“… this Comment will analyze whether a public nuisance lawsuit is an effective path to recovery for slavery and race riot reparations advocates. Part II will address what reparations are; the types of reparations historically provided in the United States; their due as a result of the racial caste system built into the Constitution and systematically upheld through slavery and Jim Crow; past reparations efforts for Black Americans that failed; the current reparations lawsuit; and public nuisance doctrine. Part III analyzes these reparations lawsuits through the lens of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 and explores whether a public nuisance lawsuit for reparations can succeed where these earlier lawsuits failed. Finally, Part IV assesses whether this public nuisance framing of reparations-based lawsuits is an effective advocacy strategy. Because, while ‘[b]ootstrapping isn’t going to erase racial wealth divides’, reparations can begin to try …”
Kerri M Gefeke, America to Me – A Public Nuisance Reparations Framework Through the Lens of the Tulsa Massacre, 55 UIC Law Review 681 (2022).
First posted 2022-07-21 07:45:46
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