This paper analyzes the failure of the ‘Reparations for Slavery’ movement within the African American community over the past century. It argues that the association of reparations with a “debt” has complicated the ability to win legal arguments for reparations. The author asserts that a stronger legal case can be made by arguing that the Jim Crow era constituted a form of genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, and that a potential reparations claim made on this basis can overcome the obstacles that have thus far defeated previous reparation law suits.
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