CHICAGO�Several hundred people gathered here Feb. 1-4 for a National Reparations Convention, ready to channel individual work into a united campaign to gain restitution for the evils of slavery and oppression suffered by Blacks.

Held at the McCormick Place Lakeside Center, the meeting brought together experts and participants from a broad swath of economic, religious and political backgrounds.

"Working together we can develop a comprehensive strategy to force America to begin paying the long overdue debt to African American descendants of African slaves. There are many schools of thought about how this can be achieved," said Alderman Dorothy Tillman, who chaired the conference.

"Our objective is to develop a plan of action that can bring a level of justice and compensation to benefit all the descendants of slaves in the United States who still suffer the residual effects of slavery," she explained.

Next up is an April meeting of convention co-chairs and regional chairs for a national organizing committee meeting in Memphis. They will document the findings of the convention and present it to the United Nations. A hearing, similar to a Chicago City Council hearing on reparations last year, will be held at the UN, said Alderman Tillman.

"We know that America cannot deny and must deal with the fact that Blacks built this country. As a result, Blacks have inherited poverty, and they (whites) must pay."

As convention organizer, she was happy to see a variety of leaders from across this country participate. Alderman Tillman thanked the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan, International Representative Akbar Muhammad and Nation of Islam Chief of Staff Leonard Muhammad for their support.

Conference goers were treated to two full days of weekend workshops, along with an opening night reception and half-day plenary to end the meeting.

There was an apparent consensus that reparations mean more than simply writing a check, but must mean repairing the psychological and emotional, as well as cultural damage and the economic ramifications of working, exploiting and murdering millions of people. Land must be part of the compensation given, said reparations advocates.

Dr. James Small, a national co-chair of the conference, believes showing how the trans-Atlantic slave trade was a tragedy against humanity will be the key in getting reparations.

The slave trade interrupted African society, robbed a once-great people of their language, religion, culture and human rights, said Dr. Small. He added that the Europeans� lack of understanding of the African religions played a vital role as well in the dehumanization of slaves.

Dr. Small responded to critics and historians that say Africans were enslaving themselves long before Europeans set foot on the continent.

"Africans� notion of servitude did not involve the deprivation of the human being. Even if you were in servitude because you were a prisoner of war, had committed a crime or owed some sort of debt. They did not allow anyone to take away your language, religion, name � they did not deprive you of your chance to attain life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There are many instances in African chronicles, both oral and written, where those who at one time had been enslaved, later became the king of that society," he noted.

According to Dr. Anthony Young, president of the Association of Black Psychologists, the current psychological condition of Blacks in America is a direct result of the impact of slavery.

"In history, we were held captives by chains around our ankles and arms. Those shackles have been removed and now they�re around the mind. As long has we uphold a Eurocentric value system, we will continue to be enslaved," said Dr. Young, who conducted the workshop, "Killing the African-Spirit: A Case For Reparations."

The debt owed to the descendants of African slaves is not only monetary, but psychological, Dr. Young explained. The word that describes this impact, he said, is "Maafa," an African word meaning a great disaster and misfortune of death and destruction beyond human comprehension and conviction.

"The critical feature of Maafa is the denial of the validity of African peoples� humanity, accompanied by a collective and ever-present disregard and disrespect for African people and their right to exist," said Dr. Young. There has been a systematic, organized process to destroy Black people spiritually and physically, he noted.

Dr. Claud Anderson, author of "Black Labor, White Wealth" and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Harvest Institute, stressed the importance of unifying and supporting Black institutions and businesses, instead of retaliating when rejected by whites.

A vertical chain of obligation, where Blacks depend on each other for their daily needs, is needed for emotional and financial stability, he said, during the "Powernomics: Empowering Black Americans" workshop.

"We are gifted and have talents that no one else has. They say Black folks are lazy, but nobody on earth has worked harder than we have. We worked for 400 years for free, with no fringe benefits and no retirement program," said Dr. Anderson.

Integration destroyed Black communities, which must be rebuilt, said Dr. Anderson. "Communities are where you store your businesses, homes, resources and wealth. We must have a whole economic, independent structure that provides jobs, businesses and services for your own people. We must also have a code of conduct to learn how to treat and support each other along with some form of government, so that we can regulate and control it, " he added.

Min. Akbar Muhammad, international representative of the Nation of Islam, spoke on "The Criminal Justice System: Supporting Contemporary Slave Plantations." Min. Muhammad said the reparations movement has the full support of Min. Louis Farrakhan. The Nation of Islam has advocated for reparations from its inception in the early 1930s. In 1961, he said, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad printed in Muhammad Speaks what Blacks wanted from the American government based on the need for reparations.

"In criminal law, if a person is out of their mind, they are not responsible for the crime, and you don�t lock them up. We�ve been out of our minds since they brought us to America. All of the criminal activity that we have engaged in is because we are not in our right minds. We�re saying that we were robbed of our minds, culture and language and we want you to pay for the mess that you (whites) made of Black Americans," said Min. Muhammad.

Min. Muhammad said Blacks make up approximately 75-82 percent of the nation�s prison population. The system has warehoused these young men and women, who now sit in prisons that make profits for shareholders who make investment via the stock exchange, he noted.

"The marriage between Africans in the Diaspora and those on the continent is the key to this reparations movement. When former U.S. President Bill Clinton made his historic 12-day, $43 million trip to Africa, 800,000 people gathered in Ghana to see him. His advisors told him that this would be the perfect opportunity to apologize for slavery, but he was reminded that after apology, comes compensation. The president backed up completely on that issue," said Min. Muhammad.

President Bush should be challenged to address reparations and the damage done to Black people�prisons are a testimony to that damage, he said.

Conventioneers were urged to support and subscribe to Black publications, particularly the Chicago Daily Defender and The Final Call, during the "Media Responsibility in the Reparations Movement" workshop. Veteran radio talk show host Bob Law said Blacks must create, control and own quality media outlets.

"Some who came to America knew they would not have a voice in media. Rather than boycotting networks or insisting that they be included, they have created media outlets of their own. We must begin to control the flow of information and encourage our people to see things from another paradigm. This will also send a message to white manufacturers," Mr. Law said.

The reparations movement�s growing importance was seen not only by the participants, but in the number of politicians and others who attended. Rev. Jesse Jackson, of the Rainbow Push Coalition, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), and Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), along with several state legislators participated. Reparations, once considered a radical concept, has steadily gained the support of civil rights leaders and politicians.

Rep. Rush expressed confidence that the meeting would help build support for Michigan Democrat John Conyers� bill for a commission to study the need for reparations.

Conrad Worrill, of the National Black United Front, called the conference part of a 150-year-old history of the reparations movement. Calls for reparations go back to pre-Civil War days with Blacks calling for restitution and repatriation in Africa, he said, crediting the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N�COBRA) for working at the grassroots level and with Rep. Conyers to bring reparations to the fore over the past decade. N�COBRA also participated in the Chicago conference.

Now others, like lobbyist Randall Robinson, who wrote a book on reparations that middle class Blacks have read, are joining the struggle, Dr. Worrill noted.

Reparations would provide a comprehensive approach to dealing with Black suffering and while the claims of Africans on the continents, Blacks in the Caribbean and U.S. Blacks may vary slightly, all suffer from conditions that must be mended, said Dr. Worrill, who participated in a city council reparations hearing Alderman Tillman sponsored last year.