Former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird (Photo: CSCHS) and Senator Steve Glazer. (Official photo)
For reversing death sentences; plaques to be unveiled for Rose Bird at new plaza named for her in Capitol World Peace Rose Garden during Tuesday ceremony
Glazer was her spokesman during her failed 1986 retention campaign
SACRAMENTO – Former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird will be recognized Tuesday, May 7, for her trailblazing work as a jurist – the first such public dedication in California.
Current Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Patricia Guerrero, and retired Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, will lead the 10 a.m. unveiling of two plaques at the new Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird Justice For All Plaza at the State Capitol World Peace Rose Garden 25 years after her death in 1999.
Speakers will also include Stephen Buehl, former Justice Bird’s chief of staff, Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, the chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, and Kathryn Meola, president of the Women Lawyers of Sacramento.
“Honoring Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird is long overdue,” said Senator Steve Glazer, D-Contra Costa, who authored a resolution, SCR 47 (2023) to create her place of honor in the Capitol Rose Garden. Senator Glazer was Bird’s spokesman during her retention campaign in 1986. “We now have the benefit of time in recognizing her courage and integrity in upholding the Constitution and rule of law – especially in protecting the poor and oppressed.”
Justice Bird was the first woman Chief Justice of California; the first woman Chair of the Judicial Council; the first woman on a California Governor’s Cabinet and the first woman deputy public defender in Santa Clara County. She served as the Chief Justice under Governor Jerry Brown from 1977-1986.
She was also the first and only chief justice in state history to be voted out of office. Bird and three other justices voted to reverse murderers’ sentences, and she, two of her colleagues, Reynoso and Grodin, were subsequently voted off the state supreme court. Bird was overwhelmingly removed in the November 4, 1986, election by a margin of 67% to 33%.
What: The Unveiling of the Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird Justice For All Plaza
When: May 7, 2024, 10 a.m.
Where: State Capitol World Peace Rose Garden
Speakers: Senator Steve Glazer; Patricia Guerrero, Chief Justice of California; Tani Cantil-Sakauye, retired Chief Justice of California; Stephen Buehl, chief of staff to Chief Justice Rose Bird, Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, the chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, and Kathryn Meola, president of the Women Lawyers of Sacramento.
By Juliet V. Casey, Director of Marketing, Los Medanos College
Pittsburg, Calif. – Los Medanos College (LMC) this year celebrates its golden anniversary, and to kick off recognition of its 50 years of excellence in education, workforce training and innovation, the college released its 50th Anniversary logo.
The golden logo harkens back to LMC’s retired brand. At the center, the stylized compass rose in which each direction spells LMC is indicative of its mission to help students find their future. While that mark has gone out of use, it remains a sentimental favorite among alumni and long-time residents of the East Bay community.
The anniversary logo’s looping five and zero of the 50 touching the inner golden circle conveys the infinite search for knowledge and truth, and unwavering service for the greater good. The Contra Costa Community College District (4CD) opened Los Medanos College in Pittsburg in 1974 to serve east Contra Costa County. Today, its service area includes Pittsburg, Antioch, Bay Point, Clayton, parts of Concord, Brentwood, Oakley, Knightsen, Bethel Island, Byron, and Discovery Bay. It is the third of three colleges within 4CD.
“Over the past five decades, LMC has grown and adapted to the needs of our students and the greater community,” President Ralston said. “Our program offerings have grown to over 90, we’ve added the new state-of-the-art Brentwood Center, and we have established ourselves as a cultural focal point for the community. Looking ahead to the next 50 years, we are focused on continuing this legacy with our alumni leading, innovating and shaping a sustainable and equitable future for generations to come.”
For LMC, 2024 will be a golden year of celebrating its collective successes and achievements. LMC in the past year has emerged in the Top 150 U.S. Community Colleges for the fifth consecutive time. The college is among the best community colleges for math, according to BestAccreditedColleges.org, and LMC athletes consistently win the conference and make it into post-season play.
Stay tuned for upcoming events throughout the year.
About Los Medanos College (LMC): LMC is one of three colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District, serving the East Contra Costa County community. Established in 1974, LMC has earned federal designations as a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving institution. It offers award-winning transfer and career-technical programs, support services, and diverse academic opportunities in an inclusive learning environment. With exceptional educators, innovative curriculum, growing degree and certificate offerings, and state-of-the-art facilities, the college prepares students to succeed in their educational pursuits, in the workforce, and beyond. LMC’s Pittsburg Campus is located on 120 acres bordering Antioch, with an additional education center in Brentwood.
