Law and Race Commons^™

Historic And Modern Social Movements For Reparations: The National Coalition Of Blacks For Reparations In America (N'Cobra) And Its Antecedents, Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, Adrienne D. Davis

Faculty Scholarship

Most of the legal scholarship on reparations for Blacks in America focuses on its legal or political viability. This literature has considered both procedural obstacles, such as statutes of limitations and sovereign immunity, as well as the substantive conception of a defensible cause of action. Indeed, Congressman John Conyers introduced H.R. 40, a bill to study reparations, in 1989 and every Congressional session since, and there have been three law suits that have received national attention. This Essay takes a different approach, considering reparations as a social movement with a rich and under-explored history. As Robin Kelley explains, such an …