Redemption song: An analysis of the reparations movement

University of Memphis Law Review, The, Winter 2003 by Jones, Christopher C

Since that time, a lawsuit seeking more substantive reparations has been filed on behalf of the victims of the Tulsa riot by Professor Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School, Johnnie Cochran, Dennis Sweet, and Willie Gary, all members of the Reparations Coordinating Committee (RCC).31 Because one of the primary purposes of the RCC is to obtain reparations for the descendants of slavery, some believe that this is a test case to determine the viability of a legal claim for slavery reparations.32 Regardless, this case is likely to have a significant impact on future reparations litigation.

The victims of the Rosewood race riot met with greater success in 1994 than their counterparts from Tulsa have to this point. The Rosewood victims brought an action against the State of Florida seeking damages as a result of the town's 1923 race riot.33 The legal theory of recovery was wrongful death and loss of property that was unjustly confiscated and destroyed under color of law by state actors.34 The magistrate waived the four-year statute of limitations, a major hurdle for the plaintiffs, because they brought the action in equity.35 In his final report, the sitting magistrate reasoned that because moral claims are given substantial weight in equity, the statute of limitations would not apply.36 Basing his decision, in part, on the federal government's reparations to Japanese Americans interned during World War II, the magistrate ultimately awarded the plaintiffs $2,100,000 in reparations for death, destruction of property, and other harms caused by the riot.37 Additionally, in 1994, the Florida Legislature approved $7,000,000 in reparations for victims of the riot and their descendents.38

2. Japanese Detainees of World War II

During World War II, the federal government removed more than 120,000 Japanese Americans from their normal, everyday lives and forced them into internment camps-a violation of their constitutional rights.39 Over thirty years later, the government established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to investigate this incarceration of Japanese Americans during the war.40 As a result of the Commission's findings, President Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided an apology for and redress to the internees still living.41

Later in 1998, the Justice Department settled a lawsuit brought by individuals who were taken from their homes in Latin America and interned in the United States during World War II because of their Japanese ancestry.42 The members of this group were not beneficiaries of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.43 The settlement made $5,000 in reparations payments available to over 2,200 Japanese Latin Americans who were victimized.44

3. Reparations Sought for Japanese Forced Labor

In In re World War II Era Japanese Forced Labor Litigation,45 people of Chinese and Korean ancestry sought compensation for the forced labor required of them by Japanese Corporations during World War II.46 On its face, this case would appear to potentially hold great promise of helping to predict the results of a slavery reparations suit against American corporations that helped perpetuate slavery, but the intricacies of international law and national foreign affairs prevented this case from ever reaching the merits of the claim itself.