{"id":9891,"date":"2021-08-02T05:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T09:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actec.matrixdev.net\/press-releases\/\/"},"modified":"2024-01-03T00:40:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T05:40:32","slug":"the-american-college-of-trust-and-estate-counsel-releases-video-focused-on-repairing-racial-wealth-disparity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actec.matrixdev.net\/press-releases\/the-american-college-of-trust-and-estate-counsel-releases-video-focused-on-repairing-racial-wealth-disparity-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Releases Video Focused on Repairing Racial Wealth Disparity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE &nbs\u200bp; <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Contact: Pamela Goldsmith<\/a>, 202.465.8270<\/p>\n\n\n\n Washington, DC \u2013 August 2, 2021:<\/strong> The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) today released its video, 40 Acres and a Mule: Reparations and the Estate Tax<\/a>, delving into wealth disparity resulting from slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the history of reparations. The video is the College\u2019s ninth in its monthly informational series Planning for a Diverse and Equitable Future<\/a>, which is a project of ACTEC\u2019s Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Committee, that is funded by The ACTEC Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Research by ACTEC Fellows Sarah Moore Johnson<\/a> and Raymond C. Odom<\/a> into \u201c40 Acres and a Mule\u201d (a wartime order proclaimed in 1865 to provide reparations to former slaves, which was later revoked), led to a connection between wealth transfer, wealth taxation and slavery. That research further revealed that subsequent lost opportunities to create wealth through inheritance laid the foundation of the racial wealth gap. Currently, white American families have eight to ten times greater wealth than Black American families. The racial wealth divide is greater today than it was nearly four decades ago, and trends point to its continued widening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering the historical underpinnings of the estate tax, which was enacted during the Gilded Age to reverse the widening wealth disparity between the robber baron industrialists and their laborers, Odom and Johnson determined that the estate tax is a logical source of revenue to narrow the racial wealth gap today. In a future segment, Odom and Johnson will lay out their vision for new charitable incentives to reward private individuals and institutions who help to repay the nation\u2019s debt resulting from centuries of slavery, segregation and discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe House bill H.R. 40 – named after the forgotten forty acres promised to freed slaves – is a positive step toward reparations for African Americans to mitigate lingering negative effects of slavery on our society,\u201d said Odom. \u201cOnce we as estate planners recognize the connection between estate tax, as the tax designed to prevent wealth disparity, and African Americans, as the people group with the most disparate wealth in our country, we will want to remember the promise of the forgotten forty acres.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n For further information about the Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity series, please visit actec.org\/diversity<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n