Staff Reports
The activists in Boston are stirring up a storm, demanding a whopping $15 billion in reparations for slavery from the city and, get this, “white churches.” That’s right, folks, these clergy leaders and the Boston People’s Reparations Commission are on a mission to combat what they call “institutional racism” by hitting up the city and white churches for a hefty payday.
The Rev. John Gibbons from the Arlington Street Church went on a tirade at a press conference, calling out the city, financiers, and white churches to stop “shirking” and “lying” and pony up the cash. And if that wasn’t enough, Rev. Kevin Peterson, the founder of New Democracy Coalition, chimed in, demanding full monetary compensation for wages and lost lives due to slavery and anti-black oppression. Talk about shooting for the stars!
Boston #reparations group calls on ‘white churches’ and the city to pay billions to black residents – https://t.co/DgWXvbeZLC
— Neojimcrowart (@neojimcrowart) March 25, 2024
But wait, it gets even juicier. These folks want Mayor Michelle Wu to support their proposal for a mind-blowing $15 billion in reparations for the descendants of enslaved people. And get this, they want the fund to be divvied up into three parts: $5 billion in cold, hard cash for black Boston residents, $5 billion in new financial institutions, and another $5 billion to tackle the racial educational achievement gap and support anti-violence measures. That’s a whole lot of zeroes!
But the drama doesn’t stop there. Peterson is pointing fingers at the white churches in downtown Boston, accusing them of being “connected to the slave trade” and asking them to “publicly atone for the sins of slavery.” He’s even got a laundry list of churches he’s targeted, including Arlington Street Church, Trinity Church, Old South Church in Back Bay, and King’s Chapel. And get this, King’s Chapel has a history tied to slavery, with a whopping 32% of its funding coming from known slave owners.
And if that wasn’t enough, these activists are also bringing up the trans-Atlantic slave trade apology from the Boston City Council and Mayor Wu in 2022 and the establishment of a Reparations Task Force through a city ordinance. But hold onto your hats because Boston named their Reparations Task Force’s research teams in January, with historians and researchers diving deep into the city’s involvement in slavery dating back to 1620. It’s like a real-life soap opera playing out on the streets of Boston!
