Reparations Legacy Project

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Fund Black Liberation

Repair the damage. Return the stolen wealth.

Reparations Legacy Project organizes white people with access to financial wealth to take a stand in repairing the economic and social damage of enslavement and ongoing exploitation of African people through the redistribution of resources toward the Black self-determination programs of the Uhuru Movement.

Our Mission

Reparations Legacy Project organizes white people with access to financial wealth to take a stand in repairing the damage of slavery and economic injustice through the redistribution of resources toward the Black self-determination programs of the Uhuru Movement.

 Our Vision

Reparations Legacy Project envisions a world of unity and peace through reparations, in which African, Indigenous and oppressed peoples have full control of their land, lives and resources and no group profits at the expense of another.

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Our Core Values

1. The leadership of the African working class

Reparations to African people is defined by the leadership of the African working class. If we want to take a true progressive stand for reparations to African people then it cannot be on terms that we, as white people, define. We must embrace the leadership of the African-led movement for black self-determination and liberation. 

The Reparations Legacy Project is a project of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a white organization formed and led by the African People’s Socialist Party.  We believe that all white people who want to repair the damage of colonial slavery and systemic injustice and oppression must follow the leadership of the African working class who are defining reparations on their own terms.

 

2. Reparations means solidarity, not charity or philanthropy

Charity maintains the status quo of wealth, power and resources in the hands of the white population and the ruling class. It does not change the material conditions or the structural relations of colonial power that form the basis for the fact that white people have control of over half the world’s resources while the majority of African people live on less than 10 US dollars per day. 

Reparations is not an act of charity, nor a philanthropic “gift.”. It is the practice of material solidarity with the African-led movement for the creation of an independent, anti-colonial, liberated black working class economy that empowers African people to gain control of their own resources so that charity and philanthropy become obsolete. Reparations is a stand on the side of African people working to free up the productive forces in the African community to benefit their own people.

 

3. This is our responsibility – and in our interest.

As white people with access to financial wealth, we owe reparations. That is the plain truth. It is our responsibility whether we are business owners, CEOs or just regular white people who inherited wealth because of our place on the pedestal of the oppression of African people. We have a responsibility to play an active role in ending the system of have and have-nots built for our benefit on a foundation of the conquered lands, exploited labor and plundered resources of Africans and other colonized peoples. 

Reparations goes to the heart of every social problem faced by the planet earth today whether it is permanent warfare, colonial attacks on Mexicans and others falsely labeled as “illegal immigrants,” ecological destruction or any other forms of injustice such as gender-based oppression. 

Therefore, more than just our responsibility, this is also in our interest. I the long term it is not in our interest to alienate ourselves from the rest of humanity. Unity through reparations is a positive future for everyone, ourselves included.  The vast majority of human beings are fighting to create a world of equitable distribution of wealth where all people can live, nobody at the expense of another. This is the future we can be a part of when we join the movement for reparations.

 

4. White wealth is built on stolen African resources.

It is impossible to quantify the mind-boggling enormity of the wealth amassed by the U.S. and European economies through the centuries-long and ongoing process of slavery, colonialism and genocide: beginning with the assault on Africa, the invasion and enslavement of millions of African human beings, transforming African people into the first commodity of capitalism and as machines of production forced to labor on plantations producing the biggest expansion of productivity in human history, the genocide against the Indigenous people of this land and the theft of their land, the plundering of African resources, minerals, silver, tobacco, coffee, rum, oil, sugar, gold, diamonds, culture, science, genius, talent, arts, knowledge, and continuing through the the exploitation of African labor that intensified after chattel slavery with the advent of convict leasing, sharecropping, the mass imprisonment of African people, redlining and gentrification, the theft of land from African farmers, and so much more. 

