Legal Brief: Reparations for Descendants of the Freedmen Identified in the U.S. Constitution

FAR LEFT: Crispus Attucks (circa 1723–1770) was a Black Wampanaug who was the first casualty (1770) of the American Revolutionary War. “Public domain portrait of Attucks, artist unknown.” Likely created 1854, so likeness speculative. Photo and caption from Wikipedia. LEFT MIDDLE: “…Jordan B. Noble, an enslaved teenager who joined the U.S. Army [during the War of 1812] as a drummer in 1813. In late 1814 and early 1815, Noble became one of about 900 local troops who fought with Andrew Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. Two battalions of Free Men of Color fought in and around the city, notably helping to save it from British attack in 1814 and 1815. Noble eventually secured his freedom and went on to serve as a drummer during the 1836 Seminole War in Florida, the Mexican War, and the U.S. Civil War.” Photo and caption from https://aavmwny.org/war/the-war-of-1812/. RIGHT MIDDLE: “Frederick Hall, who used the alias William Williams was a runaway [Black] American slave who enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 and died from a mortal wound while defending Fort McHenry from the British naval bombardment in 1814. U.S. National Park Services.” Photo and caption from https://aavmwny.org/war/the-war-of-1812/. FAR RIGHT: “Major Joseph Savary was the first [B]lack 2nd Major in U.S. Army history. He was appointed by General Jackson to the defense of New Orleans on December 23, 1814. Lawrence E. Walker Foundation Collection.” Photo and caption from https://aavmwny.org/war/the-war-of-1812/.

Issue: Denial of reparations to descendants of the Freedmen recognized in the U.S. Constitution manifests unconstitutional and unequal protection and fails to provide redress for documented historical harm.

European and Siberian-derived tribal nations demand their reparations from the US government, but refuse to acknowledge what they owe to the people they enslaved, whose lives they ruined and whose families they destroyed. [1] FAR LEFT: “Chickasaw Freedmen filing on allotments at Tishomingo (3759, W. P. Campbell Collection, OHS).” [2] MIDDLE LEFT: “Caesar Bowlegs, a Seminole Freedman” (21504.AL.1.l4.r.2, Roy J. Morgan Collection, OHS). [3] NEAR LEFT: “Adam Grayson, a Muscogee (Creek) Freedman” (20473.16, Sigmund Sameth Collection, OHS) [4] NEAR RIGHT: “Carrie William Hall, a Chickasaw Freedwoman, c. 1915” (20699.80.44.3, State Museum/Rubye M. Hall Collection, OHS) [5] MIDDLE RIGHT: “Morris Sheppard, a Freedman, with his family,” c. 1930s (18532, WPA Slave Narratives Collection, OHS) [6] FAR RIGHT: “Dolly Stidham, a Freedwoman” (20382.759, Jennie Elrod Collection, OHS). Photos and captions from Oklahoma Historical Society. Public domain. https://www.okhistory.org/learn/freedmen

DOCUMENTED STATE-SANCTIONED HARM

Slavery was a legal institution under the U.S. Constitution prior to the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution via:

Three-Fifths Clause. Concerned representation and taxation benefits.

Fugitive Slave Clause. Enforced return of enslaved individuals.

The victims are traceable through census records, Freedmen registries, plantation/probate documentation, which establish the verifiable descendant class.

LEFT: “Sixty-five-year-old Nick Biddle, a body servant in a Pennsylvania regiment, was said to have been the first man wounded in the Civil War. On April 18, 1861, he was struck in the head by a brickbat as his regiment marched through a hostile mob in Baltimore.” Caption and photo from Cahan, Richard, and Michael Williams. 2020. River of Blood: American Slavery from the People Who Lived It. Chicago: CityFiles Press. RIGHT: “In September 1862, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all slaves in rebellious states would be free as of January 1. Recruitment and training of colored regiments began in full force following the Proclamation in January 1863… Sgt. Samuel Smith of the 119th USCT [United States Colored Troops], in uniform, with his family.” And, “in May 1863, U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton issued General Order №143 creating the Bureau of U. S. Colored Troops. This image was found in Cecil County, Maryland, making it likely that this soldier belonged to one of the seven U.S.C.T. regiments raised in Maryland. (Source: Matthew R. Gross and Elizabeth T. Lewin, 2010) This is the only known photograph of [a Black] American Union soldier with his family.” Caption by Wikipedia.

