WEBVTT - The History of Reparations 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:08.960 I Am America Alexander, and I'm Whitney Dow. Welcome to 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:12.480 Reparations The Big Payback, a production of Color Farm Media, 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.759 I Heart Radio, and The Black Effect Podcast Network. Whitney. 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.080 When we started this journey, we spoke of our own 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.600 origin stories and how remarkable it was that our very 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.400 different lives led us to arrive at the same place. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.360 So I feel that we can't go any further until 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.000 we lay out the history of reparations. It's a big 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.280 world and we can't mention everything, but we can focus 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.400 on a few historic examples to give people an understanding 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.800 of how long this battle has been going on. It's 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.600 a really long and complicated story, and it has lots 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.520 of heroes and villains, but it's also a story that's 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.960 populated with people that we don't know, the people that 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.040 were fighting for reparations and obscurity. But right now, I 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.880 want to talk about a few people who I think 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.960 are really important to the movement. I'm thinking of Calli House, 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.000 who was born into slave ree and then mounted a 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.720 major push for pensions for the formerly enslaved in the 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.000 eighteen hundreds. Then there's Queen Mother Moore, who is a 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.160 major figure in the reparations movement in the middle of 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:13.600 the twentieth century. And Robin Ruth Simmons and Alderman from Evanston, Illinois. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.680 He's making history today with the first tax fund reparations 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.679 program in US history. Oh it's awesome. I'm excited. But 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:25.039 the phrase history lesson is a snoozer. So let's make 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:30.200 this fun for ourselves. And here's where my film and 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:35.280 television background, You're welcome may be useful. Okay, how about this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.520 Maybe we can do like an Uncle Remus sketch in 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.440 Song of the South, you know, only this time you 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.240 play Uncle Remus talking to the Blackbird explaining the history 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.480 of the reparations movement. Oh yeah, how's your Southern accent? 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:56.640 You want me to play the Uncle Remus of reparations? 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:02.000 Have you heard of cancel culture? Okay, all right, I 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.800 mean look, I mean, hey, I was you don't have 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.200 to play Uncle Remus. I was trying not to typecast. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.520 You probably can't even hummaton, but look I got it. 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.800 Oh this is it. Have you ever seen Jurassic Park? 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:21.800 The first one I have? But now I'm really confused 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.720 Erica about where this thing is going. Listen. Okay, this 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.880 is awesome. Let's use this technique that they used to 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.200 teach the visiting scientists Jeff gold Bloom, Sam Neil and 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.520 Laura Dern how the Jurassic Park science team rebread those 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.680 big old dinosaurs from the DNA samples locked in amber fossils. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.480 So you play the part of Richard Attenborough and he's 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.880 very charming, so you have to you know, you'll make do. 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.080 But okay, um and um, we'll get ah, I know, 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.120 creased summer to play the part of the know it 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.720 all reparations mosquito, creased summer. Okay, in that case, I'm in. 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:14.760 But God help me. Hello Whitney, or should I say 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:20.320 Professor Dow Hello reparations Mosquito, and please call me Whitney. 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.880 So today we're going to be learning about the history 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:30.640 of reparations. Indeed, I'm difficult, yet worthy conversation told within 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:36.000 the rich, painful tapestry of America's failure to acknowledge the 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.200 sin of slavery and the debt owed to its formerly 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:45.920 enslaved people and their descendants. Here. Wait, that was exhausting. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:51.440 I quit. Oh no, you don't. Reparations Mosquito, no backing 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.720 out now. Talking about race in America can be exhausting, 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.880 But trying to get reparations, that's like shake up a 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.880 snow globe in Boston expecting it to bring in Cleveland. Sadly, 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.840 I'm sure they had made perfect sense to you, Whitney. