Wichita Community Activist Mary Dean is ramping up her efforts to get members of the Wichita City Council to appoint a commission to study the impact that centuries of discriminatory practices have had on Wichita’s Black citizens and to propose specific ways amends can be made.
Kansas Justice Advocate Inc., a non-profit formed by Dean, is conducting a petition drive to show community support for forming the reparations commission. So far she’s held in person petition drives at Paradise Baptist Church and ICT Launchpad.
The next signature drive is scheduled for Mon., March 18, from 10 am. to 2 p.m. at the Rhatigan Student Center on the WSU campus. Individuals can also sign an online petition on change.org. You can find that petition at https://bit.ly/49Jki8x.
Her goal is to collect 500 signatures and to have a significant presence at the City Commission when the City takes the issue up.
Growing Reparations Movement
Nationally, a movement is growing in support of reparations, with an expanded definition that looks beyond compensation for centuries of slavery into more recent discriminatory practices that have impacted African Amricans.
As an example, In the Black History issue of The Community Voice, the paper explored the impact decades of discriminatory housing practices have had on the Black/White wealth gap in America. Many of these policies were adopted and promoted by the United States government.
Read about those policies at https://bit.ly/3Tu981I
Many other cities and states across the country are forming commissions to look at the impact of past discriminatory practices on people of color and to look at ways – not just cash payments – that can help address the impact.