Join us Saturday, March 30th Noon-4pm in Antioch’s historic, downtown Rivertown district for our 7th Annual Easter Egg-stravaganza!
An afternoon filled with Easter fun with a store-to-store Easter Egg Hunt at 3pm sharp! There will be an Easter Egg Hunt and photos with the Easter Bunny at Waldie Plaza, 101 H Street, Antioch, CA.
Bring the kids, a big Easter basket and come join the fun!
The Pan-African flag seen flying on pole at City Hall on Feb. 29, 2024. (Photo by Allen D. Payton) and the flag on display on the council dais during their Feb. 13, 2024, meeting. Video screenshot.
Originally intended to fly all February in honor of Black History Month
By Allen D. Payton
During their Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, meeting the Antioch City Council voted unanimously to display the Pan-African Flag at City Hall. The council then took a break and raised the flag on the City’s flagpole in recognition of Black History Month in the City of Antioch. However, before voting on the resolution, the council added an amendment to the motionto fly the flag until Juneteenth on June 19th, 2024. The flag had previously been displayed on the council dais during their Feb. 13th meeting.
Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, Mayor Pro Tem Monica Wilson and District 1 Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker were dressed in African-style clothing. Earlier that day, during the ceremonial oath of office for new Interim Police Chief Brian Addington, the mayor shared he was wearing a Dashiki from Nigeria for the occasion later that evening. District 1 Councilman Mike Barbanica later said that the mayor provided him and District 3 Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock with African-style scarves to wear during the council meeting.
The council members were dressed in African-theme clothing during their meeting on Feb. 27, 2024. Video screenshot
According to the city staff report on the agenda item, “The City received a request from Antioch ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment) to fly the Pan-African Flag, also known as the Afro-American Flag and the Black Liberation Flag, at Antioch City Hall.
The Pan-African Flag is a tri-color flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands, which are red, black, and green. The three colors on the Pan-African Flag each have a symbolic meaning:
Red represents the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry and that was shed for liberation.
Black represents people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag.
Green represents the abundant natural wealth of Africa.
The flag is also referred to as the Marcus Garvey flag after the Jamaican political activist, and founder and first President-General of the UNIA. According to the history of the flag on the UNIA website, “Alternatively, it has been explained by journalist Charles Mowbray White that Garvey proposed the colors for the following reasons: ‘Garvey said red because of sympathy for the ‘Reds of the world’, and the Green their sympathy for the Irish in their fight for freedom, and the Black- [for] the Negro.’”
Tashina Garrett was joined by other ACCE representatives as she spoke about the Pan-African Flag during public comments during the Antioch City Counci meeting on Feb. 27, 2024. Video screenshot
Before the council’s vote on the resolution, a group of residents representing ACCE gathered with Tashina Garrett who spoke during public comments and offered additional historical information about the flag.
“It was created to represent the people of the African diaspora and to symbolize Black liberation in the United States,” she said. “As flags symbolize the union of governance, people in territory, this flag was created to give Black people in America and the world over the symbol that unifies the diaspora. The red which symbolizes our blood that was shed. The black symbolizes those bodies that were beat and burned and everything else. And the green represents the land that was stolen. I appreciate you guys giving us the opportunity to even fly this flag.”
Thorpe said flying the flag would not preclude other flags from flying at City Hall and explained why it wasn’t flown until the last three days of Black History Month.
“This request came in from ACCE Antioch and they did submit it in a timely fashion. It should have been flown the entire month of February. The mayor messed up,” he stated. “Because we had a new process. I assumed it was an administrative process and we looked at the policy, again and I said, ‘Thomas (City Attorney Smith), you need to review this and send it to council. So, it came on to this meeting.”
He then made the request to fly it through June saying, “That’s my request for dropping the ball and making it up to ACCE Antioch.”
As Wilson was making a motion to fly the flag, Thorpe asked it be flown through the end of May. Someone in the audience suggested flying it until Juneteenth and Wilson changed her motion to include that. Barbanica seconded the motion and without further comments by council members it passed 5-0.
The council then took a brief recess to raise the flag on the pole outside City Hall.