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:11.400 Let's get started. Everyone's a critic, I know, Okay, I'm 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.120 all yours. This is the cliff Notes version, right. Well, 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.960 we can't talk about reparations without identifying the need for 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.159 it in the first place, and that all comes down 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:28.280 to the sin of slavery. A complicated discussion that takes 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:32.919 more time than I got, so yes, please google that, 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.080 but suffice it to say, the profits and progress made 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.719 from the unpaid labor of slaves transformed America's economy and 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.320 made America the most powerful country in the world in 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:51.720 record time. Thank gad he didn't last. Soon came emancipation 0:04:52.240 --> 0:05:12.360 and a bloody Civil War. Long story short, they lost, 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:24.600 we won, and a period of reconstruction began. Entered General 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:33.119 William to come to Sherman. Sherman meets with a group 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:37.200 of freedmen who asked Sherman to create a way they 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:44.760 could benefit from their own labor. Their request land In response, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:49.400 General Sherman issues Special Field Order Number fifteen, four hundred 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.000 thousand acres would be given to the freedman for settlement 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.080 or to break it down for their acres and of you. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.760 Hence the famous phrase was born. But that didn't last long. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:05.000 President Link was assassinated and the new President, Andrew Johnson 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:11.240 vetoed the bill mean while the Southern Homestead Act of 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:15.000 eighteen sixty six was created. It gave black people six 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.160 months to buy land at low rates, but no one 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:26.960 could afford the land, so the program failed. There were 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.279 some bright spots. Callie House started the National ex Slave 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.000 Mutual Relief, Bounty and Tension Association, but the group was 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.680 investigated by the Department of Justice and Cally was introduced 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:45.839 to the newest legal form of slavery, jail. Marcus Garvey 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.760 believed all black people should return to their rightful homeland, Africa, 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:54.360 so he started the United Negro Improvement Association, but the 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:59.039 FEDS infiltrated at and he wound up in jail. Two 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:05.800 m yep. That whole lacking of black people for fighting 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:11.680 for injustice never fill out of vogue. See also segregation, lynching, 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:16.520 Jim Crow, but Whitney a lot has happened in between, 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:24.679 so let's fast forward to the nineteen sixties. I never 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:35.200 leave a man behind you. Good cool, Let's continue. Jim Foreman, 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.360 you know him. He made big headlines when he interrupted 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.040 the service at Riverside Church to demand five hundred millions 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:46.680 in reparations from predominantly white religious institutions for their role 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:54.080 in perpetuating slavery. Queen Mother Moore kept the pressure on 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.320 and petition the government for compensation for slavery, but reparations. 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:07.240 After this say we need and deserve federal restitution. In 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.520 ninety nine, Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill just to 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.040 study proposals for reparations for Black Americans, and he had 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.920 to reintroduce the bill each congressional term until he left 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.280 office in two thousand seventeen. The Bill family made a 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:28.520 decision two years later, thanks the Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Unfortunately, 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:35.360 it is still waiting for approval from the House Judiciary Committee. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.840 So let me begin. America is a place and welcomes 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.440 the diversity of thought. We even welcome the diversity of 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:48.080 thought among the multicolored chocolate people that are African Americans. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:57.320 Good luck, sister Sheila, who jee whiz Whitney. Reparations ain't easy. There, 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:09.720 I told you, wait a minute, I'm a guy. Reparations 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.120 has seen a huge wave of renewed interest over the years. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.760 America Civil and racial unrest, mixed with a global pandemic 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.440 in twenty twenty made crystal clear the disparity, suffering, and 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.679 terrorism that continue to plague all communities of color, poor people, 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:29.599 and especially black people. And though George Floyd's murder was 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.800 a rallying call for action, the ugly, mostly white mob 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.439 of insurrection Is swarmed America's capital in January six, twenty one. 