“Black-Eyed Susans for Repair,” a new coalition of Maryland reparations advocates named for the vibrant and resilient state flower of Maryland, convened for the first time on February 9, 2026. In the words of Dr. Joanne Braxton, the convener: “One thing about a Black-Eyed Susan, when you see one, you never see one alone, you see a whole bunch! We are here today at this gathering because of those who came before us, for the beauty of those who struggle alongside us, and also for those who will follow.”
The Braxton Institute Welcomes New Board Members
The Braxton Institute for Sustainability, Resiliency and Joy is pleased to introduce five new board members who have joined our leadership team in 2026. We anticipate a full year ahead and are grateful for their wisdom and leadership as they step into these new roles. By way of brief introduction, please join us in welcoming our incoming board members:
Blair Bowie, Esq.
Blair Bowie directs Campaign Legal Center’s Restore Your Vote project, which focuses on ending felony disenfranchisement by democratizing access to rights restoration services and working with directly impacted communities to dismantle systemic barriers to the ballot box through advocacy, litigation, and policy change. Blair is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Middlebury College. At Penn Law, they served as a Toll Public Interest Scholar, founded the Democracy Law Project, and were granted the Dean Jefferson B. Fordham Human Rights Award. They are a participant in the Prince George's County Lynching Memorial Project and served as a Braxton Institute Community Fellow.
Rev. Dr. Kelle Brown
The Reverend Dr. Kelle Brown is the senior pastor at Plymouth United Church of Christ in Seattle, Washington. She brings a wealth of experience, from spiritual leadership and business acumen to inclusion education and community building. She has facilitated weekly empowerment and spirituality groups, led powerful and dynamic worship, worked as community liaison to other faith organizations, and facilitated conversation on dismantling oppression. She offers ways to consider and reflect on privilege, bias, prejudice and bigotry, and provides individual spiritual and leadership coaching.
John P. Comer
John P. Comer is the Founder of The Architects of Justice and Sr. Organizer with 20+ years experience organizing around housing, criminal justice, and education disparities. He has led death penalty reform and abolition efforts, through working directly with family members of murder victims, as well as organizing speaking tours with death row exonerees. He was a member of the Braxton Institute’s Golden Repair Circles of Care for Reparations Leaders inaugural cohort in 2025.
Dr. Eric Freeman, MD
Dr. Eric Freeman, who has been practicing general pediatrics in the Richmond community for the past 21 years, opened Old Dominion Pediatrics in August of 2012. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics where he carries board certification in general pediatrics. He is currently a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Department of Family Medicine and Population Health at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
Mélisande Short-Colomb
A native of New Orleans, Meli retired from a lengthy culinary career and now serves on the Board of Advisors for the Georgetown Memory Project, is a founding Council Member of the GU272 Descendants Association, and was on the GU272 Advocacy Team. Meli is frequently invited to speak on the subjects of the GU272 and reparations. Her talks vary from testimony before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, to speaking at the Brooklyn Historical Society, to a TEDx talk. Meli has been featured in multiple print outlets and news programs.
We are so grateful to be in community with these new board members and welcome them to the Braxton Institute leadership team. From Medicine, to the arts, to organizing and prophetic witness, these new board members bring a multitude of strengths to our board matrix, as the Braxton Institute enters a new era of infrastructure building and sustainable growth. Welcome Kelle, Meli, John, Blair, and Eric!
Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission Makes History
The Braxton Institute celebrates the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission (MLTRC), the first state-sponsored effort in the United States to investigate, document, and reckon with the history of racial terror lynchings. The Commission’s Final Report was submitted to the Governor and the General Assembly in December 2025. On Wednesday, January 14, the commission held a virtual briefing hosted by members of the Commission - providing the public with an overview of the key findings and recommendations.
Historic Override Paves the Way for Maryland Reparations Commission to Lead and to Serve
In December 2025, Maryland lawmakers overrode Gov. Wes Moore’s veto, leading to the establishment of the Maryland Reparations Commission. After generations of chattel slavery and Jim Crow, the state of Maryland is finally acknowledging what descendants and communities have said for generations: reparations are necessary.
