On the eve of Holy Week, a group of Black and white clergy members gathered Saturday in Roxbury to call on “white churches” in Boston to back reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade and provide financial support for the effort by investing in the city’s Black community.
The clergy members delivered their message at a news conference organized by the Boston People’s Reparations Commission, an independent group of activists who have called on the City of Boston to spend $15 billion on reparations.
“We call sincerely and with a heart filled with faith and Christian love for our white churches to join us and not be silent around this issue of racism and slavery and commit to reparations,” said the Rev. Kevin Peterson, a minister who is known for his push to rename Faneuil Hall because of its namesake’s ties to the slave trade during the 18th century.
“We point to them in Christian love to publicly atone for the sins of slavery and we ask them to publicly commit to a process of reparations where they will extend their great wealth — tens of millions of dollars among some of those churches — into the Black community,” said Peterson.
Edwin Sumpter, co-director of the Boston People’s Reparations Commission, said the news conference marked the first time in city history that clergy from different houses of worship convened to show support for reparations. The event was initially planned to be held outdoors, Sumpter said, but relocated to the basement of Resurrection Lutheran Church because of rain.
