This is an exciting time in the fight for Black reparations! As momentum builds across the country, Pay The Tab is expanding in new directions - including the first-ever reparations course at UCLA Law School. In this special episode, Tony and Adam bring the latest news, answer your questions, and share things we all can do to disrupt America's toxic system of racism, denial, and capitalist greed.

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The largest-ever court award for slavery reparations came from an unlikely plaintiff. Henrietta Wood was an enslaved woman who gained her freedom in the 1840s - only to be kidnapped and sold back into slavery for 15 more horrific years. Her heroic fight for payback is inspiration for today’s reparations battle. Join us with historian Caleb McDaniel, whose book telling Wood's story, Sweet Taste Of Liberty, won the Pulitzer Prize.

SHOW NOTES

Guest: W. Caleb McDaniel

Dr. McDaniel is a professor at Rice University and U.S. historian, focusing on the Civil War Era and the struggle over slavery. He chairs the Department of History and serves as co-chair of Rice's Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice. His book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in History.

• Caleb McDaniel's home page
• Caleb McDaniel's book about Henrietta Wood, Sweet Taste Of Liberty
• Stolen by Richard Bell - story of five Black boys kidnapped from Philadelphia into slavery in 1825
• More about Henrietta Wood's son Arthur Sims including his photo in Jet Magazine when he was America's oldest practicing Black lawyer!
  
  

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE:

[5:57] The “reverse Underground Railroad” and kidnapping gangs in border states
[12:51] The villain: Zebulon Ward
[17:37] The case: Henrietta Wood v. Zebulon Ward
[20:38] Generational impact of court award on Wood’s family
[28:42] Importance of political action in the fight for reparations
[31:52] The hero: Henrietta Wood

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Rep. Justin J. Pearson blows away our live audience with his bold case for reparations - and for making change through multiracial solidarity. He speaks on the racist connections of gun violence and environmental pollution; and what we need to do to fix things. Also on video!

SHOW NOTES

Guest: Rep. Justin J. Pearson

Rep. Pearson is one of the most exciting new progressive voices in America. He’s state representative for Tennessee's 86th district, which includes the city of Memphis. He made international news in 2023 as part of the "Tennessee Three" when he was expelled and then reinstated after leading protests over gun violence. He led a multiracial movement that took on billion-dollar corporations and saved Memphis’s drinking water by blocking a pipeline scheduled to run through the city’s Black community.

• The closing argument: Rep. Pearson’s case for reparations in 10 minutes
  
  
• Rep. Justin J. Pearson and the Tennessee Three: NPR piece
  
  
• Justin J. Pearson’s fight against the Memphis pipeline on Heather McGhee's podcast
  
  
• More on the “solidarity dividend”: Heather McGhee’s book The Sum of Us
  
  
• More on Justin J. Pearson’s time as an activist at Bowdoin College
  
  
• Rep. Pearson’s letter addressing the his colleague’s inaction on gun reform April 2023
  
  

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE:

[17:24] What “environmental racism” is and how it hurts communities
[25:56] Importance of a multi-racial, intergenerational movement for justice
[29:52] Reparations for environmental racism
[39:02] Racist origins of the Second Amendment
[49:29] How gun violence and environmental racism are connected
[55:35] The case for reparations in 10 minutes
[1:11:06] Audience Q & A

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