African American

It was not only slavery but the years that came after also. Jim crow and segregation are also reasons for reparations.
You can't pay back those who have suffered and died but you can see to it that their decedents have positive outcomes.


Yes I am a 72 year old white man who lived through segregation and realized as a child I had it better that black children my age.

As a kid I saw poor black kids when we went to the black side of town to get my dad's car fixed. We would just stand there and stare at each other.

Their clothes were so old and worn. I wondered why is was. I never thought it was their fault.

I knew instinctively those children didn't have the chances I did.

I would ride my bicycle to the west side. That was the segregated black neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, to learn more about the scene there. My folks never knew. They would punish me if they ever found out.

In Catholic High school (Chaminade) we studied the causes of poverty in America. Some of us made a trip to Columbus Georgia in 1964 as a senior field trip.

We met with black kids our age and learned that they were not permitted to cross the bridge into down town to see a movie unless they were accompanied by a white person.

One of their best outcomes was to move to Detroit and make it big in the Motown music scene. One of the girls had a sister that did.

When I got home I received a letter from Mary Peaches Jackson asking me to come back and bring her up north.


Do I believe we owe those kids a debt. Your damned sure I do. They won't get it but their grand kids will.