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH DIRECTING STAFF TO FLY THE PAN-AFRICAN FLAG AT ANTIOCH CITY HALL THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2024 IN RECOGNITION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
(with the amendment to display the Pan-African Flag until Juneteenth 2024)
WHEREAS, in 1920, the Pan-African Flag, also known as the Black Liberation Flag and the Afro-American Flag, was adopted by the UNIA at a conference in New York City;
WHEREAS, the Pan-African Flag is a tri-color flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands, which are red, black, and green;
WHEREAS, the three colors on the Pan-African Flag each have a symbolic meaning: Red represents the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry and that was shed for liberation; Black represents people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag; and
Green represents the abundant natural wealth of Africa;
WHEREAS, many of the residents, students, employees, and business owners within the City of Antioch who contribute to the enrichment of our City are a part of the African American community;
WHEREAS, African Americans serve as leaders in all professional fields, make contributions that strengthen the fabric of American society;
WHEREAS, African Americans should feel safe to learn, grow, work, and enjoy their lives without the fear of discrimination, harassment, or hate crimes;
WHEREAS, the African American civil rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done within our nation;
WHEREAS, the Pan-African Flag, also known as the Black Liberation Flag or Afro American Flag, has been used since the 1920’s as a symbol of freedom and unity;
WHEREAS, flying the Pan-African Flag at City Hall throughout the month of February further symbolizes the City’s celebration of diversity and support for the African American community;
WHEREAS, the Pan-African Flag has been raised around the world as a symbol of freedom, unity, inclusion, belonging, and hope for members of the African American community;
WHEREAS, the City of Antioch will be offered a Pan-African Flag by residents of its community who request to fly the flag at City Hall during Black History Month; and
WHEREAS, the City Council is open to considering similar requests to fly flags celebrating the efforts of other nationally recognized civil rights movements that strive for equal rights and equal protection under the law for groups that have historically endured and sought to overcome unlawful and unjust discrimination within our country.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Antioch hereby resolves as follows:
1. The Acting City Manager or designee is directed to fly the Pan-African Flag, also known as the Black Liberation Flag and the Afro-American Flag, at City Hall throughout the month of February 2024 in recognition of Black History Month in the City of Antioch.
2. This resolution shall become effective immediately upon its passage and adoption.”
According to the City staff report, the flag was provided to the City by residents of the community.
DVHS sophomore Jaelyn Wilkins with her winning MLK essay contest check and certificate from AUSD. All photos courtesy of Shar’ron Johnson-Wilkins
Wolverines’ student athlete Jaelyn Wilkins recognized by state, federal representatives
12 other students win essay, art contests; Dozier Libbey senior honored with Reggie Moore Memorial Community Service Award
Carmen Dragon students win all 3 for both Elementary School essay and art contests
By Allen D. Payton
(Publisher’s Note: Apologies for the delay in publishing this article, but the information was not provided to the Herald until last week.)
During this year’s Antioch Unified School District Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration held in January, awards and checks were presented to a variety of elementary, middle and high school students who won the contests for the best essay and art. The submission topic for this year was, “Shifting the Culture Climate through the Study and Practice of Dr. King’s Nonviolence.” Students were invited to submit either a written entry of a poem or essay, short story, etc. or a visual entry including a story told through video, photographs, music, drawings, paintings, collages, etc.
Jaelyn was honored by congressional and state representatives for her winning essay.
Deer Valley High School sophomore scholar athlete, Jaelyn Wilkins, won first place in the high school essay contest and received a check for $250.00, as well as certificates of recognition by Congressman Mark DeSaulnier and Assemblyman Tim Grayson.
Jaelyn during track competitions and with all of her medals.
Wilkins also runs on the cross country and track teams for the Wolverines. In 2022 she was honored to be part of the Cross Country Second Team All-League by the coaches of the Bay Valley Athlete. Wilkins was also honored as the 2022-23 Deer Valley cross country team’s Freshman Phenom and the track team’s Most Valuable Player with the Most Points.
Jaelyn Wilkins’ 2022-23 DVHS Cross Country Freshman Phenom and Track and Field Most Points – MVP plaques, and 2022 BVAL Cross Country 2nd Team All-League certificate.
Following is Jaelyn’s winning 2024 MLK contest essay:
“Dr. King’s incredible legacy has a profound impact on me, even at the age of 15.
