At the center of the Reparations for Lakeland Now! movement are the Lakeland Restorative Action Priorities (RAPs)—the community’s clear mandate for repair. The RAPs emerged through community gatherings, storytelling, and facilitated convenings that centered the voices of descendants and Lakeland leaders. Together, participants named the harms still reverberating and identified the most urgent steps toward repair.
These priorities are not abstract. They are rooted in lived experience and carry the authority of those most impacted. Today, the RAPs serve as both compass and measure: guiding coalition partners, informing the College Park Restorative Justice Commission’s Way Forward, and shaping negotiations now underway with the City of College Park.
The Restorative Action Priorities (RAPs):
1. Secure a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).
A Community Benefits Agreement ensures that the City of College Park formally commits to community-defined reparations. This includes protecting against unwanted development, ensuring the completion of community plans, elevating awareness of Lakeland’s history, and acting on the findings of the Harm Report. A CBA transforms descendant priorities into binding agreements, creating accountability that extends beyond promises into enforceable action.
2. Return Land and Housing through Land Back and Affordable Housing.
Urban renewal destroyed homes and businesses, displacing families and severing generational wealth. Land Back is restitution in its most tangible form: reclaiming space for descendants, building affordable homes, and ensuring that Lakelanders can return and remain. This priority envisions right of first refusal, return-to-Lakeland housing programs, and opportunities for home-based businesses and community gathering spaces. It is about restoring what was taken and ensuring descendants have a place to thrive.
3. Restore Access to Lake Artemesia.
For generations, the lake was part of Lakeland’s heartbeat—a space for gathering, reflection, and connection to land and water. Urban renewal severed that connection. Restoring both visual and physical access, with pathways and barriers designed in consultation with descendants, is more than a practical measure. It is a symbolic act of healing, reweaving community ties to place, memory, and creation.
The Lakeland RAPs are now integrated into the College Park Restorative Justice Commission’s Way Forward recommendations, which align them with the United Nations’ five pillars of reparations: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. This demonstrates the power of community-grounded strategy: what began as descendant-defined priorities now informs institutional frameworks and guides official negotiations.
As the work moves forward, the Lakeland RAPs remain at the heart of the movement. They keep the focus on local accountability, ensure reparations are measured by community standards, and serve as the compass for implementation.
Lakeland’s story is proof that repair must always begin with those most impacted. The Lakeland RAPs embody that truth, ensuring that as momentum builds, the work stays rooted in the wisdom and leadership of descendants.