LINEAGE-BASED ELIGIBILITY BASED USING FREEDMAN CATEGORY

Legal Framing: Eligible claimants shall be verified descendants of the Freedmen recognized under the post-Emancipation legal framework of the United States Constitution and subsequent federal law, whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States prior to 1865. This eligibility parallels previous reparations claims:

Tribal enrollment (Morton v. Mancari, 1974), which was political and ancestry-based. Classification upheld.

Holocaust reparations, were lineage-based. Eligibility accepted.

Japanese American internment reparations, whereby ancestry and historical records formed the basis of payments. Legality acknowledged.

TOP LEFT: Black Civil War troop member. Public domain. TOP CENTER: “Jared Miller poses as his ancestor Richard Oliver, a soldier in the 20th Colored Infantry, at Penumbra Tintype Portrait Studio in New York City.” Photo and caption by Drew Gardner for https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/descendants-black-civil-war-heroes-wear-heritage-pride-180983397/. TOP RIGHT: “[Black] American Civil War soldiers, 1865, Petersburg, VA.” Public domain. BOTTOM LEFT: “Historians are giving credence to W.E.B. DuBois’s assertion that enslaved workers coordinated a general strike, which helped end the Civil War.“ And, “a group of slaves gathered outside a building at the Foller Plantation in Cumberland Landing, Pamunkey Run, Virginia, May, 1862.” Public domain. Caption and photo from https://daily.jstor.org/did-black-rebellion-win-the-civil-war/. BOTTOM RIGHT: “The adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the impetus for the use of free black men as soldiers and, at a time when state governors were responsible for the raising of regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the Fifty-fourth Regiment.” And, “according to the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War.” Photo and caption from https://englishhighalumni.org/2021/06/11/english-high-student-joined-famous-black-civil-war-regiment/.“

EQUAL PROTECTION ANALYSIS

Implication: Denying reparations produces disparate treatment and violates the 14th Amendment (equal protection under the law).

LEFT: “Buffalo Soldiers were United States Army regiments composed exclusively of Black American soldiers, formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier, starting 1866.” And, “Buffalo soldiers of the 25th Infantry, some wearing buffalo robes, Ft. Keogh, Montana. 1890. Photo and captions by Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. RIGHT: “Black Seminole Scouts.” Caption by Lee Young. Photos from Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.

ADMINISTRATIVE FEASIBILITY

• Identification: Genealogical records, Freedmen registries, and census data allow precise identification of descendants.
• Distribution: Direct payments via federal trust or banking systems are feasible, transparent, and secure.
• Precedent: Existing reparations programs (Japanese American, Holocaust survivors) demonstrate administrative practicality.

LEFT: “Soldiers from the 92nd and 93rd division in World War I.” Caption by Wikipedia. Original photo source: http://www.iu.edu/~dema/news/items/african_american_soldiers_wwi.shtml. RIGHT: The “Harlem Hellfighters” was a name acquired by an all-black military unit from Harlem that fought during World War I. Officially, they were the 369th Infantry. They became known for their fierceness and stamina, so their nickname was well-earned.” Photo and caption from https://americacomesalive.com/harlem-hellfighters-black-soldiers-world-war/

CONTINUOUS GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITY

• The United States of today is the same constitutional sovereign responsible for slavery and post-Emancipation legal frameworks.
• The United States engaged in historical suppression of Freedmen petitions (including imprisonment, exile, and violence), which reinforces the continuing obligation to provide redress.

LEFT: The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion served active duty oversees 1945–1946 during WW2. They were part of the US Women’s Army Corps (WAC) that managed postal services. Some worked as cooks and mechanics. Dated 1945. Photo by Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. (09/18/1947–02/28/1964) via Wikipedia. RIGHT: “Tuskegee Airmen — Circa May 1942 to Aug 1943. Location unknown, likely Southern Italy or North Africa… “Class 42-I graduated from flight training on October 9, 1942 at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama Left to right: Nathaniel M. Hill, Marshall S. Cabiness, Herman A. Lawson, William T. Mattison, John A. Gibson, Elwood T Driver, Price D. Rice, Andrew D. Turner.” Photo from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Caption from Wikimedia Commons.

