Guest contribution by Nkechi Taifa

Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts - Nestled in between the first day of the celebrations of life for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Reparations Elder Baba Leonard G. Dunston was an historic Reparations Town Hall event on Martha’s Vineyard.

Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard, one of the first places where self-emancipated Black people could own summer homes during the enslavement era and after and which Harlem Renaissance author Maya Angelou described "as a safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned," was the gathering spot for reparationists across the country on July 30.

Hosted by the Reparation Education Project (REP), the Town Hall event featured guest speaker Margaret Burnham, Founder of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University Law School, with special remarks from Kristi Orisabiyi Williams, a direct descendant from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

As Executive Director of the REP, I led acknowledgments of the memories of Reparation Ancestors, including the recently departed Jackson Lee and Dunston, afterwards proclaiming, "This is indeed a solemn and auspicious occasion and we are so very glad that so many people from both around the country as well as residents of Martha’s Vineyard showed up to add their voice to History-in-the-Making!"

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In a resounding call and response, we chanted, "How we gonna make Reparations Rise? Agitate, Educate, Organize!"

Billi Wilkerson, Managing Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law, and Aziza Robinson-Goodnight, Founder of Repair America Collective, co-facilitated a distinguished guest witness panel assembled to receive the Town Hall testimonies.

Speakers consisted of Kristina Hook (Councilmember and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal elder), Toni Kauffman (President, NAACP of Martha’s Vineyard), Robin Imani Proudie (Executive Director, DSLUE), Vanessa Hall Harper (Councilmember in Tulsa, Oklahoma), Kathleen Anderson (Co-chair, New England N'COBRA), Roach Brown (talk show host, Crossroads), Caroline Hunter (Martha’s Vineyard luminary), Deborah Jackson (Managing Director, Center for Law, Equity and Race), Zakiya Sankara Jabar (Co-founder, Racial Justice NOW!), and Jemadari Kamara (Africana Studies Professor, UMASS Boston).

The program concluded with a posthumous ceremonial tribute to Professor Charles Ogletree, led by Makani Themba, Chief Strategist for Higher Ground Change Strategies.

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The issue of reparations is no longer fringe, but now front and center. What made this event extra special was the support of corporations that back reparations. We were able to provide free ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s, as well as complimentary bath products from LUSH cosmetics.

Our reparations ancestors planted seeds that are beginning to bear fruit. I couldn’t be more excited.