Slavery, Public Memory, and Reparations: Connecting the United States, France, and Brazil

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel discusses the elements that have characterized the emergence of public memory of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade as well as the rise of demands of reparation for slavery in the United States, France, and Brazil. The panel emphasizes the existing (or the lack of) official initiatives led by the various governments in order to highlight the painful past of slavery in these three societies that were deeply involved in the Atlantic slave trade. At the same time the papers discuss how many dimensions of the slave past of these three societies remain absent from the public sphere. The four speakers underscore the ways social actors and public policies have engaged with the demands of reparations for slavery at various levels, including symbolical reparations and financial reparations. Overall, the papers highlight that these three countries face similar issues whether to highlight their pasts connected to slavery or to address the demands of reparations for slavery.

Sub Unit

• ASALH Centennial Annual Meeting and Conference

Chair

• Randal Maurice Jelks, University of Kansas

Individual Presentations

• An African American Historian in Paris: Finding the History of Slavery in the City of Lights - Martha S. Jones, University of Michigan

• Total Recall: Repairing the Public Memory of Slavery and Segregation - Carlton M. Waterhouse, Indiana University

• Public Memory and Reparations for Slavery in Brazil and the United States - Ana Lucia Araujo, Howard University

• Racial Slavery and Reparations in Brazilian and American Race-Conscious Affirmative Jurisprudence - Wendy Greene, Samford University

Commentators

• Robert J. Cottrol, George Washington University

• Randal Maurice Jelks, University of Kansas