Reparations Legacy Project

Repair the damage. Return the stolen wealth.

Reparations Legacy Project organizes white people with access to financial wealth to take a stand in repairing the economic and social damage of enslavement and ongoing exploitation of African people through the redistribution of resources toward the Black self-determination programs of the Uhuru Movement.

Our Mission

Reparations Legacy Project organizes white people with access to financial wealth to take a stand in repairing the damage of slavery and economic injustice through the redistribution of resources toward the Black self-determination programs of the Uhuru Movement.

Our Vision

Reparations Legacy Project envisions a world of unity and peace through reparations, in which African, Indigenous and oppressed peoples have full control of their land, lives and resources and no group profits at the expense of another.

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1. The leadership of the African working class

Reparations to African people is defined by the leadership of the African working class. If we want to take a true progressive stand for reparations to African people then it cannot be on terms that we, as white people, define. We must embrace the leadership of the African-led movement for black self-determination and liberation. 

The Reparations Legacy Project is a project of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a white organization formed and led by the African People’s Socialist Party.  We believe that all white people who want to repair the damage of colonial slavery and systemic injustice and oppression must follow the leadership of the African working class who are defining reparations on their own terms.

2. Reparations means solidarity, not charity or philanthropy

Charity maintains the status quo of wealth, power and resources in the hands of the white population and the ruling class. It does not change the material conditions or the structural relations of colonial power that form the basis for the fact that white people have control of over half the world’s resources while the majority of African people live on less than 10 US dollars per day. 

Reparations is not an act of charity, nor a philanthropic “gift.”. It is the practice of material solidarity with the African-led movement for the creation of an independent, anti-colonial, liberated black working class economy that empowers African people to gain control of their own resources so that charity and philanthropy become obsolete. Reparations is a stand on the side of African people working to free up the productive forces in the African community to benefit their own people.

3. This is our responsibility – and in our interest.

As white people with access to financial wealth, we owe reparations. That is the plain truth. It is our responsibility whether we are business owners, CEOs or just regular white people who inherited wealth because of our place on the pedestal of the oppression of African people. We have a responsibility to play an active role in ending the system of have and have-nots built for our benefit on a foundation of the conquered lands, exploited labor and plundered resources of Africans and other colonized peoples. 

Reparations goes to the heart of every social problem faced by the planet earth today whether it is permanent warfare, colonial attacks on Mexicans and others falsely labeled as “illegal immigrants,” ecological destruction or any other forms of injustice such as gender-based oppression. 

Therefore, more than just our responsibility, this is also in our interest. I the long term it is not in our interest to alienate ourselves from the rest of humanity. Unity through reparations is a positive future for everyone, ourselves included.  The vast majority of human beings are fighting to create a world of equitable distribution of wealth where all people can live, nobody at the expense of another. This is the future we can be a part of when we join the movement for reparations.

4. White wealth is built on stolen African resources.

It is impossible to quantify the mind-boggling enormity of the wealth amassed by the U.S. and European economies through the centuries-long and ongoing process of slavery, colonialism and genocide: beginning with the assault on Africa, the invasion and enslavement of millions of African human beings, transforming African people into the first commodity of capitalism and as machines of production forced to labor on plantations producing the biggest expansion of productivity in human history, the genocide against the Indigenous people of this land and the theft of their land, the plundering of African resources, minerals, silver, tobacco, coffee, rum, oil, sugar, gold, diamonds, culture, science, genius, talent, arts, knowledge, and continuing through the the exploitation of African labor that intensified after chattel slavery with the advent of convict leasing, sharecropping, the mass imprisonment of African people, redlining and gentrification, the theft of land from African farmers, and so much more. 

The wealth of the white world is drenched in the blood and stolen resources, labor value, land and lives of African people. Although most depictions of African enslavement in the U.S. focus on the labor-intensive capitalism of plantation slavery in the American south, the exploitation of enslaved African people permeated every facet of the burgeoning U.S. economy. In other words, slavery was not a southern phenomenon. The hands of white colonizers in the north were also stained in blood, and slavery formed the basis for the wealth of Wall Street and the U.S. economy. 

The Reparations Legacy Project was formed to challenge white people including within the Wall Street sector and the capitalist ruling class to take actions to right the historic wrongs that underlie the foundation of our wealth.  Reparations to African people is the only way forward. 

5. Reparations as a Revolutionary, Anti-Colonial Demand

The Reparations Legacy Project is a project of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a white organization formed and led by the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP). The APSP co-founder and leader Chairman Omali Yeshitela launched the campaign in the early 1970s “to make reparations a household word.” Chairman Yeshitela has defined reparations as a revolutionary demand, as opposed to charity that maintains the status quo. Reparations is a positive stance that forwards the movement of African people for political and economic power over their own lives and resources.

The Black Power Blueprint is Unique: Community Transformation through Self-Determination The Reparations Legacy Project is an opportunity to stand in genuine solidarity with the struggle of the African working class for power and self-government. RLP is raising reparations for the programs of the Black Power Blueprint, a unique Black-led initiative to transform the north side of St. Louis through economic development programs that uplift the entire community. Below are examples of the powerful economic development work of the Black Power Blueprint: 

• The African Independence Workforce Program 

• Uhuru Bakery and Café

• Community Commerce: Farmers Market, Community Garden

Take the Reparations Pledge

Join the growing movement of white people who stand for reparations by contributing towards the Reparations Legacy Pledge to redistribute $25,000 by the end of June 2025. RLP organizers will work with you to develop a Reparations Plan to redistribute 10% of your income and/or contribute at any amount. The Reparations Pledge is a commitment by white individuals, families and businesses who have access to wealth to pay reparations to the African community and invest in the emergent political and economic self-empowerment of the Black working class.