Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 24, 1994                   TAG: 9407250065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DETROIT                                  LENGTH: Short

REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY DEMANDED

Moore, a Harlem resident known as the Queen Mother, has been fighting for decades to win government compensation for the suffering of black Americans during 250 years of slavery.

The annual convention for N'COBRA, or the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, attracted several hundred people from across the nation Saturday.

That's a far cry from the handful Moore said she used to see in the initial years of the movement.

For Moore and others at the convention, which ends today, the kidnapping and tortuous slave-ship ride from Africa and the cotton-picking under the crack of the overseer's whip remain unfinished business.

Racism continues to be a disadvantage for black Americans, they say, despite the civil rights movement and affirmative action.

``We are owed reparations. We have built this country,'' said Zainabu Sipiowe, an elementary school teacher from Washington, D.C. ``Everyone else seems to be getting partial due or their due. And the African is being completely thrown under the rug, again and again and again.''