Youth activists rally in Washington to demand urgent action on reparations
Washington DC - Youth activists rallied for reparations in Washington DC just one day after the Republican National Convention concluded with Donald Trump accepting the GOP nomination for president.
Gen Z and Millennial activists with the Get Free campaign took part in a demonstration in Washington on Friday to urge comprehensive steps to prevent Republicans from implementing their extremist Project 2025 agenda.
"We're out here because we just saw from this MAGA Republican National Committee that they are set on cementing supremacy, hierarchy, and inequality. They're using the same playbook the enslavers and segregationists have used before them," Get Free member JJ Briscoe said in a morning rally outside the RNC headquarters.
Project 2025 is rightwing groups' policy playbook which aims to gut everything from anti-discrimination protections to green energy initiatives.
With their protest, the activists were not only aiming to send a message to Republicans but also to Democrats, who have the power to address historic injustices at their root via a federal reparations commission. If enacted, the body would examine the US legacy of enslavement and racial discrimination and craft a blueprint to address ongoing harms.
"Today we sent a message to the DNC – to Democratic Party leaders – that young people, that young voters across race and place need this party to show that it's for real," Get Free's Anthony Vidal Torres said outside of DNC headquarters, "because repair is the antidote to white supremacy."
He continued, "This party needs to show us that they're ready to stand up, stand with us, and stand for real democracy."
Pressure grows for action on reparations
The day of action in DC followed the finale of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Donald Trump was once again named the party nominee.
In protest, Get Free activists projected messages Thursday night outside the RNC headquarters which read "MAGA is HQ of white supremacy" and "Take back our future from white supremacy."
The Democratic Party, meanwhile, has been in disarray following Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance against Trump last month. Calls have been growing for the president to drop his reelection bid in favor of a younger, fitter candidate.
With the Democratic National Convention just weeks away, racial justice advocates are pushing the party to take swift action on reparations – a step they see as necessary to defeat Trump and the Republican Party in the 2024 elections and to address the country's debt to Black Americans.
Shortly before Juneteenth, Get Free requested a meeting with Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison to discuss the inclusion of the organization's Our Repair Mandate in the 2024 Democratic Party Platform. Their letter was endorsed by a host of prominent racial and reparative justice organizations, including Dream Defenders, Faith for Black Lives, Earn The Black Vote Collaborative, NDN Collective, and Reparations United.
The 2020 Democratic Party Platform endorsed a national reparations study, and the DNC reaffirmed its support for a federal commission in March 2022. Biden and Kamala Harris also included a federal reparations study in their 2020 Lift Every Voice plan for Black America.
Since taking office, Biden has not followed through, despite sustained grassroots calls for him to establish a commission by executive order.
Cover photo: Screenshot/X/@getfree_mvmt