The Braxton Institute fosters physical, emotional, and spiritual sanctuary for those building a more just, joyful and sustainable world.
On Tuesday, January 23, 2024, the Restorative Justice Commission of the city of College Park formally recognized its collaborations with the Braxton Institute in support of Black lives.
OUR REPARATIONS FOR LAKELAND NOW! CAMPAIGN…
will advance the reparations movement underway in Lakeland/College Park, MD from restorative justice work to concrete reparations. Restorative justice and reparation efforts are well underway for Lakeland, a historic black town forced to incorporate into the City of College Park MD by a referendum overwhelmingly opposed by Lakeland residents (circa 1945), and subsequently devastated by urban renewal (1970s). In 2021, in response to decades of activism by Legacy Lakelanders, the City of College Park publicly apologized and established a Restorative Justice Commission whose work has since stalled. Our goal is to change the narrative by employing a trauma-informed lens, by empowering Lakelanders, whether local or in the Lakeland diaspora, to revitalize the process, and to move from study to repair through education and collaborative strategic planning led by Lakelanders. The campaign will trace a history of resistance, beginning with an examination of the enforced incorporation of Lakeland into the City of College Park in 1945, and find models of repair and precedents that move Lakelanders to the center of a process that will be recognized as inclusive, authentic, and worthy of community trust. We are supported by reparations leaders from Evanston, Illinois, Asheville, North Carolina, Shelby County, Tennessee, Howard University Law school and other experts who will participate directly in our community-led convening and advise our team on strategy and best practices. Our job is to advance the reparations movement underway in Lakeland/College Park, MD from restorative justice work to concrete reparations. Read more here.
The Braxton Institute is a Liberated Capital Decolonizing Wealth Fund 2023 Grantee Partner for Reparations for Lakeland Now!
Lakeland Reparations Timeline
June 9, 2020
The City of College Park’s Mayor and Council passed Resolution 20-R-16 renouncing systemic racism and declaring support of Black lives. Read the full proclamation here.
August 2023
“400 Years of African-American History Commission Convening” sponsored by the United States Department of the Interior in Hampton, Virginia. This was the first federally-hosted convening on Reparations.
November 21, 2023
Dr. Joanne M. Braxton, President of the Braxton Institute for Sustainability, Resiliency and Joy, made a report to the Commission on a substantial grant received by the Braxton Institute from the Decolonizing Wealth Foundation (DWF) in support of obtaining Reparations for Lakeland Now!. Dr. Braxton outlined some of the key features of the campaign and introduced the Reparations for Lakeland Now! team. She also thanked the College Park Restorative Justice Commission for picking up some of the unfunded aspects of the campaign, such as the residency by Mindy Fullilove. 2024 “For Love of Lakeland” reparations education project announced.
November 30-December 2, 2023
“Evanston National Reparations Symposium for State and Local Reparations” sponsored by FirstRepair.
Representatives of the Braxton Institute and the College Park Restorative Justice Commission attended the second annual Reparations Conference in Evanston, Illinois, together with other members of the Reparations for Lakeland Now! team.
January 23, 2024
Dr. Braxton and Braxton Institute VP Richael Faithful attended the Restorative Justice Commission of the City of College Park, Maryland. The Commission formally recognized collaborations with the Lakeland Community Heritage Project and the Braxton Institute in support of to carry out the mission of the College Park Restorative Commission.
March-July, 2024
For Love of Lakeland: Reparations Education Project
““Knowing we may not always have eyes to see or ears to hear the many faces of oppression, we honor the voices and insights of women and people of color as primary sources of expertise in the work of justice and healing- locally, nationally, and globally. ”
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“What’s the Braxton Institute? I am often asked. A ministry of teaching and healing, our purpose is to foster a more just, joyful and sustainable world. We are people of color led. We bring voices from the margins to the center. We stand in our own truth as we know it, for each person carries a spark of the Divine. Our theme this season is Repair, Transform, and Thrive, with a focus on Reparations -- land and money-- for harms done to Black and Indigenous peoples, Wellness for black clinicians and thought leaders, and Thriving for trans and non-binary lives in an increasingly dangerous world.”
Dr. Joanne M. Braxton
Recent Dialogues on Resisting and Thriving Program:
At the Braxton Institute we celebrate Black History Month all year long! This month’s program brings together a group of courageous descendants of Jesuit enslavement who spend long hours in genealogical libraries and state archives documenting the paths of ancestors separated by the internal slave trade, focusing on the connections between Maryland and Louisiana. Using DNA and the tools of genetic genealogy, they meet “new” relatives whose connections are unknown, as well as fresh opportunities for re-membering, re-claiming and memorializing those enslaved ancestors whose identities and stories are being returned to us by the tender care of these descendants. Learn more here.
“There must be spaces where authentic selves engaged in interdisciplinary discourse can come together to address inequality and work for social justice.”
