If you missed the N'COBRA's REOS (Reparations Education and Organizational Spotlight) last month at the Cliveden Museum House in Philadelphia, believe me someone you know, or would want to meet, was there. It was a day of recognition, education, and the official signing of the memorandum of collaboration between the national Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, known as N'COBRA, and the Cliveden Trust.

Before the showing of the documentary, the full house of N’COBRA supporters and Board members of the Cliveden Trust witnessed the formal signing of the memorandum of collaboration between the Cliveden Trust and N’COBRA “to promote racial healing, lessen the impact and vestiges of the Chew Family of Philadelphia’s enslavement of Africans and African Americans, acknowledge the injustice and un-just enrichment deriving there from, and to seek ways and means to repair this damage through various forms of reparations.”

David Young, Director of the Cliveden Trust, and I, as Director of the Northeast Region Working Group were the respective signatories.

“The collaboration between N'COBRA and Cliveden is a paradigm marker to move our legacy of chattel enslavement into the public square to the light of day and reason for the reparations accord for Blacks in America that will repair the damage done, and spiral America's economic down-turn upward to restorative justice,” Merretazon told the crowd.

“This collaboration will help retrieve our history from America's historical societies so that the whole truth can be told with the addition of an African-centered perspective. We will reframe America's narrative and re-educate our children to help fill their vacant esteem and build their self-respect.”

The international acclaimed documentary "The Durban 400" was shown with N'COBRA's Queen Mother Dorothy Lewis-Benton, Co-chair, and International Commission of N'COBRA, lecturing and answering questions afterwards. "Reparations are closer than they appear, it's like the election of President Barack Obama, people didn't believe it would happen... so it is with reparations, so we must be prepared, get ourselves ready for it, because it is a going to happen", she emphasized.

Dr. Raymond Winbush, Morgan State University, author of "Should America Pay Reparations", and more recently, "Belinda's Petition", also attended. He will be the lead psychologist and historian to work directly with Cliveden’s curator helping to put an African-centered interpretation to the Benjamin Chew Papers written by the former Chief Supreme Court Justice. Chew held captive and enslaved thousands of Africans and African descendants in states outside of Pennsylvania, in order to evade the states gradual abolition of slavery law in the 1800s. Rev. Richard Allen, the founder of the AME Church, and his entire family, were amongst the thousands enslaved in Dover, Delaware, on the Whitehall plantation owned by Benjamin Chew.

According to Dr. Winbush, the memorandum of collaboration will start the process of re-framing Cliveden’s tour guides to include African-centered perspectives in all materials and displays; and more importantly, “consulting and participating in the development of Cliveden educational programs, particularly an African-Centered Education curricula for youth and adults from the findings of the Chew Family Papers.”

The terms "Racial Healing" and "Reparations" were specifically defined in the MOC as:

Racial Healing: group efforts to acknowledge the wrongs and group sufferings of the past while trying to address the cumulative current vestiges and consequences of the past injustices.

Reparations: a process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments or corporations.

Amongst the collaborative projects that will be initiated and worked on under the MOC are:

• Supporting the proposal of joint tours of all the plantation sites of record once owned by the Chew Family;
• Providing full access to research materials held or collected by Cliveden; participating in any documentaries initiated by N’COBRA designed to promote racial healing and reparations;
• Helping Cliveden conduct race-relations and reparations education, including outreach programs to foster social change through racial healing and reparations;
• Participating in the development of a documentary that records the work and findings of the N’COBRA Northeast Region Working Group;
• Providing research and interpretive assistance with the Chew Family Papers; participating in public meetings and public educational forums to promote racial healing and reparations; and
• Helping Cliveden conduct race-relations and reparations education, including outreach programs to foster social change through racial healing and reparations;

I anticipate similar collaborations with historical societies under the auspices of the National Trust for Historical Preservation based in Washington, DC because recently, I met with Tanya Bowers, Director of Diversity, Office of the President, and we agreed on developing several initiatives such as marketing N’COBRA gift items in the Cliveden gift shop and that I will do a reparations subject matter blog on the Trusts website called “Let the Healing Begin.”

Minister Ari S. Merretazon, M.S.CED is a Board Member of N’COBRA, and serves as the Northeast Regional Representative. He is also the Founder and Director of the Northeast Region Working Group

Congressional Research Service Report RS20740
Proposals for Reparations for African Americans: A Brief Overview
Garrine P. Laney, Domestic Social Policy Division
August 27, 2008

Abstract. Legislative proposals that relate to reparations for and racial segregation directed at African Americans include H.R. 40 (Conyers) and H.Res. 194 (Cohen). H.R. 40 would create a commission to study the institution of slavery and subsequent racial discrimination against African Americans and their impact on living African Americans and to recommend remedies to Congress. H.Res. 194 would apologize for the enslavement of African Americans and their racial segregation.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

Order the DVD "N'COBRA 2007 Annual Conference Gala: A Call For Justice And Repair" featuring Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.! Click on the DVD cover below to download the order form.

Mission of N'COBRA

The mission of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) is to win full Reparations for Black African Descendants residing in the United States and its territories for the genocidal war against Africans that created the TransAtlantic Slave “Trade,” Chattel Slavery, Jim Crow and Chattel Slavery’s continuing vestiges (the Maafa). To that end, N’COBRA shall organize and mobilize all strata of these Black communities into an effective mass- based reparations movement. N’COBRA shall also serve as a coordinating body for the reparations effort in the United States. Further, through its leadership role in the reparations movement within the United States and its territories, N’COBRA recognizes reparations is a just demand for all African peoples and shall join with others in building the international reparations movement.

What is Reparations

 

National N'COBRA National N'Cobra National Coalition Of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA) P.O. Box 90604 - Washington, DC 20090 Phone 202-291-8400 Fax 202-291-4600 Email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it (N'COBRA Listserve group) National N'COBRA

Phila. N'COBRA Meetings NCOBRA Membership Meeting 1st Tuesday of Each Month 6:30 PM UNIA Hall, 1609 Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, Pa