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:43.640 Oh sometime it seemed like we live in constant sorrow, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:51.439 in a world without end. A man, Oh, I forgot 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.080 to tell you something, Okay, I think I know what's 0:09:54.080 --> 0:10:02.120 coming here. In two thousand and ninet, four hundred years 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:09.480 after the first enslaved Africans arrived, something wonderful, something extraordinary 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:17.480 happened in Evanston. Against all odds, with a mostly white council, 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:24.360 Alderman Robin Ruth Simmons successfully passes America's first Referations's Bill, 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.480 which assesses a three percent tax on leal cannabis sales 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.760 to create a fund to make cash payments to qualified 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:34.760 black Evanstonians. That's amazing, right, I'll say. And I know 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:40.680 this revelation may have many black folks asking where in 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:48.280 the hell is Evanston. It's in Illinois, just in case 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:57.520 you're plotting a move. Well that's all, folks, bravo. This 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.320 is absolutely the best history lesson I've ever got from 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:05.320 a Mosquito. Thank you, You're welcome. Unfortunately, this is the 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.680 worst gig I ever had. Ain't got no sempor trailer 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.640 my makeup or that's no massus. This dude that used 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:13.679 to bring me what I need when I needed it, 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:19.120 quarantine blocking all my connects. But now you know more 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:26.280 than you did about the wonderful world of reporations. So 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:31.560 long Whitney hugs the Erica. Yess my girl, she's such 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:38.520 a cute pack. So long Creed, I mean, so long 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:42.760 reparations Mosquito. Wow, Erica. That didn't sting at all. Oh 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.760 that was freaking terrific. Oh, thank you, thank you Chris 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.000 Summer for lending her master voice to this piece. She's amazing. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.520 Um A little jealous you two got to play, but 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.400 I think it's something cool to do later. To even 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.800 the score. Bill Whitney, you did a good job too. 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.320 I appreciate the props Erica. You know, so my first 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:05.960 conversation with Mosquito, but hopefully my last. But now you know, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.640 I love the story of Kelly House, and I love 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.240 that we got a chance to talk to historian Mary 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.160 Francis Barry, who wrote the book on this. Amazing woman, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:21.560 Mary Francis Barry. She's fantastic, she's smart, beautiful, in great shape. 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.839 She's eighty two. Okay, I want to be here. Cally 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.800 House was a black woman who had been a slave. 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.880 You know, her mother had been a slave, her father 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.560 had fought in the Union Army as a runaway slave. 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:39.320 And she was at church and she heard about some 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:43.040 white guy who had asked the federal government for pensions 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.920 for slaves on the brow ex slaves, he called them 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.600 on the grounds that the money would go into the 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.960 pockets of the white people on the plantations where they 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.000 were all still working, and that this was an indirect 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.439 way to help white Southerners after the Civil War, and 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.560 we can struction. But when she heard about it, she said, well, 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.400 I don't understand why we can't do this for ourselves. 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.199 Why can't we start some and ask the federal government 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:12.199 to give us some pensions that we use for ourselves, 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.040 After all, we were the ones who were slaves. And 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:20.240 so she went around organizing herself in churches, and she 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.800 would get people to if they couldn't write, somebody would 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.640 write down their name and put what plantation they were 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:28.559 on and so on, and they would put an x 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.200 bot and sent them off to Congress. And eventually it 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.400 grew and grew and grew, and she started traveling all 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.640 of the plays, collecting petitions, listening to people's stories and 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.559 all that, and the federal government got concerned. They decided 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.959 because letters were coming from white people saying, the Negroes 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.439 are meeting in churches and they come out saying and 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.920 talking about someday we're gonna get something, and we know 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.760 that I don't get anything, and we're scared of them. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.200 So you need to do something about that woman who's 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.920 going around there stirn them up. And so they decided 0:13:59.920 --> 0:14:03.920 to go after her. They said the fetes did that. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.800 She had about three hundred thousand dudes paying members the 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:12.520 dues of cents a year, and she was laughed at 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:18.239 by middle class negroes because she was not very well educated. 