On June 19 at 12 PM, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, racial justice advocates and elected officials from across the state will gather in Newark to celebrate Juneteenth and to call for passage of pending legislation to establish a Reparations Task Force in New Jersey. This will be the first Juneteenth recognized by New Jersey as a state holiday.
“While we rightly celebrate the liberation of enslaved people on Juneteenth, we must also double down on our commitment to create an equitable and just America – and New Jersey – where Black people are truly free and not restricted by the shackles of structural racism,” said Ryan Haygood, President & CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
In 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a stirring article for The Atlantic on the case for slavery. Last Thursday, the New York State Assembly passed a bill that would set up a commission to study slavery and its impact on Black New Yorkers.
“A direct line can be drawn from New Jersey’s dark history as the ‘slave state of the North,’ through generations of structurally racist policies, to today’s shameful racial disparities when it comes to wealth, health, incarceration and school segregation – some of the worst in America,” said Andrea McChristian, the Institute’s Law & Policy Director. “The time has come to say the word ‘reparations’ and not to run from it. Reparations can look like different kinds of investments in New Jersey’s Black communities, but ultimately it’s about enacting policies to finally repair the harm. A Reparations Task Force that can study New Jersey’s unique history and present inequities – and make policy recommendations to address them so all New Jerseyans can thrive – is a crucial first step.”
