St. Paul, Minn. Randall Robinson, president of TransAfrica and one of the nation's prominent African American leaders, will discuss his campaign for reparations for slavery during a Twin Cities visit Tuesday, Nov. 14. The speech is free and open to the community. The forum is broadcast on KMOJ Radio. He argues that the government has an obligation to repay African Americans for the wrongs of slavery, Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination that have left many lagging behind whites in education, income and other areas.
Governments have an obligation to remedy wrongs that predate and survive living citizens.
Robinson is the founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based TransAfrica, which deals with U.S. policies toward Africa and the Caribbean. Robinson was a leader in the international movement in the 1980s to end apartheid in South Africa, organizing large daily protests for more than 400 days in front of the South African embassy in Washington. He was also instrumental in helping to restore democracy to Haiti and helped secure the return of President Jean Bertrand Aristide to Haiti. A graduate of Virginia Union University and Harvard Law School, Robinson is also the author of Defending the Spirit. He served as an assistant to the late Michigan Congressman Charles Diggs and Congressman William Clay of Missouri.