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.880 She had only been like, you know, the sixth grade, 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:25.440 and the government decided that they would get after her 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.680 for using the mails to defraud. Some of you may 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.240 remember that that's what they did to market Garment later, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.000 and they said that she was using the mails to 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.400 defraud because she was telling black people that she was 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:39.440 going to negros, that she was going to try to 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.840 get the federal government give them some money. And she 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.440 should know the federal government is never gonna give negroes 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.320 any money. That's the way they put it. So it 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.000 was fraud to be organizing people. And they ended up 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:55.680 prosecuting her, but all white jury in Tennessee, and they 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.360 put in prison for her trouble. After that, there were 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.080 branches who had There were black folks all the south. 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.720 One was in New York City. They were all out 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.320 in the black towns. And then there were people like 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.880 Queen Mother Bore who was in the New Orleans chapter, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.680 all of whom became Garbagates. And so you can trace 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.840 the present day reparations movement within Cobra and the other 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:23.440 organizations all the way back to Callis House and her 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:28.080 ex lay pension movement. A remarkable woman. And I think 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.320 the people who say had their names on there at 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.200 a time when they were attacked, when they were under 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.240 attack and could be abused and everything else, their descendants 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.680 ought to get something Malcolm X talks about. If you 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.800 stick a knife in my back nine inches, pull it 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:46.840 out six inches, that's not progress. If you pull it 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.400 all the way out, that's not progress. The progress comes 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.680 from the healing the moon that the blow made. You're 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.640 talking about the loss so many hundreds of years of 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.640 human potential. How would reparations impact of progress on issues? 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:04.800 If we quality the reparations are the most direct way 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:11.360 to target money to ease the disparities and let black 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.280 people decide how to spend the money. But first the 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.880 country has to acknowledge the disparities, and if people refuse 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.960 to then that means that they're ignot acknowledging that slavery 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:26.600 was an institution that did not benefit slaves. Once you 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:32.240 accept what happened, then in fact, demanding reparations is easy. 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:38.240 We should go after local city councils, local mayors, local 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.560 government and organize the way Kelly House did, and better 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.600 because we have better communication now to organize and demand 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:56.520 that local communities pass measures to do this. The Cally 0:16:56.560 --> 0:17:00.200 Howd story is really interesting because it's both inspiring and 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.560 completely depressing at the same time. You know, it's inspiring 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:05.800 what this woman managed to accomplish at the height of 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.920 the white terror and post reconstruction America, but it's really 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.920 depressing because she did this, build a incredible organization and 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.800 trying to get reparations for the formerly enslaved, and the 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.880 response of the government was to thrower in jail. Now, 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.119 I keep getting the feeling that white Americans feel that 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.199 if they just open this reparations doors just a crack, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.040 they're not gonna be able to contain what comes flooding through. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.879 So they keep barring the door, and the pressure just 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.439 keeps building and building. Yeah, it's funny that to me, 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:37.840 it's not a door, it's it already exists. They either 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.320 keep going and not talking about it, or they, you know, 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:43.600 look at it and they face it, because it's kind 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.800 of like an energy that's already out there. But whether 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.240 they realize it or not. You've been telling me about 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.040 CALLI House for a while, and I am a new fan. Look, 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.919 I'm a believer. Dr Barry, Thank you, thank you you 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.639 are river to your people. Thanks for educating us about 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.159 who in what really matters, you know. But Whitney, I 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.880 just realized that the pioneers were talking about today are 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.600 all black women, and they all, all of them paid 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.960 an emotional price for their work in the struggle. It's 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.120 kind of like the same thing today right Erica. There's 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.639 lots of strong black women leaders and they're taking a 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.680 lot of shots right now. Look at Stacy and Georgia. Yeah, Stacy, 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.960 Ayana ill han Omar, You've got Natasha Brown. I mean yeah, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:24.680 I could go on and on and on. There's amazing 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.800 black women that have always been there doing their thing, 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.200 and it's time for them to get their flowers. Speaking 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.320 of which, I'm a bit competitive and I want to 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.199 do something cool like your Jurassic Park history mash up. 