4 Times Victims in America Received Reparations
Reparations are a form of restorative justice that the United States government and some state governments have paid to victims of civil rights violations. The idea of reparations is to amend past wrongs and move society forward. Unfortunately, there remains a great deal of debate about whether that actually happens when reparations are paid.
With the Black Lives Matter movement and racism and civil rights being such hot topics in recent years, the U.S. government is, once again, considering reparations for descendents of American slaves. But nearly three-quarters of Americans oppose reparations related to slavery.
Slavery is not the first or last event or incident to result in reparations. In fact, the U.S. has paid reparations to different people groups on several occasions.
4 Times Victims in America Received Reparations
Let’s take a look at 4 times that Americans have received reparations.
1. Japanese Internment Victims
During World War II, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were interred in camps. The families that made up these camps included anyone of Japanese descent, including American citizens. The isolation, conditions, and sudden departure from their lives took a terrible toll on Japanese-American communities.
After the end of WWII, the U.S. Congress made two attempts at reparations. The Japanese-American Claims Act of 1948 and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. In the time between these two laws, the U.S. government authorized more than $38 million (around $284-$374 million in today’s standards) to internment camp survivors. That amounted to around $20,000 per individual. Hardly enough to compensate them for their loss of liberty, property, and sometimes life. By 1998, around 80,000 survivors had claimed settlements, which totaled at that time around $1.8 billion.
2. Aleut Internment Camp Victims
Japanese Americans were not the only group displaced during WWII. In fact, Aleut tribes in Alaska were also moved to camps when the U.S. military occupied islands Attu and Kiska. In 1988, the U.S. government admitted that they had kept Aleuts imprisoned for far longer than was necessary, and that they had failed to provide them adequate care. Each of the 450 survivors were awarded $12,000. In 1995, additional compensation was granted to the Aleut communities affected by damage during the war.
3. Eugenics Victims
North Carolina was the first state to pay reparations for Eugenics victims of forced sterilization. In 1927, the case of Buck v. Bell allowed 33 states to forcibly sterilize more than 65,000 Americans. Most of those forced to undergo sterilization were poor Black women or were mentally or developmentally disabled.
Very few states have acknowledged the wrongdoing in targeting and forcibly sterilizing residents. However, in 2013, the state of North Carolina reached a $10 million agreement to compensate the approximately 177 living victims. Each victim would receive around $50,000 in compensation. But victims and their families insist that this is a meager attempt at compensation for the injustices done.
4. Tuskegee Experiment Victims
The Tuskegee Experiment is another tragic example of injustice and overreach. Between 1932 and 1972, 399 Black men suffering from syphilis were studied and left untreated. The study was called “Tuskegee Study or Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.” It continued for 40 years and included more than 600 Black men in totally. The 399 victims all had syphilis while the others were in the control group.
During the study, none of the men provided informed consent. Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood” and would be receiving free meals and medical exams. The men were not treated, however, even after penicillin became the standard of treatment for syphilis.
In 1974, the U.S. government reached a settlement with victims and their families. The total was $10 million. Victims and their families were further guaranteed lifetime medical care in 1995.
Conclusion
These four examples prove that the U.S. has paid reparations to victims of civil injustice. However, there remains a great deal of debate about just how successful these reparations have been in compensating Americans for such tragic circumstances.
