‘We’re Asking for Their Debt to be Paid’: Slavery Descendants Seek $70 Billion In Reparations from Saint Louis University

A civil rights attorney representing hundreds of Black Americans whose ancestors helped build Saint Louis University during slavery demanded $70 billion in reparations for years of free labor. Attorney Areva Martin announced the reconciliation package on Feb. 8 at the Missouri university’s Busch Student Center, where she and other prominent community members put pressure on the university to pay the arrears and avoid a potential lawsuit.  Martin spoke on behalf of 200 descendants of Henrietta Mills and Charles Chauvin, an enslaved couple owned by the Saint Louis University Jesuits, whose forced labor helped to construct the Victorian-esque campus beginning in the late 1820s. St Louis University’s campus (Instagram/slu_official) The call for reparations emerged from a grassroots effort by the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, a powerful nonprofit group in St. Louis dedicated to preserving the legacy of their enslaved forefathers who helped establish the American gateway to the West. “We’re not asking for a handout,” said DSLUE president Robin Proudie, also a descendant of those who were enslaved by Saint Louis University. “We’re asking for their debt to be paid.”  They estimate that $365 million is due for the unpaid labor done 24 hours per day, 365 days...