Advancing Reparations Through Shared Learning and Community Engagement
Reflection on “A Day of Acknowledgement: Confronting the Legacy of Slavery”
On Saturday, November 22, 2025, I had the honor of representing the Braxton Institute at A Day of Acknowledgement: Confronting the Legacy of Slavery, held at Maryland Hall in Annapolis. The program centered on a historic moment: County Executive Steuart Pittman’s formal apology for the profound and enduring impacts of slavery on generations of Black Americans.
Reparations for Lakeland Now! Witnessing a Historic Reparations Moment in College Park, Maryland
On Tuesday October 7, 2025 the Braxton Institute pulled together a remarkable group of local, regional, and national reparations leaders to witness a historic presentation by the College Park Restorative Justice Commission to the College Park, Maryland City Council. “The Way Forward Towards Restorative Justice in College Park” is a comprehensive range of initiatives that, when carried out, will make good the City’s promise for repair.
Braxton Institute August-September 2025 Newsletter
With gratitude and commitment, we are living into a season of momentum in Lakeland, Maryland, anticipating a transition from harm to hope and greater well-being for the entire City of College Park, Maryland. What was once held in vision has become consensus, and what was once consensus is now moving toward implementation. This new phase of reparations work is grounded in clear priorities articulated by the Lakeland community itself, and these restorative priorities are moving the city from acknowledgment into action.
Lakeland's Five Pillars of Beloved Community: A Model for Repair
From the archives of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project and the testimony of Lakelanders, members of a historic African American town in Maryland adjacent to Washington, DC, five recurring themes emerge. These themes describe the strength and vitality of Lakeland before “urban renewal.” Social psychiatrist Mindy Fullilove, M.D., observed that these “Five Pillars” represent all of the necessary components for a healthy urban habitat.
My Personal Ceremony of My Golden Repair
Who is Blair Bowie?
Blair Bowie is a voting rights attorney at the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) who is determined to restore voting rights for incarcerated Americans. Bowie works with Restore Your Vote, a program striving to abolish the last remaining Jim Crow law: the disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions.
Braxton Institute June-July 2025 Newsletter
It has been a rigorous season here at the Braxton Institute—advancing the Reparations for Lakeland Now! campaign, contributing to a landmark report of historical harm, and holding healing-centered space through our Golden Repair Circle of Care for Reparations Leaders. Our efforts are rooted in a vision as bold as it is tender: to repair what has been broken, and to restore what sustains us.
Harm Report Released: A Milestone for Lakeland Reparations
The release of Restorative Justice for Lakeland: A Report of Historical Harms, Contemporary Impacts, and Policies for Redress marks a milestone in a long and ongoing struggle. It also marks something more: an affirmation of presence, memory, and power. It is now impossible to erase Lakeland from its history—or from its future.
A Reparative Vision for Maryland
From Lakeland to the UN: Building Bridges
I was deeply honored to attend the fourth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) in New York City, from April 14-17, 2025. For weeks leading up to this convening, there had been online side events. Many of these events focused on the intersection of health and healing and addressing the violence against Black women and girls around the world… These preparatory programs updated participants like me with the latest knowledge about conditions impacting people of African descent globally… This was my first Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, and I was approaching it with my “beginner’s mind,” the student with everything to learn.
Braxton Institute April-May 2025 Newsletter
As the fullness of spring blossoms— bringing beauty even in these challenging times— I find myself reflecting on the persistent progress of our work here at the Braxton Institute. I think of its richness, its fervor, and its steady emergence from the shadows of history into the transformative light of repair.
Why Do We Call This Friday Good?
For those who observe the Christian traditions of Holy Week, Good Friday invites remembrance of Jesus’ crucifixion. Some Christians mark the day with rituals contemplating the Stations of the Cross or Jesus’ seven last words; grateful devotions to honor his suffering and death as a saving sacrifice that forgives human sin. But not all Christians approach Good Friday this way. For others, such as myself and many like me, Good Friday is a day to grieve the historical reality that the Roman Empire publicly executed Jesus to terrorize his disciples and to quell uprisings of Jewish resistance.
Bearing Witness, Calling Forth Healing
On Choosing Joy: Lessons from My Toddler
Like the majority of black women in America, I waited on the most recent presidential election results with bated breath, hoping against hope that this country was progressive enough to choose a woman of color to lead it. Exhausted by nearly a decade of divisive, hate-filled political rhetoric, I desperately wanted to turn the page on this disheartening chapter and finally feel like we were moving forward.