On Reparations, Let Impacted Communities Lead the Way
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A crowd gathers in Abbeville, South Carolina, to commemorate a memorial to Anthony Crawford, a prominent Black businessman who was killed by a lynch mob in 1916.
Photo from David Ragland/FOR Reparations
The campaign FOR Truth and Reparations hosted the Black Manifesto Revival in Atlanta鈥檚 historic Candler Park neighborhood this past May. The revival was in observance of the 50th anniversary of the Black Manifesto, which initially demanded $500 million in reparations (and later $3 billion) from Christian European American churches and Jewish synagogues.
Introduced in April 1969 by James Forman of SNCC, (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), the Black Manifesto offered an olive branch to White churches and synagogues that have benefited from the enslavement of Africans in the United States and the world that slavery created.听The document was considered by its author and other SNCC members to be听a听statement of Black self-determination that challenged White religious institutions to participate in repair that could be restorative.
The purpose of the gathering in May was to reflect on the impact the Black Manifesto had on faith communities, and also the demand for reparations as restitution.听听After the release of the manifesto, the Episcopal church released a statement outlining their charitable contributions to social welfare programs already in operation. These included $9 million to community organizations to help the poor; $1 million deposited into accounts at more than 50 African American-owned banks, and $3 million invested in听. The Presbyterian Church agreed to begin a $50 million drive to 鈥渨ork against poverty,鈥� and the World Council of Churches created a $300,000 fund for 鈥�.鈥�
Sadly, none of the demands of the manifesto were fulfilled.
The gathering in Atlanta, while a powerful reflection on the importance of Black-led movements for reparations, was also a cautionary assembling to address the ways in which reparations and poverty elimination programs are often conflated.
In his groundbreaking book听Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Robin D.G. Kelley writes about the reparations work of Queen Mother Audley Moore, who argued against these economic equality approaches because, she said, the programs would benefit and be led by a small clique of Black leaders.
Economic equality, Moore posited, is not reparations. Economic equality represents what any decent society values for all of its citizens.听听Reparations, as this series of articles points out, involves the repair of moral and material harms鈥攊n this case of the听听enslavement and subsequent oppression of Africans and their descendants in the United States.
The United Nations describes as a form of reparations, restitution鈥攖he restoration of the conditions before the harm occurred through repatriation, compensation, return of rights and what was stolen.
What better example of a place to be restored than the location where the revival took place? The First Existentialist Universalist Unitarian Church, originally Antioch Baptist Church in the now-gentrified historic neighborhood, sits on the grounds where former enslaved Africans established a community.
Black people in Candler Park鈥攍ike the many other Black people around the country鈥攃reated religious, businesses, civic, and social organizations for themselves and their children.听听At the end of Reconstruction, circa 1880,听they built a wooden structure as their house of worship. It was mysteriously burned down in 1916. Within two years, the community constructed a stone church near the original site. And in 1950, many members were forced to leave their 鈥淥ld Stone Church鈥� because of racial housing codes and hostile White neighbors.
Antioch East Baptist Church members stand on the steps of their hand built sanctuary, the Old Stone Church, in Candler Park in 1948. Photo from David Ragland/FOR Reparations.
The displacement听of the Black community in听Candler Park听offers a window into the repair and restoration that needs to take place nationwide.听Many White folks have inherited assets, property and/or land from parents or grandparents, while assets, property and land was taken away from or denied newly freed Africans and their descendants.听听Land originally stolen鈥攊n many cases鈥攆rom Native peoples who were pushed onto reservations.
Why does this matter?
To repair this particular type of harm鈥攆or restitution to take place鈥� there has to be an understanding of generational complicity.
Derrick Bell, founder of critical race theory, points out the permanence of our racist structure given that the founding U.S. constitutional framework was meant to solely benefit the White elite at the start of the nation. And so that White people would outnumber people of color,听they allowed White-identifying immigrants to settle and also benefit from conquered and outright stolen lands, genocide, and enslavement.听 By doing this, the founders ensured that those White-identifying immigrants would become complicit in the founding and continuing genocidal violence for the sake of personal economic interest.
Philosopher Hannah Arendt called this phenomenon,听where听鈥渙rdinary鈥� people who participate with injustice for their economic or social benefit, the banality of evil for those lacking moral resources to discern injustice because it is systematic.听听The laws that harm people by stealing from them are upheld by leagues of people (of all races)鈥� because it benefits them in some way, however large or small.
Recently a New Hampshire听lawmaker said slavery was not immoral,听. It follows that the continuing post-slavery violence falls into the听听realm of amorality, a condition divorced of ethics鈥攐nly political realism.听听This framing, of course, is disingenuous, and helps those who benefit from the harm听迟辞听others justify their economic gain.听 Martin Luther King听闯谤.听described this听听as one of the triplets of evil.听
As we consider restitution听one of the necessary dimensions听of reparations, we have specific examples in mind of the actions that can be taken and where:听Candler Park,听where the theft of land and community continues through an听he descendants of Black Wall Street in East St. Louis; the MOVE in Philadelphia. Each of these communities, and more,听deserve restitution for loss of life, creation of political prisoners and theft of land.听听
In听cases like Candler听Park,听where this history is mostly unknown beyond a few historical markers describing the past violence that forced out the Black community, we might consider restitution through symbolic means such as a听, which assesses the amount of income and land generated to create a community land trust that benefits those affected by economic and historic violence.听听Other ways to return what was stolen include direct听听forms of reparations that return land and assets to Black and Indigenous communities.听听
These were among the solutions discussed at the revival, which hearkens back to the original intent of the Black Manifesto.听The actual return, or restitution, cannot be a White-led or White-centered process, otherwise the harm continues through paternalism at best. Reparations in this sense, must be led by impacted communities, like Candler Park, to fully grasp what is necessary for authentic restitution.
The process begins with truth-telling and full acknowledgement of the harm in ways that centers those who were听harmed.听听
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David Ragland
is one of the co-directors and co-founder of the Truth Telling Project and is the Director of the Campaign for Truth and Reparations.
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Tarell Kyles
is a doctoral student at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is an organizer with the Truth Telling Collective and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. 听
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