October 31, 2007
Inaugural Racial Justice Lecture Series Panel on Reparations to be held at University of Miami
Coral Gables, Fla. – A diverse group of University of Miami and local organizations has collaborated to launch the inaugural Racial Justice Lecture Series panel discussion entitled Race, Rights & Real Justice: Examining the Case for Black Reparations in America. The Racial Justice Lectures Series provides a service to the entire University and greater Miami Community by focusing attention on racial justice issues that have not received adequate attention and by fostering community action. Future lectures may focus on issues such as: affirmative action, hate crimes, genocide, felony disenfranchisement and the prison industrial complex.
The inaugural panel discussion will be held on Wednesday, November 7, 2007, which marks the first Black Solidarity Day started in 1969 at:
The University of Miami
Whitten University Center Lower Lounge
1306 Stanford Drive
Coral Gables, FL 33146
From 6:00 PM to 8:00PM
This discussion will feature panelists: Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, Founding Co-Chair, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America; Alfred L. Brophy, Professor of Law, University of Alabama School of Law; Bradford Brown, First Vice President & Past President, Miami-Dade NAACP; Carlton Mark Waterhouse, Assistant Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law and Max Rameau, Community Activist & Leader, Center for Pan-African Development.
Professor Aiyetoro notes, “Reparations are obtainable through a concerted united effort of all the groups and individuals who support reparations for African descendants. Critical to obtaining reparations is an expansion of this support base that now includes African descendants, other groups of color and some whites as well as a critical analysis of the strategies that can be used to obtain reparations.” Furthermore, according to Professor Waterhouse, “Blacks’ experiences with law over 344 years of American history shows that the American legal system cannot be trusted to provide meaningful reparations. Therefore, Blacks have to play the primary role in the creation, development, and implementation of programs intended to repair the harms of slavery and segregation.” According to Professor Brophy, “The goals of the reparations movement include without limitation: apologies, truth commissions, and accounting for past wrongs such as slavery, lynchings, segregation, poll taxes and felony disenfranchisement. We seek to examine ways to address these wrongs and discuss methods of community empowerment.”
Dr. Brad Brown, former President of the Miami-Dade NAACP stated that, “Acceptance of the principle of reparations for slavery and segregation is a must for the eradication of racism. Today even the mild concept of affirmative action to redress wrongs has been superseded in many areas by the vague goal of diversity. The NAACP continues to work (so far without success) for Conyers Bill for a national reparations study as a first step towards binging the focus to redressing wrongs.” The panelists will be discussing where the reparations movement is going and how to achieve the goals of the movement, in light of the political opposition to reparations. In order to get reparations Max Rameau notes, “We need to start thinking about reparations in a more affirmative manner. Rarely does the offender give reparations voluntarily. The offended usually wins or takes reparations. We need to focus our attention here.” Professor David Abraham notes that, “With the end of the great future oriented utopias, our attention has increasingly focused on rectifying the sins and crimes of the past. Never have issues of reparations and restorative justice been more front and center than today.”
The following is a current list of sponsors: The Africana Studies Program; the African Students Union; the Association of Caribbean Law Students; the Black Law Students Association; the Black Graduate Students Association; the Joint Program on Law, Public Policy & Ethics of the University of Miami School of Law and College of Arts & Sciences, Center for Ethics & Public Service; the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, South Florida Chapter; Professor David Abraham; Professor Donald Marvin Jones and United Black Students.
For more information about upcoming events hosted by the Joint Program on Law, Public Policy & Ethics of the University of Miami School of Law & College of Arts & Sciences, Center for Ethics & Public Service visit: http://www.law.miami.edu/ceps/events.html.
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CONTACT:
Aziza Naa-Kaa Botchway, Esq.
Director, Joint Program on Law, Public Policy & Ethics
(305) 284-3870 or abotchway@law.miami.edu
Barbara Gutierrez (305) 284-5500
Media Relations
