To: American Freedmen Foundation and Congress people from the following districts: TN-09, MS-02, AL-07, LA-02, GA-04, GA-04, GA-13, SC-06, IL-02, MI-13, NY-08, PA-03, MD-07, FL-20, MD-04, OH-11, GA-02, IL-01, NJ-10, FL-24, NY-09
Guaranteed Wealth Program™ for descendants chattel slavery & Jim Crow survivors
- Fund a non-profit (American Freedmen Foundation) to accept applications for potential recipients and fund genealogy solutions to qualify applicants.
- Establish endowment to fund the Guaranteed Wealth Program™ with at least $10M to $100M in seed capital.
- Randomly select approved applications to receive initial distributions from endowment.
- Continue raising funds from individuals, philanthropists, corporations, and local/state governments to grow the endowment. Primary targets are families, companies, and institutions that directly benefited from or participated in slavery or economic discrimination during the Jim Crow Era (e.g. insurance companies that denied insurance claims of survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre).
- Lobby Congress and White House to appropriate federal funds for the endowment primarily targeting the following congressional districts: TN-09, MS-02, AL-07, LA-02, GA-04, GA-04, GA-13, SC-06, IL-02, MI-13, NY-08, PA-03, MD-07, FL-20, MD-04, OH-11, GA-02, IL-01, NJ-10, FL-24, NY-09.
Why is this important?
The $50T wealth gap created by the theft of wages and state-sanctioned violence and economic discrimination is too large to close through sheer effort and "hard work." The copious research communicated in From Here to Equality establishes that even when Black folks come from stable, two-parents homes, go to college, buy a home, and all the other things they are told they're "supposed" to do in order to improve their financial standing, the wealth gap persists.
Clearly a debt is owed, and it is dragging down the entire economy and doesn't just affect the Black community. However, other reparations proposals are too complicated and prescriptive, do not center Black agency, and rely on government agencies (with a poor track record of effective program implementation) to implement.
The Guaranteed Wealth Program™ proposed by the American Freedmen Foundation achieves the following goals:
Clearly a debt is owed, and it is dragging down the entire economy and doesn't just affect the Black community. However, other reparations proposals are too complicated and prescriptive, do not center Black agency, and rely on government agencies (with a poor track record of effective program implementation) to implement.
The Guaranteed Wealth Program™ proposed by the American Freedmen Foundation achieves the following goals:
- Does not rely on a government agency to administer
- Requires little administrative overhead
- Gives agency to reparations recipients
- Does not include means testing
- Can be applied equally to all qualified recipients
- Reduces bureaucratic barriers for qualified applicants to go from application to enrollment
- Mitigates the risk of causing inflation
- After initial funding is capable of funding itself in perpetuity
- Includes a mechanism for wealth to be transferred to future generations even if the program ends
How it will be delivered
The petition will be used to establish demand and credibility with potential funders.