MONDAY JUNE 19TH 2023

The national celebration of Juneteenth activists and representatives of several organizations rallied in Newark and Perth Amboy to renew their demand for reparations from NJ and the US for slavery. The rallies were called to draw attention to proposals before the NJ Legislature and Congress that would study reparations for slavery at a state and federal level, respectively.

“For the centuries of enslavement of our ancestors, nearly a century of apartheid Jim Crow segregation, and institutionalized racism, inequality, oppression, and exploitation that continues to this day, we are marching to demand passageof the reparations commission bills, A938 [sponsored by Assemblywoman Shavonda E. Sumter (D-Paterson)] and S386 [sponsored by Senator Sandra B. Cunningham (D - Jersey City)] the NJ Legislature, and passage by Congress of HR 40 [ Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D - Texas)] and S40 [ US Senator Cory Booker (D - NJ)] which would establish a federal reparations commission,” stated Larry Hamm, Chairman of People’s Organization for Progress which spearheading the rally in Newark.

“The conditions that Black people endure today are directly related to the impact of enslavement,.You can’t understand what is going on in the US without understanding slavery. The fundamental paradigm of racial inequality was set during the period of enslavement, and really hasn’t been broken,” stated Larry Hamm. “Look, California just passed a reparations bill. New York just passed a reparations bill. It’s time for NJ to pass a reparations bill,” stated Larry hamm.

“They sold us,” Larry Hamm shouted. “They owe us!” the crowd shouted back.
“Reparations now!” The rally was endorsed by 26 organizations, including African American Parades Organization, Black Lives Matter-Paterson, Ironbound Community Corporation, Newark Communities For Accountable Policing (N-CAP), NAACP-Newark Branch, Our Revolution NJ, Salvation And Social Justice, African Diaspora For Justice, Trenton Anti-Violence Coalition, Jewish Voice For Peace-Northern NJ Chapter, NJ Working Families Party, NJ State Industrial Union Council, and Al Awda NY/ NJ Palestine Right To Return Coalition.

NJ was the last northern state to abolish slavery. NJ gave birth to racial profiling. NJ’s public schools are the fifth most segregated in the country. On the same day in Perth Amboy, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice launched the “New Jersey Reparations Council.”

The Council would be directed to craft a two-year study to better understand how NJ’s generational wealth gap continues to plague Black families and hinders them through other forms of racial injustice “We can draw a direct line from our shameful history to the racial disparities that Black people in New Jersey face, some of the worst in America,” said Ryan Haygood, President and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

“That’s why we are not afraid to say the word ‘reparations.’ And that’s why today we are convening the first-of-its-kind NJ Reparations Council.” The council, which will be co-chaired by Harvard University’s Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Rutgers University’s Taja-Nia Henderson, consists of around 50 members from a variety of progressive advocacy, public policy, and academic arenas. Its nine committees will study a wide range of topics related to slavery and reparations, from the history of slavery itself to its modern-day impacts on things like economic disparities, policing, and healthcare

The council aims to produce a report to be released on Juneteenth 2025 – two years from now – that will “serve as a blueprint for New Jersey’s path forward and as a national model for how the challenging but critical work of reparations can be done.”

Share to your favorite social media page