The New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus (LBC) and the United Black Agenda coalition hosted a virtual press conference on Feb. 25 to urge New Jersey to pass a pending bill (S322/A711) to establish a Reparations Task Force in New Jersey.
The event will also featured remarks from a multi-faith group of clergy, including Charles Boyer of Bethel A.M.E. Church, Anya Sammler-Michael of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair and Imam Wahy-ud Deen Shareef of the Council of Imams in New Jersey.
This legislation, unanimously supported by the LBC, will require New Jersey to take responsibility for its role in American slavery and to make sweeping policy recommendations to repair its enduring harm.
A direct line can be drawn from America’s – and New Jersey’s – history of slavery to generations of structural racism to current racial disparities, some of the worst of which are found in New Jersey.