Reparations: Pro and Con

by Alfred L. Brophy

Overview

Today, the debate over reparations--whether African-Americans should be compensated for decades of racial subjugation--stands as the most racially divisive issue in American politics. In this short, definitive work, Alfred L. Brophy, a leading expert on racial violence, traces the reparations issue from the 1820s to the present in order to assess the arguments on both sides of the current debate. Taking us inside litigation and legislatures past and present; examining failed and successful lawsuits; and exploring reparations actions by legislatures, newspapers, schools, businesses, and truth commissions, this book offers a valuable historical and legal perspective for reparations advocates and critics alike. "A book about reparations and its contentious qualities that is a must-read for all. If you want to know the essence of the debate, this book is for you." --Charles K. Ogletree, Jr., Harvard Law School

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190293895
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/14/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Alfred L. Brophy is Reef C. Ivey II Professor Law at the University of North Carolina. He is the author of Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation and Book Reviews Editor of Law and History Review. He contributed to the report to the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, a body created by the Oklahoma Legislature to investigate the riot and make recommendations for reparations. Brophy has appeared on CNN's News Night with Aaron Brown, NBC Nightly News, NPR's "Fresh Air," the "Tavis Smiley Show," and "Talk of the Nation," and has been quoted in such newspapers as the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post.

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I. Understanding Reparations: Reparations Definitions, Goals, History, and Theory1. Reparations Definitions2. Black (and Other) ReparationsPart II. Reparations Ascendant: The Recent Renascence of Reparations Debate and Refined Reparations Theory3. The Modern Black Reparations Movement: Why Now, Why, and What? 4. Against ReparationsPart III. Implementing Reparations: Reparations Practice5. Evaluating Reparations Lawsuits6. Legislative ReparationsPart IV. Possibilities for the Future7. Reparations Future, Realistic Reparations, and Models of ReparationsAppendices and Documents Related to ReparationsNotes

Editorial Reviews

"A comprehensive yet very accessible book on a controversial topic...an outstanding source. Recommended."—CHOICE

"Amidst the often rancorous national debate over reparations for slavery, Alfred Brophy's Reparations: Pro and Con stands out as a work of rare balance and judiciousness. Rather than offering another partisan polemic, Brophy takes seriously the arguments of both advocates and opponents of reparations, illuminating the complex historical, political, legal, and moral questions entailed by any confrontation with historical injustice. Whatever your politics, you will profit from reading this book."—James T. Campbell, author of Middle Passages and Songs of Zion

"Professor Alfred Brophy has written a book about reparations and its contentious qualities that is a must-read for all. While reparations was a dormant subject in the twentieth century, Alfred Brophy has raised it to an exalted status: if you want to know the essence of the debate, this book is for you."-Charles K. Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor, Harvard Law School, and Executive Director of Harvard's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

"In spite of our victory over master race theory in World War II, in spite of Brown vs. Board of Education and the heartwrenching victories of the civil rights struggle, Jim Crow lives on in fact if not in law. Brophy's book operates in the realm of fact. How would we act if repairing injustice were the true goal of our hearts? What world would we make? Answering the questions posed in this book is the way to peace, at last."—Mari Matsuda, co-author, with Charles Lawrence, of We Won't Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action and Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

From the Publisher