America has reached the conclusion that #BlackLivesMatter. So now the question we should be asking, when it comes to justice, and civil rights, and representation, is this: exactly how much do – and should – #BlackLivesMatter?

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The Founding Fathers had some rather grotesque thoughts on this topic. When they drew up the final text of the Constitution, they included the following notorious phrase:

“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”

Read that again carefully. “Three fifths of all other Persons.” This cold-hearted mathematical calculation, known as the “Three-Fifths Compromise,” was demanded by the southern states in order to increase slave-holder representation in Congress. To offset the relatively thin population of white folks in the south versus the north, slaves would be counted as part of the Census, at the rate of 3/5 of a person.

The Three-Fifths Compromise was structural and long lasting, and provided the South with decades of super-sized representation in government. For example, in 1793, slave states held 47 of the 105 seats in the House, but would have held only 33 without the Compromise. By 1833, slave states held 98 out of 240 seats, instead of the 73 they would have held based on white population alone.

The Three-Fifths Compromise ensured that slavery persisted much longer than it may have otherwise, and it remained in effect until the ratification of the 14th Amendment.

So, mathematically speaking, as far as the United States government has been concerned, from Independence until the Civil War, black lives mattered 3/5 as much as white lives did.

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Which brings us back to the current demand for equal rights and representation. How do we ensure that #BlackLivesMatter? And, in a larger sense, how do we atone for past sins and rectify past injustices? With official statements of apology? One-time restitution payments?

Or perhaps we should consider leveraging the brutal simplicity of the math. Perhaps justice can best be served by a little inverse reciprocity.

Presenting the Five-Thirds Compensation. Henceforth, folks listed on the census as African American shall be counted as Five-Thirds of a person. They shall receive proportionally outsized representation in Congress. And their votes for candidates to fill those additional seats shall each be counted at the rate of Five-Thirds of a vote.

And since fair should be fair, the Five-Thirds Compensation shall remain in force for the exact same amount of time that the Three-Fifths Compromise existed – from September 17, 1787 to June 8, 1866 – a total of 28,753 days. So, if it goes into effect on January 1, 2021, it shall remain in force until September 22, 2099.

Sound severe to you? Well it doesn’t even begin to address the hundred or so years of segregation from the end of the Civil War until the signing of the Civil Rights Act, an even longer additional 36,243 days of injustice and misery.

But it’s a start. It’s long overdue. And the math is brutally simple.

#BlackLivesMatterFiveThirds