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. It will both provide compensation to individuals displaced and rebuild the pillars of Lakeland to recover it as a strong community with the conditions necessary for residents to flourish. Commission members Maxine Gross, Ruth Murphy and Karin Brown did an outstanding job of making the presentation and answering questions, garnering public expressions of support from Council members. That support is now part of the public record. The next steps include the acceptance of the Commission’s report to be followed by the issuance of a renewed charge to the Commission for the implementation stage of the work. The Braxton Institute brought team members from the Lakeland Community Heritage Project, the Lakeland Civic Association, and AARN together for more strategy than pizza at Ledo’s across the street from City Hall in advance of the official event. We were later joined by friends from the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition and First Repair.
Commissioner Maxine Gross
In the words of Maxine Gross, Chair of the Commission, “It has been a long road. After five years of work as the College Park Restorative Justice Commission, we have a tool with concrete recommendations for restorative justice for Lakeland, the Beloved Community. My gratitude goes out to the community of Lakelanders Restorative Justice Steering Committee and Commission members, Braxton Institute, Lakeland Civic Association, Lakeland Community Heritage Project, African American Redress Network, First Repair, Nkechi Taifa and so many others who gave their support and expertise to this work. There is much left to be done.”
Commissioner Gross is a fifth-generation member of the Lakeland community, a graduate of the University of Maryland, founding chairperson of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project, a former member of the College Park City Council (1988-’97) and a co-leader of the Reparations for Lakeland Now! campaign. She is also the primary architect of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project Digital Archive.
