The History. The Movement.
Timeline of the Reparations Movement
From the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619 to H.R. 40 and today's state and local reparations programs — the key dates, and the reporting behind them.
Slavery & the Founding
1619
The first enslaved Africans arrive in English North America
Twenty Africans are brought to Point Comfort, Virginia, beginning 246 years of chattel slavery that builds the wealth of colonies, states, banks, insurers, and industries across the young nation.
Read: Who Profited From American Slavery?1789
The Constitution embeds slavery in the federal government
The Three-Fifths Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Clause, and protection of the slave trade until 1808 make the federal government a partner in the system of enslavement — the foundation of the federal debt argument.
Emancipation & the Broken Promise
1862
D.C. Compensated Emancipation — slaveholders paid, the enslaved get nothing
Congress abolishes slavery in the District of Columbia and pays up to $300 per person to loyal slaveholders. It is the only federal 'compensation' program of the era — and it compensates the enslavers, not the enslaved.
1865
Sherman's Field Order No. 15 — '40 acres and a mule'
Union General William T. Sherman sets aside roughly 400,000 acres of coastal land for formerly enslaved families. President Andrew Johnson reverses it within months, returning the land to former slaveholders.
Read: The Land That Was Promised1865–1877
Reconstruction rises — and is dismantled
Black Americans vote, hold office, and build institutions during Reconstruction. The withdrawal of federal troops in 1877 abandons them to Jim Crow, convict leasing, and a century of state-sanctioned terror.
Read: The Unfinished Business of American Emancipation
The First Reparations Movement
1896–1898
Callie House and the Ex-Slave Pension Movement
Callie House co-founds the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association, organizing hundreds of thousands of formerly enslaved people to demand pensions. The federal government responds by prosecuting her for mail fraud.
1915
The first federal reparations lawsuit
Four formerly enslaved people file Johnson v. McAdoo, demanding $68 million in cotton tax revenue collected on the fruits of slave labor. The courts dismiss it on sovereign immunity grounds — a barrier reparations advocates still fight today.
Jim Crow & the New Deal Exclusion
1930s–1960s
Federal policy builds white wealth and excludes Black Americans
The New Deal and GI Bill create the American middle class while redlining, FHA discrimination, and occupational exclusions lock Black families out of homeownership, education benefits, and wealth building.
Read: The Economic Legacy of American Slavery
The Modern Movement
1969
James Forman's Black Manifesto
Civil rights organizer James Forman interrupts services at Riverside Church in New York to demand $500 million in reparations from white churches and synagogues, reviving reparations as a national demand.
1987
N'COBRA is founded
The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America forms to organize for reparations legislation, becoming the movement's principal advocacy coalition and a driving force behind H.R. 40.
1988
The Civil Liberties Act proves the U.S. can pay reparations
The federal government formally apologizes and pays $20,000 each to more than 80,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II — establishing the precedent that America can acknowledge and compensate for government wrongs.
Read: How Governments Have Addressed Historical Injustice
H.R. 40
1989
Rep. John Conyers introduces H.R. 40
Michigan Congressman John Conyers introduces the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act — numbered for the broken promise of 40 acres. He reintroduces it every session until his retirement in 2017.
Read: Inside the Federal Reparations Debate2014
'The Case for Reparations' reignites the national debate
Ta-Nehisi Coates' landmark Atlantic essay brings reparations to the center of American political discourse, tracing the debt from slavery through redlining to the present.
2019
H.R. 40 gets its first congressional hearing — and first committee vote
The House Judiciary Committee holds the first hearing on H.R. 40 in the bill's 30-year history. In April 2021, the committee votes 25–17 to advance it — the first time the bill ever moves out of committee.
The State & Local Wave
2020
California creates the nation's first state reparations task force
Governor Gavin Newsom signs AB 3121, establishing a task force to study slavery's legacy and develop reparations proposals — the model for state-level action nationwide.
Read: California's Reparations Initiatives2021
Evanston, Illinois becomes the first U.S. city to pay reparations
Evanston approves a $400,000 housing program for Black residents harmed by the city's discriminatory housing practices — the first municipal reparations program in American history.
2023
California's task force issues its final report
After two years of hearings, the task force releases a 1,000+ page report documenting state complicity in slavery and discrimination, recommending lineage-based eligibility and sweeping remedies.
Read: How to Read a Reparations Task Force Report2025–2026
A new wave of laws, task forces, and local programs
New York creates a reparations commission, California passes a first-in-the-nation lineage-based agency law, and cities from Palm Springs to Boston launch reparative programs — even as federal action stalls.
Read: Reparations in America: New Laws, Growing MomentumToday
The fight continues
H.R. 40 awaits a floor vote. States and cities advance. The question is no longer whether the debt is documented — it is whether America will pay it. Track every bill, test every policy against the five requirements, and hold officials accountable.
Read: The 5 Requirements of Reparations
See where the movement stands today
Civic action dispatch
Now act on it
A debt documented is not yet a debt collected. See it, prove it, force it.
- 01Federal + state bills
Step 01 · Monitor
Track the bills
Follow active reparations measures in Congress and the states.
Open tracker - 023,142 counties
Step 02 · Document
Verify the receipts
Find slave schedules, Freedmen's records and land deeds in your county.
Search your county - 03Scripts + caucuses
Step 03 · Mobilize
Organize your district
Call your lawmaker, reach your Black Caucus and start a local group.
Get the playbook
Priority action · 30 seconds
Call your state lawmaker today
Copy the script, then find your representative's number on the community page.