Curious why black people think the Federal government should have responsibility for reparations, when the Federal government never legalized slavery.
From the beginning the Federal government had no legal right to ban slavery. In fact, that Federal government opposed slavery. And one of the first steps it took was to ban the import of slavery, hoping that would end the practice in a generation, but then southern semi-autonomous states started "breeding" farms for which the Federal government had no authority to stop.
On the other hand, many free blacks were recognized by states as citizens and thus attained all the protections of citizenship long before the passing of the 13th and 14th Amendments. In other words, prior to the 13th and 14th Amendments passing the power of "citizenship" resided with the states.
So, it is hard to make the Federal government responsible for acts, it had not control over. Had the northern states not ceded control over citizenship to individual states, then we would like to have had two countries instead of one. And slavery would have continued longer in the South. So, rather than assisting slavery, the creation of the United States helped to end it in North America and later in many other parts of the world.
Once the South seceded from the Union, we effectively had those "two countries" and then slavery could be ended by military force. Since the President and Congress had the power to deploy the military against a "foreign nation".
So, when it comes to history, do black students realize how limited the Federal government's powers were prior to the 14th Amendment to intervene on behalf of minorities in states. It seems most Americans including most blacks have not learned the Federal government did have the right to grant citizenship and thereby protect "civil rights" of citizens prior to the 14th Amendment.
During WW2, German and Japanese soldiers held in US prisoner of war camps had no civil rights. They were not US citizens even though they were "living" in the US at the time and after the 14th Amendment was passed. How could they be denied citizenship. First, they were not protected by the 14th Amendment because they were not born in the US.
Long after blacks were recognized as citizens, many white immigrants were not. Why not? They were not born in the US and so, the only way to become US citizens was to have that status conferred upon them, a power that the Federal government acquired long after slavery ended.
With the 14th Amendment, "birth" citizenship came into being and transcended the ability of states to control who was protected as federal citizens and who was not. In addition, people could be "naturalized" and attain citizenship.
The concept of citizenship is not unique to African Americans. It has been a critical factor with unborn babies, Native Americans, immigrants and others. For example, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone "born" in the United States, so unborn babies are not protected as citizens. Native Americans were not granted citizenship to all Native Americans until 1924. Prior if they were born on reservations, they were not US citizens, since they were treated as citizens of a sovereign nation... their tribe.
I do agree we fail to teach civics and history to both white and black children today. Today we view everything through the "lens" of skin color when looking upon history. But understanding how citizenship works and how it worked in the past, helps to explain the condition of slaves in the past, but illegal immigrants today.
When we teach civics properly and focus on the responsibility of the US government to protect the rights of all citizens, it highlights both the powers and limitations of government. There has always been a gap between right and wrong and what is legal and illegal.
I am all for teaching black history in context, since it helps to explain how slavery happened and how it ended. Slavery is not the only issue, but it highlights more than most, the huge difference between the "united" States and the United States. The first existed prior to 1865 was characterized by largely independent nations under a formal alliance/treaty that spelled out the powers of a governing body to legislate trade and manage foreign policy vs the latter in which the "united" States became a more singular nation.
For those blacks and whites and anyone else studying US history, we should all praise Madison and Jefferson for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. It was not needed to form a treaty, but its inclusion more than any other singular document led to the recognition that humans had rights that not even nations had the power to limit. Prior to that, the concept was express in other documents including the Declaration of Independence, but it was never part of a nation's societal contract.
