Linda Mann of the African American Redress Network shared an overview of what repair for past racists harms might look like in communities across America during a June 21 webinar sponsored by HCCDC. Listen to the hour-long recording HERE.
HCCDC President Carl Lankowski was host of the evening with moderator Chas Cadwell. It was the third in a series about Black land loss as Chevy Chase DC grapples with its own history of pushing out a long-established enclave of African American landowners nearly a century ago, when Blacks were not welcome in the newly formed community of Chevy Chase.
Dr. Mann provided an overview that covered the historical journey the idea of reparations has taken since the days of 40 acres and a mule were falsely promised to formerly enslaved people. Her organization, the AARN, is a consortium formed by Howard and Columbia universities and works with communities and individuals who seek to find appropriate repair for past harms. Explore their website here.
The focus on reparations nationally has been prompted by several seminal works, including the New York Times “1619 Project” and Isabel Wilkerson’s recent book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which traces the effects of American slavery and the post-Civil War system of racial discrimination.
It has prompted communities to examine long-buried or ignored racist actions taken decades ago, such as the 1928-31 eviction of landowners in a small Black enclave of Chevy Chase DC so their land could be used to build a school for white children.
Dr. Mann provided an overview of the current landscape of initiatives around the United States to define and implement strategies of acknowledgment, compensation, and education as part of a broader effort to come to terms with this legacy. This topic is especially timely in that the DC Council is considering a formal organization that will take up this task.
This event is part of Historic Chevy Chase DC’s Black Broad Branch series. It is meant to complement a June 7 webinar featuring descendants of displaced Broad Branch Road families discussing the multi-generational effects of Black land loss. The event was co-sponsored by ANC 3/4G and its Committee on Racial and Social Equity. It also ties into a Jan. 18, 2023, webinar with Barbara Boyle Torrey and Clara Myrick Green, authors of a biography of George Pointer, whose descendants lived on Broad Branch Road. The book is called Between Freedom and Equality: The History of an African American Family in Washington, DC.
J. Mann is the co-founder of the African American Redress Network (AARN), a collaboration between Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, Institute for the Study of Human Right (ISHR), and Howard University, Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center. She currently has an appointment at SIPA. Her research and practice focus on the intersection of U.S. history, human rights, and reparations. Mann previously served as the executive director for the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University’s School of Law and VP of Research for the Georgetown Memory Project, where she founded and directed the GU272 Descendant Oral History Initiative. Mann is a seasoned educator with more than 10 years of postgraduate teaching experience and 10 years as a public school history educator. Mann started her career as a conflict resolution specialist and has decades of experience as a political, grassroots organizer.