Dispute brewing in Pine Bluff, Ark., over reparations resolution
A resolution supporting payment of reparations to black people damaged by the effects of slavery and segregation laws has become an issue for the Pine Bluff City Council. The council approved the resolution last November, but Mayor Dutch King never signed it. The resolution supports a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. The bill, which has never made it out of committee since it was first offered in 1989, would seek funding to explore the possibility of paying reparations to black people. Kirby said the ordinance should come before the council for a first reading on Monday. King said last month that he didn't sign the resolution because he disagreed with its language. The resolution says that "African-Americans have received from the U.S. Government and its predecessors, since at least 1619, only ongoing contempt and relentless racism. The U.S. Government should
make a formal acknowledgment of the Holocaust of African captivity, enslavement and subsequent terrorism during a century of legally sanctioned Jim Crow." [ more
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make a formal acknowledgment of the Holocaust of African captivity, enslavement and subsequent terrorism during a century of legally sanctioned Jim Crow." [ more
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