KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The hallways of the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Sanctuary in Kansas City, Missouri, echoed Monday afternoon with a chant.
"What do we want? Reparations, and when do we want it? Now," those who attended the forum chanted.
Dr. Vernon Howard Jr., one of the event's organizers, spoke to the packed house.
"People are rising to this call, this moral obligation to repair Black life in America," Howard said.
The forum adds new timber to a fire that's been burning for generations.
“The forum was designed to energize, to mobilize, to inspire and to educate the Kansas City community with regards to the reparations movement here in Kansas City," Vernon said
Will Bowles, chair of the KC Reparations Coalition, also spoke to the crowd on the impact of long-term oppression saying.
"The net worth of Black families is eight times less that whites," Bowles said. "Continuance at this rate would take over 250 years just for us to reach equal ground. This is what reparations measures are meant to expedite."
Organizers say progress has stagnated over the decades, but there's hope a fresh push from city leaders adds momentum to the reparations movement.
Janay Reliford, a member of the KC Reparations Coalition, says just last week the city pledged to study the effect of possible reparations.
"And they will come up with proposals to express how we can disseminate reparations and it's going to focus on five areas," Reliford said. "Which are housing, healthcare, education, business and economics and criminal justice."
There's precedent in American history with reparations for native land seizures, for Japanese American internment, and for police brutality.
"Should we, can we do the same for the decedents of enslaved black people in America?" Howard said. "Dr. King's answer was yes. The mayor's reparations commission's answer is yes, and we hope all of Kansas City joins us in saying yes."
—