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.320 So I'm gonna use my black wizard skills. You didn't 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:40.359 know I had them to do something I know you 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.240 cannot do. I am an actor with access and so 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.760 you're you. But look I'm going to um, yeah, I'm 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.640 gonna do something cool. So what are we gonna get? 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.600 A song? Like a morality play? Maybe some a cappella. Nope, 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.560 I'm gonna go back in time. I'm going to talk 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.840 to a queen, a pioneer of reparations whose life story 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:02.880 led her to become a force of nature in the struggle. 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.240 I'm gonna talk to Queen Mother Moore. How are you 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:07.840 going to do that? I use a little bit of 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.280 magic to do it, and I believe if I listen, well, 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.080 I'll come back forever changed. So here, let's do this. 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:23.000 Let's adjust the volume a little bit, Mr Pop Okay, 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.080 I just know I needed to get on the right 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:30.880 frequency and always works in the movies. Oh gosh, you're here. 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.919 It worked. Oh you don't know how I but I 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.480 got to go through to kid here own. Okay, chill Erica, 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.040 you know she ain't got time for that. Welcome Queen Mother. 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.080 I'm glad that you're here. Thank you so much, and 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.720 thank you for blessing us with your story. Yes, no, 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:50.440 thank you, ma'am. You know where I come from, this 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:54.480 homeless of people to call themselves queen Charlemagne, the god Queen, Queen, Queen. 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.960 He calls me queen. But you know what, how did 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:01.840 you become the queen? Mother? Mea was restored upon me 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:06.720 by the African students. First of all, as a result 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:11.359 of my years of activities in this country. African students, well, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.960 they gave it to me. And when I went to 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:19.639 Africa to dr and crew mass funeral, they chief heard 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.919 about me and he sent for me to come to 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.919 him and I went and he said, I'm going to 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:31.480 make you a fishery queen mother, queen mother of the Ashanti, 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:36.119 and he initiated me the queen mother. But I was 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:43.040 queen mother before I went to Africa. We know you 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.960 did amazing things in Harlem, but you're actually from the 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:51.919 South right. But yes, I was born in New Iberia, Louisiana, 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:58.520 seven ninety. I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. My 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:03.480 parents came from New all into Louisiana. My grandparents came 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:08.720 from New Iberia, Louisiana. My father worked for herself. My 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.080 mother was a housewife. I had two brothers and five sisters. 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.119 I was the sixth one in the family, Queen of 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.120 the more Where would you say that your story starts? 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.359 What was life like growing up for you? My mother 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:29.960 died when I was five years old, and after Papa died, 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.760 my brother sold the house that papa had left. And 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.440 mind your papa had told him that told me that 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.320 brother Henry would take care of us. Well. He took 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.560 care of us all right. The moment he came from 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.280 the funeral, he said we had to move, and I 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.679 had my little sisters. So I took a few of 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:54.240 Papa's moves to the auction and sold them and readed 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:59.560 an apartment. I left New Orleans during the war. I 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:05.160 left and went to Muscle Shoals m Muscial Souls well 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:09.480 Wreatha did a lot of recording there. Yes, really difficult 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:11.800 to listen to you tell your story, but you made 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.240 it through. Yes, So how did you get started with 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.480 your work? We talked a lot about origin stories. What 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.200 was the origin of your work? Within that cause? My 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:28.040 face encounter with the real struggle was with the Red Cross, 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:32.879 who discriminated against the black recruits. They gave the white 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:37.320 recruits coffee and doughnuts while they were mobilizing them, and 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.240 they didn't give anything to the black recruits. And I 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.439 mobilized