Howard University Prof. Floats $5M in Reparations

Howard University law professor Justin Hansford, a member of the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, at U.N. headquarters in New York City this week proposed $5 million payouts to every U.S. descendant of slavery, reports The Daily Mail.

“I come to you today with a novel proposal: that we begin to think our own thoughts, propose our own vision of justice, and implement that justice,” Hansford said during talks at the second session of the Permanent Forum, titled “Realizing the dream: A United Nations Declaration on the promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of people of African descent.”

“I also propose today that we create a new Bar Association including lawyers and nonlawyers to discuss what it means to be prepared in 2023 for crimes that have been done to us and are continuing to be done to us for over 500 years. So for your consideration, Madam Chair, I propose that today we create a new community of legal thinkers that’s not limited to lawyers but includes anyone who is passionate about justice, who come together and demand that many of the states in this room that have benefited from the legacy of our oppression start the process of apology and reparation — but not on their terms, on our terms.”

Hansford told the Daily Mail that payouts of $5 million for families that have endured generations of “horrific” oppression would be “on the low end of what’s appropriate.”

Academic colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University joined Hansford’s push for payouts, he told the Daily Mail.

Hansford also said many African and Caribbean U.N. members supported the plan.

The push for reparations has gained momentum in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing in 2020.

Last month, California’s reparations task force voted to approve recommendations on how the state may compensate and apologize to Black residents for generations of harm caused by discriminatory policies.

The nine-member committee, which first convened nearly two years ago, gave final approval at a meeting in Oakland to a hefty list of proposals that now go to state lawmakers to consider for reparations legislation.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.