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CNN Live Saturday

Rally in Support of Reparations for Slavery Gets Under Way in D.C.

Aired August 17, 2002 - 12:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The issue of reparations for the descendants of slaves has long been an emotional one in the United States. Today, supporters are showing how serious they really are. Kathleen Koch joins us now live from the National Mall in Washington, where Millions for Reparations rally is about getting under way at this hour. Hi there, Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Well, as you can see, though, it is just getting under way at this hour. They're having quite a poor turnout. Organizers have gotten a permit for up to 100,000 demonstrators, and right now there are probably only about 400 to 500 people here. The point, though, of this rally is to draw attention to what the African-American community says is a historic injustice, the fact that they were never compensated for the unpaid labor and the horrific suffering of their ancestors under slavery, and they say that the government back in 1865 never made good on its promise of 40 acres and a mule for every single freed slave.

So what they're arguing for here today is compensation, but not everyone agrees.

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MALIK SHABAZZ, NATIONAL CHAIRMAN, NEW BLACK PANTHERS: We're asking for land, we're asking for financial compensation so that we may build schools, we may build drug rehabilitation facilities, that we may take our young men out of the criminal criminal justice system and rehabilitate them and educate them, so that we may have factories to produce that which is in the best interest of our people.

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: If people were being paid reparations, it would literally pay to be black. Everybody and their grandmama would claim some -- some black blood in their lineage. So I mean, look, he has a right to his argument, but I want to address one point he made, the point about his own people. My people are those that share my value system and my belief system. It has nothing to do with the hue of my skin, which says the least about me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: The supporter of reparations point out that both Holocaust survivors and also Japanese Americans who were interred during World War II both received reparations, and they say that there, though, is not clear agreement on what exact form those reparations would take. Some believe that there should be individual checks sent to families, others are in favor of something more like a national trust fund from which money would be drawn to meet pressing needs in the African- American community.

And Fredricka, it is very tough to say why the turnout is so low here today. It may not be so much that people are cool to the idea, but that they can't take the heat. There's another heat advisory in the nation's capital today, with the temperatures expected, with the humidity, to feel like about 105 degrees.

WHITFIELD: And so, Kathleen, behind you, there appear to be, you know, a few people, quite a few dozen people are kind of mingling behind you. Are they going to be converging at a particular location where there is going to be a stage and a number of people are going to be getting up and talking? Is that the format, or are there booths nearby?

KOCH: Precisely. There is a stage, which is actually set up behind us, so this would be the point where everyone would be converging.

We hear that part of the issue may be that there are buses parked at the RFK Stadium, which is some distance east of here, and that people may be marching from there to this point.

But yes, when they arrive, there will be hearing from speakers. There will be lawmakers Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney from Georgia, Congressman John Conyers from Michigan. The Michigan Democrat has since 1989 introduced a bill where he wants to set up a national commission in the United States to take a look at this issue of reparations, but it never made it out of committee.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kathleen Koch from the nation's capital, thank you very much.

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