ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the long history of demands of reparations for slavery in the Americas, establishing a distinction between symbolic, financial, and material reparations. It emphasizes that activists who fought for reparations were often framed as radicals and persecuted by public authorities, especially in the United States. By offering an overview of the various social actors who, over time, have made calls for reparations, this chapter also emphasizes the variety of demands addressed to former slave owners, governments, churches, companies, and, more recently, universities. Overall, it shows that despite the recent wave of calls for reparations, there is little consensus on what form reparations should take. The chapter underscores that as long as racism and racial inequalities remain, ravaging former slave societies and societies where slavery existed, calls for reparations will persist.