the people around to make what we used to 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:48.439 call hook cakes and coffee and gave it to the 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:53.040 blacks who were congregated waiting to be shipped off. And 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:57.440 my sister and I we found a place where the 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.119 soldiers could come and we got an old phonic have 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.399 and a lot of scratch records. Well, it was a 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:07.840 place where the men could come in and play cards 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:12.760 or checkers or something. So we consider ourselves having to 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:17.720 face USO among black Oh wow, so you've been organizing 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:20.520 around the black community for a while, But how did 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:23.280 you get to the liberation movement like your work with 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:27.679 the great Marcus Garvey. Well, I was face brought in 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:31.439 turned Marcus Carvey movement by the fact that he I 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:34.080 understood that he was to come and speak to us 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:38.600 in Louisiana. And we went to the meeting and low 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:42.919 and behold, he didn't come, and we had the mayor 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:45.840 refused to allow him to come. So we were very 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:51.640 incensed about it and got a delegation to go see why. 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:55.600 Then it was guaranteed that Marcus Carvey would come. The 0:23:55.720 --> 0:24:00.960 next night, the hall was packed with people. Everybody went 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:06.879 with ammunition, had guns. Everybody had guns, Black people with guns. 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:14.240 Blue Steve Smith and Western's German lugers. Really and uh, 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:18.520 I had two guns with me. Y'all showed up and 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:23.320 showed out, that's what's up. Amazing and ammunition, a bag 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:28.159 of ammunition. Everybody had what you call a suitcase today 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:31.000 because we was afraid the police would stop him from 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:35.800 coming again and we wanted to protect him. Wow, in 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:39.679 the night that he did come, what happened, thirty people 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:45.000 was in that hall. So when God came, reapplauded very much, 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:48.560 and he said, my friends, I wanted to apologize for 0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:52.320 not speaking to you last night. But the reason I 0:24:52.359 --> 0:24:55.919 didn't speak to you because the mayor permitted himself to 0:24:56.000 --> 0:24:59.119 be used as a stooge by the police department to 0:24:59.200 --> 0:25:02.400 prevent me for speaking to you. And when he said that, 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:04.680 the police jumped up and said, I'll run you in. 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:08.840 And when the police did that, everybody jumped up on 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:12.560 the benches we had benches then and took out their 0:25:12.560 --> 0:25:15.560 guns straight up. The guns were straight up in the air. 0:25:15.800 --> 0:25:21.159 Speak Gorvy set and Gorvy said, And as I was saying, 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:25.359 and he went and repeated itself, and the police filed 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:28.960 out of their like little puppy dolls. Every police been 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:31.480 filed out of the hall. And I can't forget that 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:35.600 speak Garvey speak. Oh I wish I was there. And 0:25:35.640 --> 0:25:40.440 that was your first experience with Marcus Garvey. Amazing. Oh yes, 0:25:40.760 --> 0:25:43.879 I'm still a life member the Garvey movements, like to 0:25:43.960 --> 0:25:50.080 join the Garvey movement after that, How did this impact 0:25:50.119 --> 0:25:53.840 your path as an activist? Well, after must have shown. 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:56.200 I went back to New Orleans and stayed there a 0:25:56.240 --> 0:26:01.159 while until Marcus Garvey came on the sea in so 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:05.200 then we came to HALLM. Well, anyhow, HALLM was waste 0:26:05.240 --> 0:26:08.560 than anything we had seen. They had for white only 0:26:08.640 --> 0:26:12.679 signs and only apartment houses in Hallm for white only, 0:26:12.760 --> 0:26:16.639 big signs outside, and we had to go upstairs in 0:26:16.720 --> 0:26:20.320 the lowest theater like we did in the South. Same thing, 0:26:20.480 --> 0:26:23.480 the white people sitting the bottom downstairs and we had 0:26:23.520 --> 0:26:28.040 to go upstairs, and that kind of thing. So nobody 0:26:28.080 --> 0:26:31.520 could work in HALLM. No black place. And while you 0:26:31.560 --> 0:26:34.520 were in Harlem, you began working with Garvey's Universal Negro 0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:38.880 Improvements Association and uh the African Communities League. Oh yes, 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:42.639 I had gone to his meetings and had was his 0:26:42.760 --> 0:26:46.520 guest divino on the Black store line. He bought some 0:26:46.600 --> 0:26:51.760 ships and they were very unsuccessful because they were sabotaged. 0:26:51.960 --> 0:26:54.800 You know. What was his plan for the ships to 0:26:54.920 --> 0:26:59.560 do export import from Africa, trade and so on. So 0:26:59.560 --> 0:27:03.560 I was very impressed with that. So was Marcus Garvey 0:27:03.600 --> 0:27:08.680 who helped push you to look towards Africa with your work. Yes, well, 0:27:08.720 --> 0:27:11.960 it was to teach our people self esteem for one thing, 0:27:13.080 --> 0:27:20.119 and our history and pride in our nation. And the 0:27:20.240 --> 0:27:25.520 other thing was self sufficiency going into business and so on, 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:29.600 and to think in terms of the development of Africa, 0:27:29.760 --> 0:27:35.199 to help free Africa from colonialism, that kind of thing. Okay, 0:27:35.240 --> 0:27:38.879 So is that how you got into your reparations petition. Yes, 0:27:38.960 --> 0:27:44.080 the petition called for us to go back to Africa. 0:27:44.320 --> 0:27:47.920 So those who wanted to go back, and for those 0:27:47.960 --> 0:27:51.000 who wanted to stay here, they had to be certain 0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:56.080