Reparations on Fire: How and Why it's Spreading Across America

Nkechi Taifa

ISBN 10: 173798251X / ISBN 13: 9781737982517

Editore: House of Songhay II December 2022, 2022

Riguardo questo articolo

Codice articolo 371264

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Reparations on Fire: How and Why it's Spreading Across America
• Editore: House of Songhay II December 2022
• Data di pubblicazione: 2022
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 173798251X
• ISBN 13: 9781737982517
• Rilegatura: Paper Back
• Condizione: Very Good
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • African-American Studies

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Reparations on Fire describes history-in-the-making. It combines a historical survey and commentary on the Reparations Movement in America while addressing how pioneering reparations legislation is being born and debated in city council chambers and statehouses nationwide. It is part historical analysis, part revolutionary manifesto, and part political red-alert.

Reparations on Fire brings additional value to the Reparations Movement as it goes about the necessary task of concretizing its goals and objectives and envisioning a future where Black freedom and joy can flourish. It describes how reparations went from being discussed in the radical margins of the Civil Rights Movement to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the General Assembly of the United Nations.

It outlines how unsung Black Power activists such as Queen Mother Moore and Imari Obadele set the foundations for reparations to be championed by U.S. Rep John Conyers and, later, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee in the Congress of the United States -- a fight that, as this book comes out, is still being waged as reparations activists ask President Biden to sign an executive order immediately bringing a federal reparations commission to study and develop reparations proposals into existence.

The quest for reparations is equal parts edgy, exciting, transformational, confrontational, messy and confusing. Reparations on Fire proves that we are now beyond rhetoric and well into action mode. Fire illuminates, purifies and brings warmth, but can also cause pain, damage and destruction. It can symbolize the eternal flame of hope, or signify ruin and demise. The spirit of reparations is sweeping the country like fire. Whether it heals or consumes depends on how America responds to its long overdue debt, and possibly portends the future of democracy, both domestic and global.

***

Praise for Reparations on Fire

This powerful book on Reparations is clear evidence that Attorney Taifa has been unceasing in her life-long commitment to telling the compelling truth that America must repair the impact of enslavement on African Americans!
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), / lead sponsor H.R. 40

If 'good trouble' had a baby its name would be Nkechi Taifa! Her incomparable work with systematic reform and reparations for African Americans is a game changer, and this book is her blueprint!
Erika Alexander, actress/ activist/ producer; John Lewis: Good Trouble and The Big Payback

Sister Nkechi's epic history of fighting for reparations as an activist and lawyer uniquely qualifies her expertise. As I collaborate with others to advance local reparations initiatives, her passion and inspiration has been critical in providing the necessary education and historical context that's been key in the momentum we see today.
Robin Rue Simmons, Executive Director, FirstRepair / former Alderman, Evanston, IL

Author Ayi Kwei Armah once stated in The Healers, that "sometimes a mind here, and a mind there, refused to die" under the weight of white supremacy. Our dear sister beautifully reflects that mind that refused to die, that chose to illuminate the truth, and is using her insight to inspire and heal in Reparations on Fire.
Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills, Member, California Reparations
Task Force / Professor, Loyola Marymount University

Reparations is on fire both domestically and globally and Nkechi Taifa's countless contributions have been fundamental to its rise!
Professor Justin Hansford, Executive Director, Howard University Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center/ Representative, UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent

Informazioni sull?autore

Nkechi Taifa has been a principal player and catalyst in the reparations movement for over forty years. A founding member of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), established in 1987, Taifa served as its first Legislative Commission Chair for years, and helped provide guidance and counsel to Congressman John Conyers in the initial drafting of the federal bill, H.R. 40. She is an inaugural Commissioner of the 2015-established National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) and the founder and Director of the Reparation Education Project Inc. Dedicated to public service throughout her career, Attorney Taifa served as an appointed Commissioner and Chair of the DC Commission on Human Rights from 2007-2014, serves on the board of the DC Corrections Information Council, as Senior Fellow with the Center for Justice at Columbia University and as a 2023 Harvard Kennedy Center Scholar. She served on the legal advisory team of the Legacy of the GU-272 Alliance, a group of descendants seeking remedy from Georgetown University for the sale of their ancestors "down the river" to save the University from bankruptcy. Nkechi Taifa led the 1990 successful effort to have the DC City Council pass a resolution in support of H.R. 40 - the federal bill to establish a commission to study the issue of reparations and make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies. She was at the forefront of efforts before the turn of the century that resulted in city councils and organizations across the country to pass similar H.R. 40 endorsement resolutions. Nkechi has articulated the issue of reparations in brain-trusts before the U.S. Congress and testified on reparations in hearings before the Council of the District of Columbia, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and U.S. Helsinki Commission. She has written extensively on reparations, including a seminal law review article published in the Columbia Journal of Race and Law (2020), and co-authored a book, Reparations Yes (1987) with Chokwe Lumumba and Imari Obadele. In addition to Reparations on Fire: How and Why it's Spreading Across America, she is also the author of a memoir, Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice, along with several children's books.Taifa was a consultant to, and quoted in, Ta-Nehisi Coates' 2014 article in the Atlantic Magazine "The Case for Reparations." She is the author of an authoritative feature on reparations published in the SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America (2015). Taifa worked closely with the Movement for Black Lives to create its first-rate M4BL Reparations Tool Kit. She is a national sought-after keynote speaker on the issue of reparations before universities, religious institutions, government, and organizations. She has been quoted in the national press on the issue and has engaged in countless media interviews over the years. She has raised reparations as a remedy as part of People's Tribunals she has led, and spoken extensively throughout the country on the issue, to all strata of society. Taifa is also a vital player in connecting the reparations movement globally, as well as domestically. She has worked closely with CARICOM representatives, has connections throughout the Caribbean and Europe, and never misses the opportunity to include the necessity of reparatory justice as part of the International Decade for People of African Descent. Attorney Taifa is one of the most knowledgeable and longest-serving experts in the US consistently engaged on the issue of reparations for Black people, decades prior to its current level of popularity. She is a strong collaborator with both Black-led and non-Black-led organizations and movements, and regularly serves as a trusted expert resource on the issue to the media, legislators, educators, philanthropy, non-profits, and business and celebrity influencers.###