Today @nhannahjones has a beautiful article on Reparations ('It Is Time for Reparations’) in @NYTmag @nytimes. I want to highlight an important part of the historical Reparations story that is usually hidden from the discussion. A thread. 1/N nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Those who know the history of the Reparations movement will know that Blacks were fighting for Reparations before Emancipation, and this history was most recently covered by @IrstenKMullen and @SandyDarity in "From Here to Equality" 2/N uncpress.org/book/978146965…
Few people know that outside of the formal appeal for Reparations, Blacks were fighting for wealth redistribution to from the start of Reconstruction. A major goal of Black politicians was wealth redistribution. I describe the basics of that here. 3/N cambridge.org/core/journals/…
What do I mean? Black politicians understood two things: (1) land was wealth and (2) there was plenty of it. In fact, the South had more land in inventory than the North as of 1860. Why? The limits on agriculture were due to the limited number of enslaved people. 4/N
Also, the people who knew how much land was unimproved were the people who were working the improved land during enslavement. After the war, they had a plan for how to use this land as a building block for Black wealth. It was very politically sophisticated, but intuitive. 5/N
They wanted to raise property taxes on land as a means of forcing it onto the market. This was a plan for wealth redistribution without confiscation. The basic idea was not to seize property for non-payment of taxes, but to alter the opportunity costs of large landholding. 6/N
Abraham Galloway, an influential black politician in NC, said "I want to see the man who owns one or two thousand acres of land, taxed a dollar on the acre, and if they can't pay the taxes, sell their property to the highest bidder...then we negores shall become land holders" 7/N
Black South Carolina politicians said land taxes "would force owners of large tracts of waste lands to sell and give us a chance." Similarly, "several officials, including Matthew Gaines of Texas...urged heavy taxation of unoccupied land, to force it onto the market" 8/N
Historians noted "This tax was expected to force owners of such lands [unused land] either to bear the burden of the tax from their other resources, to put the land under cultivation and thus employ laborers or renters, or to allow the land to be sold." They wanted property! 9/N
More than two thirds of Southern farmland was unimproved in 1860. There was more than enough for everyone to have their own plot of land. Blacks wanted to be independent farmers and needed a vehicle to land ownership. This was a feasible one, and it was that simple. 10/N
Did it work? Yes and no. Yes-- taxes were higher in areas with Black politicians. Also, these taxes are correlated with higher rates of tenancy and lower rates of sharecropping. It did NOT result in land redistribution, but it did work to improve labor conditions. 11/N 
Given that this policy was in place for such a short period of time (~ 6 years) , we might not expect that it would be terribly successful. But even this lack of success was punished. When whites took control they they attacked the Black politicians who pushed for reform. 12/N
In the parts of the South where Black politicians had power and raised taxes, they were highly likely to be attacked. Each dollar of taxes in 1870 is correlated with a 5% increase in the likelihood of a Black politician being attack. Seeking Reparations was literally deadly. 13/N
It's important to note that this was not just about Black politicians, but about Black politicians who were seeking to use taxes to improve Black socioeconomic status. The most aggressive politicians were the ones violently attacked. This was about wealth redistribution. 14/N
Even more, this was surgical violence. It's not that these places had high levels of all types of racial violence like lynching (see below). Racial violence has always been targeted and purposeful, these political attacks were about Reparations. Lynching was about voting. 15/N
This is covered in more detail in my paper here about Black politicians, taxes, and violence during Reconstruction. It's very important to note that political attempts at wealth redistribution are an important part of this story Reparations story 16/N nber.org/papers/w26014
This story became twisted in the narrative of Reconstruction. Taxes (low by national standards) were vilified by whites, and became enemies of white supremacy since they could lead to economic justice. This is part of the contemporary tax debate, too. It's all racialized. 17/N
Black people have always been seeking Reparations in various forms, whether through direct channels or through ways that would increase Black wealth. The response has always been the same: violence, abuse, and neglect. And the debt remains outstanding to this day. 18/18
