On June 9, 2020, the City of College Park passed Resolution 20-R-16 Renouncing the Systematic Racism and Declaring Support of Black Lives. The mayor and council voted to “acknowledge and apologize for our city’s past history of oppression, particularly with regards to the Lakeland community, and actively seek opportunities for accountability and truth-telling about past injustice, and aggressively seek opportunities for restorative justice.”
Lakelanders are calling upon our city leaders to make good on their promise. Register your support for Restorative Justice here
City Takes First Action Toward Restorative Justice
On February 9, 2021 the City of College Park has created a restorative justice steering committee. Application for participation is found on the City’s website. A Diamondback article on the council action is found here.
Resources on Restorative Justice
LCHP encourages Lakelanders to learn more about the subject of restorative justice. A suggested start is with The Little Book of Restorative Justice. Read it for free from UNICEF using this link. www.unicef.org/tdad/littlebookrjpakaf.pdf or you may purchase a physical copy on Amazon for $5.99.
The Little Book on Race and Restorative Justice by Fania Davis
Braxton, Joanne M., “Symbolic Geographies and Psychic Landscapes: De-Coding the Hegemonic Discourse of Urban Renewal in the Case for Billy Weems v. the City of College Park Maryland,” in Keep Your Head to the Sky: Interpreting African American Home Ground,” U Press of VA, 1998, pp. 177-193.
Chapter 6 “Too Long Discrimination” from “For the Benefit of These Children: Affirming Racial Identity in the Era of School Desegregation,
Prince George’s County, Maryland, 1954-1974″ https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/20444/Matthews_umd_0117N_18660.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
A Christian Call for Reparations https://sojo.net/magazine/july-2020/christian-call-case-slavery-reparations-kelly-brown-douglas
1968 Kerner commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1968-kerner-commission-got-it-right-nobody-listened-180968318/The Transforming Historical Harms manual
The Kerner Commission and why its recommendations were ignored https://www.michiganradio.org/post/kerner-commission-and-why-its-recommendations-were-ignored
The Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University (led by Dr. Margaret Burnham)
W.K. Kellog Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Initiative
W.K. Kellogg Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Implementation Guide
More about the Kellogg initiative: https://www.wkkf.org/news-and-media/article/2017/06/wkkf-announces-14-truth-racial-healing-and-transformation-engagements-throughout-the-united-states
Shortly after the resolution by the City of College Park, Maryland a more in depth resolution was adopted by the City of Ashville, North Carolina. The African American community was also subject of a devastating urban renewal program. The resolution recognizes this along with the true breadth of the destructive impact of racism. Please go to this link to learn more. The actual resolution is linked within the article’s text.
Compare these maps to see Lakeland before and after urban renewal. Property owned by community members are shown in yellow.
Fall 2020 Newsletter
Meeting Videos
Meeting of Mayor and Council November 10, 2020 Presentation from Lakelanders calling for the start of a Restorative Justice Process. We encouraged that process begin with the establishment of a Restorative Justice Commission with the purpose of recommending a specific structure and process for restorative justice work relating to the history of systemic racism present in the City of College Park, Maryland with a focus on the harm caused to the historic African American community of Lakeland. They would act as a steering force through the restorative justice process.
City of College Park Forum on Racial Equity in College Park, November 5, 2020
Meeting of Mayor and Council June 6, 2020 Action on Resolution 20-R-16 “Renouncing Systemic Racism and Declaring Support of Black Lives’ in which they stated “RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Council acknowledge and apologize for our city’s past history of oppression, particularly with regards to the Lakeland community, and actively seek opportunities for accountability and truth-telling about past injustice and aggressively seek opportunities for restorative justice…”
lakelandchp.com 