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 Reparations Leaders Featured in NBC4 Special
The Braxton Institute continues to lead the conversation on reparative justice and community restoration, as highlighted in a recent NBC4 special. The segment featured Dr. Joanne Braxton, founder and President of the Braxton Institute, alongside Maxine Gross, College Park Reparative Justice Commission Chair and Braxton Institute’s Reparations for Lakeland Now! initiative.
Testimony on SB469
Today was a long but good day. I had the honor of giving testimony before the Maryland Senate Committee on Education, Energy, and Environment on MD SB469 – the Harriet Tubman Community Investment Act (Maryland Reparations Study for Black Descendants of Enslaved Individuals). We were required to submit our testimony in advance, and I thought I was being slick by submitting mine as “written testimony” instead of “oral and written testimony'“; My plan was to have my testimony on the record and then sit back and watch the activities unfold.
Not Just Lakeland! SB469 Harriet Tubman Community Investment Act in the Maryland Senate
On Thursday February 20th, 2025, Senator Joanne Benson along with a panel of witnesses introduced the Harriet Tubman Community Investment Act to the Education Environment and Energy subcommittee in the senate of the Maryland General Assembly. This subcommittee determines whether the bill will move on to the joint committee for voting.
Reparations as Peacebuilding: Three Frames
Reparations and Peacebuilding: two words that seem unrelated. Many think Reparations only relates to things that happened “back then.” And that peacebuilding only relates to things happening “over there.” But both are a significant part of building healthy and just societies. And if we bring them together, we can see they are deeply interrelated. Peacebuilding offers a few frames to help us further explore the work of Reparations.
The Road to Tulsa, Juneteenth, 2024
When I heard the news, I was at the airport in Salt Lake City, on my way to a retreat in Tulsa for 50 regional reparations leaders. On that day, June 12, 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a reparations lawsuit by the last two survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, Viola Ford Fletcher, 109, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 108. When I arrived in Tulsa, it was an impressive 100 degrees just an hour before midnight.
Reparations: Three Fundamental Questions for White People
As soon as we closed the file on our essay, “How Two White Men Became Reparationists,” about our journey as white reparation advocates, we knew we had to go further. How do we, as European Americans, explain why it is crucial to demand reparative action for African Americans? Why now? How do we demonstrate that reparative action is restorative justice? We knew the objections that our friends and family would raise against reparations. But we also believed that their resistance- in part- is based on false impressions and misconceptions. That got us thinking!