Embracing the 2024 theme, I am determined to make a difference in my own unique way. Through acts of kindness, understanding, and empathy, I strive to create a world where everyone is treated with respect and equality.
Inspired by Dr. King’s unwavering dedication, I am committed to standing up for what is right, even in the face of adversity.
Whether it’s advocating for social justice, promoting inclusivity in my school and community, or raising awareness about important issues, I believe that every action, no matter how small, can contribute to a brighter future.
As a young person, I recognize the power of my voice and the impact I can have on those around me. By educating myself and others, fostering dialogue, and encouraging empathy, I hope to inspire my peers to join me in creating positive change. Together, we can break down barriers, challenge stereotypes, and build a more equitable society. Dr. King’s dream of equality and justice serves as a guiding light for me and my generation.
We carry his message in our hearts and are committed to continuing his work. With passion, determination, and a belief in the power of unity, we can make a lasting impact and create a world where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Let’s continue to honor Dr. King’s legacy and work towards a future filled with love, compassion, and equality.”
The following AUSD students were the winners in each contest category and the prize money amounts they received:
High School-Essay:
1st place: Jaelyn Wilkins, 10th grade, Deer Valley High School – $250.00
2nd place: Daniela Edeh, 10th grade, Dozier Libby High School – $150.00
3rd place: Jae’la Falls, 10th grade, Deer Valley High School – $100.00
Friday, March 1, 2024, marked the beginning of Women’s History Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the vital role women have played – and continue to play – in American history, including the history of public transportation, which has been shaped and transformed by women.
BART is home to an amazingly diverse workforce with women serving in crucial roles across the agency, from trackworkers and train operators to executives and our Board of Directors, which is composed of a majority of women.
From left to right: Tera Stokes-Hankins, Thu Nguyen, and Stephine Barnes. Source: BART
To spotlight just a few exceptional women in the BART family:
Tera Stokes-Hankins is the first woman to serve as Chief Transportation Officer at BART. Tera started as a part-time station agent in 1995, nearly fresh out of college. Since her hiring, she has been promoted six times! Tera says she is motivated to work hard each and every day because “if BART’s not running, that means people can’t get to an interview or an appointment or class. To get up every day and make sure we’re ready to go and putting our best foot forward – that keeps me going.” Read more about Tera’s BART journey here.
Thu Nguyen, a track operator, came to the Bay Area a few years ago with her daughter and just $300 in her pocket. She didn’t have housing or a job, but she eventually landed at Cypress Mandela Training Center, which offers free pre-apprenticeship program for Bay Area residents and helps connect them with employment opportunities, including at BART. Foreworker Jaime Ramirez said Nguyen is “no holds barred.” He added: “She’s not afraid of the work. She just goes for it.” Read more about Thu here.
Stephine Barnes, a Crisis Intervention Specialist in BART’s Progressive Policing Bureau, recently won a Rider First Award in recognition of her work to move Bay Area transit forward. Stephine has worked for BART for more than two decades, and in her role as a CIS, she has changed the lives of many individuals. Her work has focused on reducing prison recidivism and advocating for those facing homelessness through intervention/prevention, de-escalation, case management, working with community partners, networking, and family reunification. Read more about Stephine here.
BART is committed to recognizing, supporting, and uplifting all the passionate and hardworking women in the BART family by fostering a culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion – the themes of Women’s History Month 2024.
We thank every single one of the women at BART, who are working every day to make the system better for everyone.
“15th Amendment, or the Darkey’s millenium: 40 acres of land and a mule.” Man and boy with cart in front of the Putnam House, Palatka, Fla. Source: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, from The New York Public Library. (1850 – 1930). (PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Objects depicting racist and/or stereotypical imagery or language may be offensive and disturbing, but the National Museum of African American History and Culture in which this photo is displayed aims to include them in the Collection to present and preserve the historical context in which they were created and used. Objects of this type provide an important historical record from which to study and evaluate racism).
Using federal land, not cash
By Allen D. Payton, Publisher
During this Black History Month, as I’ve been arguing for several years, I believe it’s time for all Americans to agree reparations promised to freed slave families following the Civil War in 1865 should finally be fulfilled – but to their descendants.
First, let me point out the fact – especially to my fellow Republicans who might oppose them – that reparations were first, a Republican idea, ordered by Union Army Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, and supported by President Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s first Republican president. As a reminder, the Republican Party was formed to abolish slavery, and Lincoln and the Union Army successfully fought the Civil War to accomplish that goal.
