Balancing the Ledger on Juneteenth (6-18-19)
The reparations debate (6-25-19)
Would reparations for slavery be constitutional? (2019)
Reparations for slavery debate in the US
Are reparations due African Americans?
Americans debate reparations for slavery
Why we need to talk about reparations
Calculating Reparations — Provides an explanation how the total cost of unpaid labor is $50 trillion.
History of reparations for African Americans
Should the United States consider paying reparations?
What we talk about when we talk about reparations
The debate over African American reparations (gated)
Compensation for slavery — This is a classroom lesson plan. It could be useful for starting a discussion.
Pro
Reparations for slavery aren’t enough. Official racism in America lasted much longer (2019)
Reparations are one step in the fight to end racial capitalism (2019)
We need reparations to begin making amends (2019)
Fund historically black colleges as reparations (2019)
Reparations are economically and legally valid (2019)
Reparations address a legacy of racism (2019)
One of the biggest arguments against reparations is based on a lie (2019)
Why countries pay reparations (2019)
Jews cautious on reparations toward blocks (2019)
Coates: Reparations are also about theft and centuries of racial terror (2019)
Ta-Neshi Coates on the value of reparations. (6-18-19)
From oppression to Democracy: An argument for reparations from an African American perspective.
Reparations and a conversation about American redemption
Anti-Reparations
A new case for African American reparations
America’s moral debt to African Americans
Getting to reparations: Japanese Americans and African Americans (gated)
The US has failed to make good on its promise of reparations
5 examples of how blacks can fight for reparations
Why reparations could help boost the economy
Azeila Banks calls for reparations
Could reparations help reduce violence?
The African American warrant for reparations: Slavery
NAACP supports slavery reparations
What reparations in America could look like
A legal and moral basis for reparations
The past isn’t past: The Economic case for reparations
Ideological conflict, African American reparations
Reparations as a new reconstruction
Should the US consider reparations?
Reparations to African Americans: The Only Remedy
A plan to get full reparations
A viable strategy to address the enigma of African American health
The rise of the reparations movement
Should African Americans get reparations?
The case for slavery reparations
Why I as a Native American support reparations
Reparations for African Americans must move forward
Randall Rogers on reparations for slavery
Is it time we pay slavery reparations?
Pro — Litigation
Litigating the Legacy of Slavery
Repairing the Past: New Efforts in the Reparation Debate
Pro — Reparations Superfund
Reparations Superfund — Argues for a Superfund that will be used to provide educational and health opportunities in population areas disadvantaged by slavery’s consequences.
Prominent Politician Suggests a Reparations Superfund
Reparations Superfund — Needed Now More than Ever
Con—Opinion
The wrenching reparations question (2019).
Reparations are not the answer (6-29-19)
How not to foster racial harmony (2019)
5 reasons reparations for slavery are a bad idea
If there are reparations, the amount should be around nothing
Reparations: Obama seeks to punish all Americans for slavery
Ten reasons reparations are a bad idea
[i] This list of sources is not intended to be exhaustive but to serve as a guide for independent study. Some sources can be accessed through links, others might be found on Google Scholar or other online sources, as well as local libraries.