PROPOSED REMEDY FRAMEWORK

• Eligibility: Verified descendants of Freedmen recognized under the U.S. Constitution.
• Verification: Genealogical and historical documentation.
• Payment: Direct monetary transfers or trust-based distributions.
• Administration: Federal oversight ensuring equitable distribution.

LEFT: “Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14[?], 1818 — February 20, 1895) was an american abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer… Frederick Douglass, ca. 1879. Photograph by George K. Warren (d. 1884). National Archives.” Photo and captions by Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. RIGHT: “Black American abolitionist Harriet Tubman born in Maryland was an abolitionist, nurse and scout for the Union Army, and suffragist. “ And, “a carte-de-visite of a young Harriet Tubman seated in an interior room. Photographed by Benjamin F. Powelson in 1868–69… Jointly purchased by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Library of Congress in 2017.” Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

CONCLUSION

Reparations for descendants of the Freedmen identified in the U.S. Constitution are:

1. Historically grounded. Slavery was state-sanctioned harm.
2. Factually verifiable. Lineage can be documented.
3. Legally defensible. Analogous programs exist for other harmed groups.
4. Constitutionally required. Denial violates equal protection under the law.
5. Administratively feasible. Identification and distribution mechanisms exist.

They petitioned for reparations while the aggrieved still lived, and were denied. LEFT: “Callie House (1861–1928) was a leader of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association, one of the first organizations to campaign for reparations for slavery in the United States. She was prosecuted for her efforts to secure reparations and was jailed after her conviction by an all white male jury.” Photo accessed from Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs. CENTER: Sojourner Truth, “born Isabella Bomefree; c. 1797 — November 26, 1883) was an American abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women’s rights, and alcohol temperance… Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first [B]lack woman to win such a case against a white man. [S]he tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for formerly enslaved people (summarized as the promise of “forty acres and a mule”). Caption by Wikipedia. Photo by Randall Studio, circa 1870. National Portrait Gallery. Public domain. RIGHT: Reparations activist and last survivor of the Tulsa Massacre Black American Viola Fletcher, born in Comanche, Oklahoma, Facebook/Tavis Smiley, accessed at Longeviquest. The City of Tulsa, the Tulsa Board of Commissioners, the Oklahoma Military Departmet, the United States Congress looked this elder victim of violence in her face with smiles, then turned their backs on her, rejecting her claim for reparation. She died in 2025, at 111-years-old, her request for justice unanswered.

FINAL STATEMENT

LEFT: “Photograph taken by Alexander Gardner, 1863.” And, “Abraham Lincoln[b] (February 12, 1809 — April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery.” Captions and photo from Wikipedia. Public domain. RIGHT: Quarter plate daguerreotype portrait of John Brown by Augustus Washington, between 1846 and 1847.“ And, “John Brown (May 9, 1800 — December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist in the decades preceding the Civil War. First reaching national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas, Brown was captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.” Captions and photo from Wikipedia. Public domain.

Denying reparations to descendants of the Freedmen is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and legally indefensible.

Reparations are justified, feasible, and necessary.

They also petitioned for reparations while the aggrieved still lived and were denied. LEFT: “William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 — 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865).” He proclaimed “Special Field Orders, №15 (series 1865),on January 16, 1865 to allot land to some freed families, in plots of land no larger than 40 acres (16 ha). Sherman later ordered the army to lend mules for the agrarian reform effort. Brady, Mathew, 1823 (ca.) — 1896.” Caption and photo by Wikipedia. Public domain. CENTER: “Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania,” part of the radical faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. “Stevens believed that slavery be abolished and that black Americans should be given land confiscation from planters to be distributed to the [F]reedmen.” Caption and photo (1860–1868) by Wikipedia. Public domain. RIGHT: “George Washington Julian (1817 — 1899) was a politician, lawyer, and writer from Indiana who served in the United States House of Representatives during the 19th century. Opposed to slavery, Julian was the Free Soil Party’s candidate for vice president in 1852 and was a prominent Radical Republican during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era. He wanted the forfeited land to be divided into free homesteads and distributed among those who served in the Union military or others who aided the Union during the war. Black laborers would be among those eligible for the free homesteads.” And, “George Washington Julian. Library of Congress description: “Julian, Hon. Geo. Washington of Indiana”. Date between 1865 and 1880.” Photo and captions from Wikipedia. Public domain.