The wealth of the white world is drenched in the blood and stolen resources, labor value, land and lives of African people. Although most depictions of African enslavement in the U.S. focus on the labor-intensive capitalism of plantation slavery in the American south, the exploitation of enslaved African people permeated every facet of the burgeoning U.S. economy. In other words, slavery was not a southern phenomenon. The hands of white colonizers in the north were also stained in blood, and slavery formed the basis for the wealth of Wall Street and the U.S. economy. 

The Reparations Legacy Project was formed to challenge white people including within the Wall Street sector and the capitalist ruling class to take actions to right the historic wrongs that underlie the foundation of our wealth.  Reparations to African people is the only way forward. 

Black Working Class Leadership

We believe firmly in the principle that white people’s reparations to African people is defined by the leadership of the African working class. The Reparations Legacy Project is under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party.

Reparations Legacy is a project of the Uhuru Solidarity movement, a white organization formed and led by the African People’s Socialist Party.  We believe that all white people who want to repair the damage of colonial slavery, systemic injustice and oppression must follow the leadership of the African working class who are building their own future, reclaiming their resources and  defining reparations on their own terms.

Black Power Blueprint

Reparations means solidarity with genuine anti-colonial economic development in the hands of the African working class. Reparations Legacy Project organizes wealthy white people to fund the work of the Uhuru Movement, building the foundation of a liberated, independent African economy. Below are examples of the economic development institutions of the Black Power Blueprint that Reparations Legacy is fundraising to support as a stand of reparations. You can contribute by taking the Reparations Pledge.

Basketball Court

basketball

The Black Power Blueprint built an outdoor basketball court on cleared land where they demolished another abandoned city-owned building just blocks from the Uhuru House.

Only one in four St. Louis parks have a basketball court. In fact, the city of St. Louis removed courts in four parks in predominantly white communities, reinforcing the city’s racial divide.

Building the court will allow for spirited youth programs, adult pickup games, and leagues, tournaments, and more. This is another APEDF project that improves the well-being of the black community and helps close the gap in overall health and life expectancy, including diabetes, obesity and hypertension rates that disproportionately affect African people.

Raised: $145,000

Uhuru Jiko Kitchen and Café

Jiko Building

Located in an art deco building that had once been a boat dealership, the Uhuru Jiko is an ambitious project to bring African economic and cultural life to the economically depressed commercial area, stop gentrification and to build a critical program for the African community. Black Power Blueprint will build a bakery, café, and community commercial kitchen to serve as the headquarters for Uhuru Foods & Pies, one of the many economic institutions of Black Star Industries and the African People’s Education and Defense Fund around the U.S.

The large plot of land behind the building will be transformed into another outdoor venue for events and culture, with seating and an herb garden to supply the café and to sell.

Black Power Blueprint is working on development and funding to make Uhuru Jiko the home of the African Independence Workforce Program, providing food business skills, work experience, housing and services for previously incarcerated men and women from our community.

Cost: $682,000

 African Independence Workforce Program

4Plex Furniture

The Black Power Blueprint renovated a 4-plex apartment building, earmarked for housing for the African Independence Workforce Program. The African Independence Workforce Program is creating jobs for those re-entering the community from the prison system. 

Raised: $88,000

Uhuru House

Uhuru House

Black Power Blueprint transformed the once-condemned building into a state-of-the-art three-story community event and program space in ten short months!

With an outpouring of support from donors and volunteers, the community can now come together at the Uhuru House and Akwaaba Hall to solve problems, organize programs, showcase talent and have family celebrations—building culture, prosperity and political power.

Raised: $150,000

Outdoor Market and Garden

Garden

Black Power Blueprint purchased and demolished two city-owned condemned buildings, then secured architectural and landscape plans to create a beautiful multi-purpose outdoor event space with native plants and trees. A mural depicting the historic kindness and generosity of the African community collectively taking care of ourselves will be commissioned.

The One Africa! One Nation! Marketplace will foster community commerce and economic opportunities. The Gary Brooks Community Garden is collaborating with other black growers to provide fresh vegetables and to hold gardening and cooking classes.

Raised: $94,875