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NEW YORK, NY— The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), America’s oldest Black Christian denomination, is now on record supporting the struggle for reparations. At the recent 52nd Session of the General Conference, a reparations resolution passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 1394 to 50.
The resolution stated that the African Methodist Episcopal Church “stands in solidarity with both our ancestors and brothers and sisters across the globe demanding reparations for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, chattel slavery, Jim Crow, racial terror, mass incarceration at the hands of an unjust criminal justice system, housing discrimination, political and physical assassinations, and the exploitation of natural and human resources on the continent of Africa. Furthermore, this resolution calls on the AME Social Action Commission on the historic 60th Anniversary of its existence to make reparations a major policy point of advocacy with its own sub-committee during the forthcoming quadrennial.
The resolution was written and introduced by Rev. Dr. Robert Turner, long-time reparations champion and pastor of Baltimore’s Empowerment Temple AME Church. Pastor Turner is also a commissioner on the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) and over the past year has walked some 40 miles each month from his Baltimore Church to the gates of the White House in a silent vigil calling on the Biden Administration to establish a national reparations commission by executive order.
Fellow NAARC commissioners praised Pastor Turner for his breakthrough initiative. Dr. Ron Daniels, convenor of NAARC, described it as “historic”, Commissioner Justin Hansford called it “fantastic,” Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Grills characterized it as “an awesome accomplishment” while Commissioner Robin Rue Simmons congratulated Dr. Turner and thanked him for his leadership.
“The AME Church is a global Christian denomination and in voting for this resolution, delegates from all over the world shows people of the African Diaspora supporting reparations for both past and current atrocities such as slavery, Jim Crow and the economic exploitation of people of African descent,” said Dr. Turner. “It urges members to go back to their districts and fight for reparations, inspired and equipped by God.”
The resolution also noted that whereas economic incentives have been widely and freely shared with whites and denied to blacks, from the New Deal to the GI Bill, which saved the American economy after the Great Depression, blacks were also denied home loans until 1968 and redlined into undervalued neighborhoods with no compensation to date.
“Moreover, reparations using taxpayer dollars have been given to Japanese Americans, Jewish Holocaust survivors, indigenous Americans, and even to slave owners and veterans of the Confederacy, to date, there have been no reparations paid to the African American community,” the resolution stated.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded by freed, formerly enslaved persons such as Richard Allen with a goal of assisting in the social and political upliftment for Africans and their descendants in America.
The resolution noted that today, the AME Church is located all over the globe “in places where people of African descent have been brutalized, enslaved, marginalized, sexually assaulted, economically exploited and politically oppressed, with no compensation nor justice to date.”
