“Forty Acres and a Mule”

I’ve not yet opined on the recent call by most, if not all, of the Democratic candidates for “reparations” for slavery in America.  I know from history, after the civil war,  that the call for payment by the government of  “forty acres and a mule”  to Africans, or coloreds, never happened. In past discussions of reparations with friends, who were supporters thereof, they admitted to the obvious impractical determination of who would be entitled.

There were laws passed declaring persons with any ascertainable trace of “African blood” to be determined “colored”.  A mulatto was defined as a person with one white and one black parent, a person of mixed white and black ancestry. A “quadroon” was defined as a person with one-quarter black ancestry.  And we are keenly aware of those who “passed” for years and still do.

If the proponents think that it is a timely subject worthy of “conversation”, as referenced, then let it be on their time, not the time the American people pay them to address the continuing problems of, increased crime in our communities, stultifying classrooms, inadequate public education, inadequate teacher pay, the  lack of affordable housing and the list goes on.

As a grandson of slaves, I was the first elected Governor of any state in America. That was in Virginia,  with the smallest population of African Americans of any southern state, historically referred to as the “Capital of the Confederacy”. The people spoke, and  I would like to think that the door was widened a bit for others.