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.

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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.

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In 1910, Walter L. Fleming publishes an article entitled “Ex-Slave Pension ‘Frauds” in which he credits Walter Vaughan with having an honest pension lobbying operation, but condemns other groups as engaged in fraud.