40 Acres & A Mule
You may have heard the phrase “40 acres and a mule”, which was made more popularly known by movie actor and director Spike Lee who labeled his production company “40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks”. But you may not know that the phrase originated with reparations. That’s because Special Field Orders No. 15 were issued by Sherman on January 16, 1865, before the Civil War ended that May, granting “a plot of not more than (40) forty acres of tillable ground” to families, “made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States He also later ordered the army to lend mules to the freed slaves for their farming efforts.
The orders included the confiscation of 400,000 acres of plantation land along “a strip of (Atlantic) coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina to the St. John’s River in Florida, including Georgia’s Sea Islands and the mainland 30 miles in from the coast.” The land was to be divided into parcels on which approximately 18,000 formerly enslaved families and other Black people then living in the area would be settled.
The purpose was to provide for the freed slaves both a means to earn a living and support themselves, and the result would have been giving them an asset that could be passed on to future generations.
According to History.com, “The freedmen set out to begin working their new land immediately, with a group of 1,000 settling on Georgia’s Skidaway Island. In subsequent months as many as 40,000 freedmen settled on the redistributed land.”
Order Rescinded
Unfortunately, after Lincoln’s assassination just three months after the order was issued, his running mate on the National Union Party ticket in 1864, Democrat Vice President Andrew Johnson, following his ascension to the presidency, rescinded Sherman’s order. He returned to Confederate owners the 400,000 acres of land. Thus, the freed slaves were denied the land they had been granted and reparations were never offered to them by the federal government, again.
Why Reparations Now?
Some people argue that it’s been over 150 years, so why do Black Americans need reparations, today? My initial response is that they’re long past due. But my main answer is two-fold. One is the fact that a major issue among most Blacks in the U.S., today is a lack of asset ownership, including homes, real estate, investments and businesses. For example, the average Black family has one-tenth the assets of the average white family in the U.S.
Disparity in Household Wealth
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Wealth and Asset Ownership Detailed Tables: 2020, Table 1. Median Value of Assets for Households, from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, Survey Year 2021, the median net worth for all households was $140,800. However, when broken down by ethnicity, the median “Black alone” household had one-tenth the assets of the median “White alone” household, or $18,430 compared to $178,500. The disparity is even greater when compared to the median “White alone, non-Hispanic” household which had assets of $217,500.
My argument for the disparity and second one in favor of why reparations, now is the fact that for nearly 250 years, almost all Blacks in the U.S. couldn’t own property because they were property, nor did they get paid. They also couldn’t get an education. So, the rest of us, whose ancestors were never subjected to the horrors and evil of chattel slavery, in effect had a 250-year head start!
Yes, I’ve heard the arguments about the Irish, which is my ancestry, and how they were mistreated, or others who were indentured servants. But those were not the same as being a slave sold, bought and owned by someone else, as well as their future generations to follow.
A Federal Responsibility, Not State or Local
Second, reparations are not a state or local issue, but a federal responsibility. Long before the day the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, and in spite of the fact it enshrined the statement that, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” and then from the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1789, to Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, our federal government allowed slavey. It continued for another 65 years after the Constitution was ratified on May 29, 1790, for a total of 246 years since the first African slaves were brought to our country in 1619. So, again, reparations are a federal responsibility.
(A side, historical note on the Three-Fifths Compromise and clauses in the Constitution. It was not intended by the framers to further devalue the lives of slaves, but to reduce the influence in Congress by the slave states, by preventing them from having additional members in the House of Representatives and a greater number of electors in presidential elections. The slave states wanted to include the slaves in the census count, while the free states didn’t want them included at all. The compromise determined that three out of every five slaves were counted when establishing a state’s total population. A benefit to the slave states was it reduced the amount of taxes they had to pay to the federal government.
In Article I, Section II, Clause III of the Constitution, the Three-Fifths Compromise is stated as:
“Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included in this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.”
See also James Madison’s writings in Federalist Paper No. 54 in which he argues that slaves were both property and people, and thus required some degree of representation).
But I digress. Back to the issue at hand.
Source: Federal Bureau of Land Management
Reparations Are About Land, An Asset
Third, to my Democrat friends I remind them, reparations were initially land and that’s what they still should be, today, not cash. They should be about helping Black Americans own an asset for their use, from which to generate income and to pass on to future generations.
