In 1890, Nebraska Democrat Walter Vaughan, son of Alabama slaveholders, convinces his Congressmember, Republican William J. Connell, to introduce the ex-slave pension bill in 1890. Frederick Douglass was one of few supporters, and it was defeated.

Vaughan eventually publishes a pamphlet called “Freedmen’s Pension Bill: A Plea for American Freedom.” Some 10,000 copies find their way into Black communities in the South and the Midwest.

Reference: Sarah Goldy-Brown, Reparations for Slavery: The Fight for Compensation at p. 38

see also Deadria C. Farmer-Paellmann, Excerpt from Black Exodus: The Ex-Slave Pension Movement Reader,in Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations(ed. Raymond A. Winbush, PhD 2003) at pp. 27-29.

Back to Timeline

In 1890, Nebraska Democrat Walter Vaughan, son of Alabama slaveholders, convinces his Congressmember, Republican William J. Connell, to introduce the ex-slave pension bill in 1890. Frederick Douglass was one of few supporters, and it was defeated.

Related

You may also like

On April 14, 1989, Detroit Councilmember Clyde Cleveland introduces a resolution to establish a $40 billion education fund (using Federal monies) for Black Americans descended from enslaved Africans.

On May 16, 1997, US President Clinton apologizes on behalf of the nation for the US Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee (see timeline entry for 1973).