References

European and Siberian-derived former slave holders demand that the US government acknowledge their treaty, but continue to break their treaty with the Freedmen they terrorized during antebellum slavery on their cotton plantations. 1 LEFT: “Robert and Sofa Williams, Muscogee (Creek) Freedmen, circa 1935 (14373.B, Works Progress Administration Collection, OHS)” 2 RIGHT TOP: “Pero Brunner, a Muscogee (Creek) Freedman, c. 1896 (1922, Aylesworth Album Collection, OHS)” 3 RIGHT MIDDLE: “Claude Devoyd Hall, a Chickasaw Freedman (20699.80.44.2, State Museum/Rubye M. Hall Collection, OHS)” 4 RIGHT BOTTOM: “Morris Sheppard, a Freedman (10753, Grant Foreman Collection, OHS).” Photos and captions from Oklahoma Historical Society. Public domain. https://www.okhistory.org/learn/freedmen

Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Pub. L. №100‑383 (1988). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Liberties_Act_of_1988

Constitution Center. (n.d.). 14th Amendment: Citizenship rights, equal protection, apportionment, civil war debts. ConstitutionCenter.org. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/drafting-table/item/amendment-xiv

History.com Editors. (2009, November 9; updated 2025, May 27). 14th Amendment: Simplified summary, text & impact. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/articles/fourteenth-amendment

Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Fourteenth Amendment. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fourTeenTh_amendmenT_0

National Archives. (n.d.). 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868). https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment

Reagan Library. (n.d.). Constitutional Amendments — Amendment 13 — “The Abolition of Slavery.” Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/constitutional-amendments-amendment-13-abolition-slavery

The Black Army Officer by Clyde McQueen (2008, AuthorHouse). From Amazon.com’s description, “Black soldiers (USCT) have served in the army since the beginning of the Civil War.” Also, Clyde McQueen is a “World War II veteran and 1950 graduate of Prairie View A&M College. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the infantry fifty-seven years ago and Veteran of the Korean War.”

U.S. Congress. (2023). H.Res.414 — Recognizing that the United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States. Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/414/text

U.S. Congress. (2025). H.Res.414 — Recognizing that the United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the crime of enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States. Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/414/text/ih

LEFT: “The Freedman’s Savings Bank on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.” And, “the Freedman’s Saving and Trust Company, known as the Freedman’s Savings Bank, was a private savings bank chartered by the U.S. Congress on March 3, 1865, to collect deposits from the newly emancipated communities. The bank opened 37 branches across 17 states and Washington, D.C. within 7 years and collected funds from over 67,000 depositors. At the height of its success, the Freedman’s Savings Bank held assets worth more than $3.7 million in 1872 dollars, which translates to approximately $80 million in 2021.” And, “the bank failed in 1874, weighed down by speculative loans issued by the bank’s white officials, destroying the savings of the depositors. Because of the bank, descendants of the Freedmen remain identifiable and traceable. “When people opened accounts at the Freedman’s Bank, they were required to provide a great deal of personal information to ensure that bank officials could locate family members in the event of a depositor’s death. Each depositor gave his or her full name, place of birth, current residence, current occupation, and the names of spouses, children, parents, brothers, sisters, and more. Documents contain details on labor contracts and apprenticeship agreements. Other records contain personal information on [Black] American soldiers, including company and regiment. There are school, court, and hospital records, as well. The records of 29 branches of the Freedman’s Bank survive today in the National Archives.” Captions by Wikipedia and https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/freedmans-bank-building/freedmans-bank-and-family-histories. Photo by Wikipedia. Public domain. RIGHT: “Matthew and Buck Franklin. Sons of Chickasaw Freedman circa 1899.” Photo and caption from Indian Severalty (The Dawes and Curtis Acts) and Black Indian Freedmen. Public domain. https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/indian-severalty-dawes-and-curtis-acts-and-black-indian-freedmen/ The descendants of the Franklins pay their taxes so that the descendants of their former enslavers, the Chickasaw, continue to enact economic violence upon them.