The federal government owns over one-fourth of the land in the U.S. According to a 2020 report and 2023 report by the Congressional Research Service, it amounts to “roughly 640 million acres, about 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States”.
Looking at a map you’ll see the federal land is “heavily concentrated in 12 western states (including Alaska), 3 where the federal government owns roughly half of the overall land area.” That includes 45.4% of California, 60.9% of Alaska, 38.6% of Arizona, 36.2% of Colorado, 20.2% of Hawaii, 61.9% of Idaho, 29.0% of Montana, 80.1% of Nevada, 52.5% of Oregon, 63.1% of Utah, 28.6% of Washington and 46.7% of Wyoming. The federal government also owns 12.9% of Florida.
Much of that land is either in national parks (79.9 million acres), in national forests (192.9 million acres) or is farm and ranch land leased to farmers and ranchers. Five federal agencies administer most of it, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Park Service (NPS) in the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Forest Service (FS) in the Department of Agriculture. with the Department of Defense controlling 8.8 million acres, and 4% administered by multiple other agencies.
So, my proposal is to give to all Black Americans, who can prove they are a descendant of a slave in America, some of that federal land. It can either be given out on an individual or family basis.
While not all Black Americans are descendants of a slave in the U.S. – for example, Vice President Kamala Harris, whose father descended from a Jamaican slave, would not qualify – for simple calculation purposes let’s say all of them are. Blacks currently make up about 13% of the U.S. population of about 330 million people for a total of 40 million people.
If we gave every Black American one, two or even five acres, that would be 40, 80 or as much as 200 million acres which would still leave 440 million acres remaining for ownership and use by the federal government. (Frankly, I don’t understand why the federal government needs to own so much land, especially ranch land for grazing, anyway.)
The new owners could do what they want with the land: farm it, drill it for oil, gas or water, mine it, lease it, swap it with other reparation land recipients, build a home on it, borrow against it, or perhaps form joint ventures with neighboring property owners and develop new communities, even cities. But I believe the one stipulation should be the land could only be sold to another descendant of an American slave. Then, it could be passed on to future generations.
Another argument I’ve heard or read about reparations is, why should people today have to pay anything when neither they nor their family ever owned slaves. This approach addresses that concern. By giving out federal land, there would be no cost to current taxpayers. While it might reduce revenue to the federal government from a reduction in leased lands, that’s a small price to pay for addressing this 160-year-old matter once and for all time.
Source: Congressional Research Service
No One Has to Participate
Some Black people have stated publicly they don’t need or want the help and find it offensive that they be offered reparations. Let’s be clear, no one who is qualified has to participate in a federal reparations program. But I believe most would. Who wouldn’t want free land?
Those who chose to participate would, of course, have to prove their status, and some form of reparations commission or government agency would have to be formed to verify their status and manage the distribution of the land grants. Once verified, program participants would be entered into a lottery and the property could be distributed in periodic drawings. It could even be televised nationally as the participants’ numbers are drawn, and advertising could be sold, and the revenue shared with the federal government to make up for the loss of land lease revenue.
One Time ProgramMay Take Several Years
To sum up, I say it’s time, once and for all, to fulfill the commitment of reparations ordered in 1865 and give portions of federally owned land to the descendants of slaves in the U.S. It might take several years to accomplish, but I believe we should and could start right away.
Once the land has been distributed and all who want it received their share, then that would be it. We’d be done. Everyone would be happy, and there could be no more complaining. The agency would be disbanded, the issue would be put to rest, and it would be up to the new landowners to make do with theirs what they can.
Now, all we need is for Members of Congress and U.S. Senators to introduce the idea and move it forward.
Will honor Historical Black Colleges & Universities and the Divine Nine Black sororities and fraternities
By Allen D. Payton
During Antioch Unified School District’s Black History Month Celebration on Wednesday, Feb. 21, they will honor the Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) and the D9 or Divine Nine Black sororities and fraternities. The event will include music, spoken word, special guests and more, and will be held in the Beede Auditorium at Antioch High School from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The community is welcome.
The HBCU’s were established before 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the Black community. According to HBCUConnect.com, there are 105 schools on the official list.
According to BlackEnterprise.com, the D9 consists of the nine pioneering black Greek-letter organizations: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
