By Rev. Dr. Joanne Braxton
On June 28, 2026, the grounds of the newly renamed Lakeland College Park Community Center became a sacred space of truth-telling, deep fellowship, and community connection. From 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., community members, descendants, neighbors, and allies gathered for "Lifting the Lakeland Legacy: A Community Meal Celebrating Resilience and Repair."
Emceed by myself as CEO of the Braxton Institute, the afternoon was planned with Golden Repair Fellows Maxine Gross (President of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project) and Robert Thurston (President of the Lakeland Civic Association), alongside leadership from First Baptist Church of College Park and Embry A.M.E. Church. As someone who grew up in Lakeland and whose ancestors were among its original founders, this effort carries deep personal meaning for me. My lifelong ties to this land ground our leadership in personal care and understanding, allowing us to connect our community's painful past with modern policy breakthroughs. Together, we honored our historic milestones while highlighting community-led efforts for justice—particularly the leadership of members of the community who serve on the College Park Restorative Justice Commission.
Why This Event Was Different—and Why It Matters
From the 1960s through the mid-1980s, government urban renewal policies demolished family homes and forcibly displaced 104 out of 150 Lakeland households, stripping away decades of generational wealth and scattering our families far apart. Although Lakeland observes the annual Lakeland Community Day each year under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Middleton, this gathering marked the first time in decades that so many displaced family members sat down to share a Sunday supper in one space just for ourselves. For many who had lost hope, seeing real policy wins achieved through our prior negotiations with the City of College Park directly restored a belief in the power of repair.
"Lifting the Lakeland Legacy" was a joyful tribute to the hard-won milestones that stand as a testament to Lakeland's culture, values, and enduring struggle for justice and well-being:
Truth & Reckoning: Commemorating the African American Redress Network's harm report and The Way Forward report presented to City Council, officially documenting the historical record of dispossession.
Redress & Reclaiming Space: Reclaiming public identity through the official renaming of the Lake Artemisia Recreation Area at Lakeland, local community center renamings, and the Smithsonian-affiliated exhibition Lakeland: Reclaiming Our Space.
Economic & Material Repair: Marking major policy wins including city land purchases for dedicated memorial space, housing pilot acquisitions via the College Park Community Preservation Trust, city scholarships, and state funding secured for LCHP.
Securing Future Benefits: Launching the Lakeland Legacy Member Program—a formal designation created by the City’s Restorative Justice Commission (with applications accessible at the Lakeland Community Center) to ensure future restorative programs directly benefit affected descendants.
Deep Local Roots and Community Leadership
Every facet of the day put Lakeland community members first. The spirit-filled program opened with an invocation by Rev. Dr. Joanne Pumphrey of First Baptist Church and a community sing-along of "Lakeland Will Shine," as learned from the LCHP digital archives and taught by Abigail Cohen. We extended special recognition to the Restorative Justice Commission leadership—including Chair Maxine Gross, Mr. Robert Thurston, Ms. Ruth Murphy, Pamela Boardley, Violetta Sharps Jones, and Rev. Dr. Fannie Featherstone—reinforcing that this movement is firmly driven by grassroots guidance. In a solemn moment of sacred remembrance, beloveds spoke aloud the names of those who endured urban renewal and its aftermath and who have now joined the ancestors. Keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Robert Turner, author of Creating a Culture of Repair (2024), delivered a powerful message reinforcing that local, community-led initiatives are the essential engine for national repair.
Joy as an Act of Liberation and Repair
At 1:50 p.m., as melodies of Dr. Joanne Francis’s steel pan music filled the air around the center, long-separated neighbors gathered over a delicious home cooked Sunday supper—the kind we remember from long ago, when we lived in a community where we felt loved and cared for, our beloved community.
By pairing concrete policy breakthroughs with shared bread, "Lifting the Lakeland Legacy" demonstrated that true repair requires both material results and collective joy. Joy is not an afterthought to justice—it is an act of liberation.
This event serves as a living blueprint for local repair nationwide, and it connects to even larger circles. As we continue this work, we invite you to join with us in building spaces where truth is honored, historical harm is redressed, and resilience is celebrated.
May it be so.