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Reparations Commission to Hold Town Hall for Public Discussion

  • by Gail Crichlow, Lois Rosado

In the November 2021 municipal elections, the voters of Greenbelt passed a referendum to create a 21-member reparations commission to review, discuss and recommend reparations for African American and Native American residents of Greenbelt. The Greenbelt Reparations Commission (GRC) has met continually since February 2023.

The public is invited to the Greenbelt Reparations Commission Town Hall on Saturday, June 27 at 12:30 p.m. in the Greenbelt Library Auditorium. Learn what the Commission has learned, discuss draft recommendations and provide feedback on the Commission’s next steps. This Town Hall will primarily focus on African American reparations. A separate Town Hall will follow to address reparations for Native Americans.

Since its first meeting in 2023, the Commission has accomplished the following:

  1. Created a website, greenbeltreparations.info, to share information with the community about events, reports, videos, updates, meeting minutes and other pertinent information. GRC also created a commonly asked questions document with answers to questions received from the public (greenbeltreparations.info/about).
  2. Distilled a historical timeline using resources from the Greenbelt Museum, Greenbelt News Review archives, National Archives and Records, Maryland State Archives, the Tugwell Room at the Greenbelt Library and hundreds of articles in scholarly journals and other sources. An abbreviated timeline with key Maryland historical highlights is available on the website at greenbeltreparations.info/resources.
  3. Engaged the University of Maryland to examine disparities related to race and ethnicity, income, home ownership, education attainment and disability, and to map historical demographic changes in Greenbelt. Both reports (completed by students) are available on the website at greenbeltreparations.info/resources.
  4. Learned about the reparations movement and foundational principles of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work. Nkechi Taifa, a human rights attorney and an expert on reparations, provided a course on the history of the North American reparations movement. Tribesy Consulting provided empathy and care training on how to interview and listen to members of the harmed communities without causing additional harm.
  5. Hired consultants to support the GRC’s research. The African American Redress Network examined historical harms to the African American community. Lawyering Clinic students from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Howard University researched how Tax Reform in Maryland (TRIM) negatively impacts schools and libraries in areas that are predominantly African American. The Piscataway Indian Nation identified harms committed against Native Americans, shared their history and suggested potential remedies.
  6. Conducted over 30 interviews with African Americans, Greenbelt residents and Indigenous leaders, collected 153 community surveys and held two community town hall meetings. The GRC requested a collaboration with Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI; the housing initiative is the foundational basis upon which the city was built). However, the GHI Board declined to engage with the Commission.
  7. Learned about other local and statewide reparations efforts across the country by reaching out to other reparations organizations and by attending the 400 Years of African American History Commission conference on Reparations in 2023; the First Repair Symposium in Evanston, Ill., in 2023 and 2024; the National Reparations Leadership Assembly in 2025; and presenting at American University’s School of Public Affairs symposium on the importance of reparations at the community level. GRC also testified in favor of a statewide reparations commission at the Maryland General Assembly.
  8. Summarized the research gathered to date is and currently in the process of identifying potential repair remedies, planning focus groups to vet the draft recommendations, writing the first draft of the report and hiring an editor to review and write the final report.

The GRC welcomes comments and feedback via email to myoung@greenbeltmd.gov.

Gail Crichlow and Lois Rosado are members of the Greenbelt Reparations Commission.