May 27, 2024
Dear Ms. Young,
The nature and purpose of this proposed order is to establish a Presidential Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals specifically for the American Freedmen families. "American Freedmen" are that class of persons who were emancipated from slavery in 1865 via the 13th Amendment or prior in the United States and includes their descendants.
The Historical Background
The background of such a proposal stems from the fact that congressional actions like the "Port Royal Experiment" were undermined by those who didn't want to see the Freedmen rise from slavery. Reconstruction efforts which would have secured to Freedmen the rights, privileges and immunities of United States citizenship were overthrown, and the agreement to grant 40-acre land plots to the loyal Freedmen was subsequently reneged upon in favor of the traitorous Confederates.
The Freedmen's Bureau was defunded and shut down. The federally chartered Freedman's Bank was looted and shut down — most depositors never had their deposits returned. Congress has never fully utilized its 13th Amendment powers to eradicate slavery's legacy, rightly termed the badges and incidents of slavery. Consequently, from the time of emancipation, the American Freedmen families inherited the unavoidable stain of slavery and for generations were forced to endure its legacy.
Outside of those above mentioned, the legacy of slavery has manifested in numerous ways since emancipation: most Freedmen were unable to benefit from the southern homestead act; unconscionable sharecropping arrangements were imposed on Freedmen; housing covenants were designed to lock Freedmen families out of wealth accumulation; redlining; the loss of millions of acres of land; lack of access to New Deal programs; military members of the Freedmen class could not benefit from the G.I. Bill.
All of this among other things contributes to the significant "wealth gap" which has ill-effected the American Freedmen class for generations — and who now face what economists have predicted: the projected median household wealth of Freedmen families will reach zero by 2053.
Why This Is Not Race-Based — The Constitutional Argument
These recommendations of appropriate remedies could be considered special benefits for a specific race of people and deemed unconstitutional. However, in Justice Thomas' concurring opinion in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (June 29, 2023), the term "freedmen" is described as a "formally race-neutral category" that does not include "blacks writ large" — described as "a decidedly underinclusive proxy for race."
In a question and answer exchange between Justice Kavanaugh and attorney Cameron Norris as part of the October 31, 2022 oral arguments for the Affirmative Action case, Kavanaugh said: "So today a benefit to descendants of slaves would not be race-based, correct?" Kavanaugh went further by saying: "If that's correct, then the benefit for descendants of former slaves (i.e. members of the Freedmen class) is also not race-based… it does not seem to be race-based."
The Edward Blum Threat
Edward Blum, the man behind the efforts to overturn affirmative action, and his American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) as well as The Project on Fair Representation (POFR), has shown that he and his organizations intend to pursue and dismantle all race-based and race-conscious initiatives for discrimination. They sued the "Fearless Fund" in August 2023 — an Atlanta-based fund that invests solely in women founders of color — arguing the grant violated Section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act. The 11th Circuit issued a preliminary injunction barring Fearless Fund from awarding its $20,000 Fearless Strivers Grant to "Black" women entrepreneurs.
Our desire as members of the American Freedmen class is to inform our elected officials and others in government — as well as members of the general public — of the significance in working towards remedial justice without the invocation of race. As reparationists, we seek to ensure the success of any true Reparations efforts on behalf of our particular class, and we view this as having to be done by avoiding race and instead standing on the fact that we are a special class of tax-paying American citizens who for generations have inherited the unavoidable stain of slavery.
The Political Imperative
It is worth noting that our class of voters cast our ballots for the current President at a higher rate than any other in America. Recent polls demonstrate that not only is this proposed Executive Order among the most popular issues with African American voters — rectifying this issue by ordering the creation of a commission to study reparations proposals would significantly boost African American voter turnout in several battleground states.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss any part of this in further detail.
Sincerely,
The United Sons & Daughters of Freedmen