A Modest Proposal: Send em Back

An Open Letter to Congressman Hall


[The following letter was sent to Congressman Tony P. Hall, who is White, by an Ohio member. Hall recently proposed that Congress should issue a public apology to African-Americans for the slave trade. While the American Colonization Society certainly agrees with Hall's statement that slavery was an evil that needed to be ended, the American Colonization Society feels that an apology is not what is needed; repatration is. The following is a copy of the letter.]

June 18, 2000

"(I realize that Congressman Hall is a busy man and, probably, has certain people who professionally respond to letters. However, I respectfully request that this letter be given to him personally.)

Dear Congressman Tony P. Hall:

I read the article on the Internet--"Ohio Rep. to Seek Slavery Apology" by Katherine Rizzo (AP, June 18, 2000)--that told about your proposal to ask African-Americans for forgiveness of slavery. While I must admit that I have to admire your bravery for making such a proposal, as you certainly must be receiving a ton of mail and comments (much of it being unpleasant, I imagine), I feel that Clinton's words on the matter better reflects how this great Nation should handle the dilemma: "The apology we must all make cannot be adequately expressed in words but in actions."
To this respect, I feel that a part of this Nation's history, which has been neglected, needs to brought forth--that is, the proposal of the Founding Fathers' vision of what was to be done with the slavery issue. If you take a glance back in time, you will see that President Thomas Jefferson, President James Madison, President Abraham Lincoln, Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington, and President James Monroe--all of these men, and many more equally prominent--had a desire to repatriate those African-Americans who chose to return to their Fatherland.
All of them were members of the American Colonization Society, with Bushrod Washington being the first President of it. In fact, Liberia was founded by James Monroe; its capital is even named after him: Monrovia. If there was anything stopping these gentlemen from assisting those African-Americans who chose to emigrate, it was certainly not dedication; it was a lack of money and the slave-powers. The American Colonization Society even has a website today: http://ourworld.cs.com/CEOofAmColSo
This issue of repatriation has been warmly greeted by some African-Americans over the last two centuries. Around the time of the Civil War, Bishop Henry Turner of the AME said, with respect to repatriation, African-Americans were more likely to get 499 acres and a hippopotamus in Africa than the promised "40 acres and a mule" in the U.S. At the time the Civil War ended, Lincoln proposed using the U.S. Navy to assist in this endeavor (but was assassinated shortly before he could make its execution possible). Lincoln noted that African-Americans suffered "despotism" under White majority rule, because African-Americans didn't ask to come here.
In the early part of the 1900s, African-American leader Marcus Garvey and his United Negro Improvement Association, which he claimed had 11 million members, formed the Black Star Line: several ships purchased for the express purpose of assisting African-Americans to their Fatherland. Garvey was unjustly imprisoned because a White jury felt that the Black Star Line stocks he sold to African-Americans were of no value; shortly thereafter, the stock market crashed. Although President Coolidge freed Garvey, he was forced to leave the U.S. since he was born in Jamaica and not a citizen.
In the 1930s, a petition signed by 400,000 African-Americans requested that President F.D.R. help them return to their Fatherland. F.D.R. didn't even give them the time of day.
In 1967, a poll by CBS asked African-Americans if they would like to return to Africa; five percent responded to the affirmative.
The late-Elijah Muhammad, the former leader of the Nation of Islam, had asked the U.S. to "let her once-slaves go," with no response. And Louis Farrakhan, second only to Jesse Jackson in popularity among African-Americans, has reiterated those same sentiments.
The magazine "Your Black Books Guide," which has a wide circulation and sells hundreds of titles, has even asked what African-American hasn't thought of returning to Africa.
Perhaps, the feeling of being "trapped" here, without a hope, can be held directly responsible for the riots (or, as some say, "rebellions") that occur every few years. The militant Black Panthers state as one of their goals to be separated from Whites.
Despite the "Black out" by the media, these thoughts are still held by many African-Americans and Whites today; it is self-evident. In fact, I am certain that if you proposed a bill to repatriate African-Americans who chose to emigrate to Africa, financially assisting them for a period of 20 years, you would find many who would gladly take you up on the offer--and thank you. The issue could finally be considered as being resolved.
While it may be argued that America cannot afford this, consider the cost of riots, of housing assistance, of jails, of subsidies, of lives lost (for which no dollar amount can be given)--of placation; and then consider the cost of giving a people a chance for the cultural autonomy that was taken from them so many generations ago: a hand-up, not a hand-out. Please, help put an end to the despotism that African-Americans face. The financially challenged African-American has no one to help him with this pursuit. If not you, who then?"


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