Should America pay? Reparations 101 invites discussion at CCBC

For generations, the topic of reparations has generated intense political, fiscal and ethical debate. Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University, will shed light on this controversial issue as part of the Fifth Annual Chancellor’s African-American Lecture Series. This year’s event will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24 in the K Building theater at CCBC Dundalk.

“Reparations are not a ‘hand-out’ but a compensatory measure for violence against these groups,” noted Winbush. His lecture, Reparations 101, will serve as a primer on the history, facts and figures about reparations to African peoples both in the United States and around the world. Winbush pointed out that other groups – Choctaws, Lakota, Cherokee and Japanese-Americans – have been given reparations in a variety of ways by the United States.

Winbush is the editor of Should America Pay? - Slavery and The Raging Debate on Reparations, a compilation of essays by contributors such as Molefi Kete Asante, a pioneer in African-centered thought and education; former Congressman John Conyers, Jr., a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus; John McWhorter, a Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow on Public Policy; and others on the controversial issue of compensation for crimes against indigenous peoples.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Winbush received his bachelor’s degree from Oakland College in Huntsville, Ala. and his master’s and doctorate from the University of Chicago. He has taught at Oakland College, Alabama A&M University and Vanderbilt University. He received a Ghana Research Fellowship, where he studied the last two years of W.E.B. DuBois’ life in Accra, Ghana, West Africa and his work on the Encyclopaedia Africana.

He was a participant in Fisk University’s 2000 Study Tour of Ghana and its historic Race Relations Institute. In 2001, Winbush was a delegate to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa. From 1995-2002, he served as Benjamin Hooks Professor of Social Justice and director of the Race Relations at Fisk University.