Ron Walters

"One of the most persistent, yet devastating myths is that slavery ended in 1865—persistent because it is so pervasive in the current of United States history and devastating because it establishes a benchmark from which African American progress is supposedly made."

"Enslaved workers transferred the legacy of poverty and oppression to their descendants because their status did not allow the acquisition of wealth. Moreover, the ability to share equitably in the nation’s wealth was stifled by laws that disavowed the historical reality that the status of the “enslaved workers” affected the status of their descendants. The use of the law as a tool to demand redress has not advanced the right of African Americans to that wealth because the legal technicalities of sovereign immunity, the statute of limitations, and other devices have worked to prevent African Americans from gaining access to it."