Abstract

In May 1969, James Foreman interrupted a religious service at Riverside Church in New York to deliver “The Black Manifesto,” which included a stunning “demand” of $500 million in “reparations” for black Americans from the white religious establishment. In the period since that date, The Manifesto has aroused rather less serious discussion than one might have thought it would. No doubt, the burden of The Manifesto has struck many whites and some blacks as so outrageous in its morality, so unrealistic in its politics, so unfeasible in its economics, that intellectuals may have done a public service by consigning The Manifesto to relative neglect. Not that The Manifesto has had only unfavorable publicity, nor that the churches have ignored it; quite the contrary. What remains true, however, is that the crucial burden of The Manifesto, indeed, the precise argument it advances for reparations and compensatory justice, has not so far as I can tell received the thoughtful attention it deserves. Until it does, and is appraised with care and fairness, it is impossible either to support or to reject The Manifesto's “demands.” Let us try, then, however belatedly, to state and assess the argument of The Black Manifesto.