Richmond Reparations Community Meeting and Listening Project, Tuesday, March 1st from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PT, at Rich City Rides Gallery, 1500C, Richmond, CA. 94801
Parable of the Sower Coop
02/28/2022
Contact:
Aleta Toure
Richmond Reparations Community Meeting and Listening Project
COME TOGETHER TO HEAR THE PEOPLE:
Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at 6:00 - 8:00 pm PT
https://linktr.ee/RichmondReparations
Change is coming to Richmond in the form of a mobilization campaign supporting the California AB 3121 state legislation on Reparations. The California Reparations Task Force members and Reparations supporters on Tuesday, March 1st, from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm will be having a community meeting. The organizations: CJEC, Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative, Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), Bay Area BAP (Black Alliance for Peace), Richmond People’s Movement Assembly Task Force (RPMA), AfroSocialist, and a host of other organizations are together hosting this hybrid event (both in-person and online) community meeting at the Rich City Gallery, 1500C Macdonald Avenue, Richmond, CA. which will be held next door to the Rich City Rides Cooperative Bike Shop. This Richmond Reparations Listening Session is to make sure Richmond residents are a part of this historic effort called AB 3121. A free registration link will be available soon, but please find updates at https://linktr.ee/RichmondReparations, and the Facebook page: https://fb.me/e/WYLL3weU.
As described by California's Attorney General's office, "The institution of slavery is inextricably woven into the establishment, history, and prosperity of the United States. Constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned from 1619 to 1865, slavery deprived more than four million Africans and their descendants of life, liberty, citizenship, cultural heritage, and economic opportunity. Following the abolition of slavery, government entities at the federal, state, and local levels continued to perpetuate, condone, and often profit from practices that brutalized African Americans and excluded them from meaningful participation in society. This legacy of slavery and racial discrimination has resulted in debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships that are uniquely experienced by African Americans."
The movement for Reparations for Black Americans is growing, and California is again leading the way. In 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB3121, a law creating the first-ever State Task Force to study and develop Reparations for African Americans. Former State Assemblymember Dr. Shirley Weber, now our Secretary of State, authored AB3121. California’s Reparations Task Force has two years to complete a three-part mission:
Investigate the history and evidence of Slavery and Jim Crow in California.
Come up with ways to educate the public about California’s role in Slavery and Jim Crow.
Design Reparations proposals for the California legislature to consider.
The Task Force has nine members, including Chair Kamilah Moore, Vice-Chair Dr. Amos Brown, Senator Stephen Bradford, Assembly Member Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Dr. Cheryl Grills, Lisa Holder, Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, and Donald K. Tamaki.
To date, California’s first-in-the-nation Reparations Task Force has held six virtual meetings covering a broad range of issues important to Black Californians. The California Reparations Task Force is required by law to hold at least 10 public hearings. These hearings are streamed live on YouTube at ETM Media Group and online at https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121. In 2021, the Task Force approved 12 Community Listening sessions in addition to the 10 public hearings.
Community organizations across the State are working together to make sure Black Californians participate in the effort to make California the first State to provide Reparations to Black Americans. Grassroots community organizations such as Coalition for a Just and Equitable California (CJEC), are partnering with community members and organizations in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino County, and the Inland Empire to ensure there is a strong and deep Black community engagement in the California Reparations effort.
Our partnerships are in the process of hosting further community meetings and listening sessions in Marin City, Vallejo, Oakland, San Francisco, and throughout California. Richmond Reparations team on Tuesday will be introducing the Black Box Mobilization Campaign for the fifty-seven counties of California through their “Got Reparations?” organizing effort which starts in Richmond and will be used in the other community meeting teams.
The mobilization campaign will allow community members to place their testimonies into black boxes. The black box testimonials will eventually be typed and presented to the AB 3121 Task Force to support the class action case which proves harm has been done in California to Black residents. One county at a time, the campaign will bring the black boxes to Soul Food restaurants, Black barbershops, beauty salons, churches, mosques, and communities.
Learn more about the law (AB3121) that created California’s historic first-in-the-nation state Reparations Task Force. Read AB3121 for yourself. For more information about the California Reparations Task Force, visit https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121. You can email the Task Force directly with your comments about Reparations at Reparation...@doj.ca.gov.
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Love, Peace and Change,
Aleta Toure
Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative
7078576455
