It started after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Members of Oconee Street Methodist began meeting in small groups to talk about racism, racial injustice and Christian discipleship.
When the subject of reparations came up, they decided to hire Hattie Thomas Whitehead as a consultant. The author of Giving Voice to Linnentown, she had grown up in Linnentown, a majority Black neighborhood between Baxter and Cloverhurst streets that was bulldozed in the early 1960s so UGA could build dormitories on the property.
Under Thomas Whitehead’s direction, members searched public records and court records, and found the descendants of the home-owning families. Some had moved away; others had stayed in Athens. Of those contacted, 16 were interested in working with the group. In addition to Thomas Whitehead, Oconee Street Methodist members also began working with African-American leaders in Athens.
In the fall of 2021, some members of Ebenezer West Baptist Church and Oconee Street Methodist started meeting in small groups to study Marvin McMickle’s Let the Oppressed Go Free: Exploring Theologies of Liberation and to discern what it meant for them as Christians.
Those working for racial justice learned that the Georgia Constitution has a clause preventing the Athens-Clarke County Government and the University of Georgia from making reparations payments to individuals. That’s why the ACC government opted to put $2.5 million into a fund for affordable housing and a Black history center in lieu of direct reparations. The city’s Justice and Memory Committee, co-chaired by Thomas Whitehead, has also asked UGA to contribute $2.5 million, but so far the university has refused.
Church members from Ebenezer and Oconee Street UMC formed a nonprofit, Athens Reparations Action, to repair the harm done to Athenians by urban renewal in the 1960s. It’s spent three years accepting donations, earmarked for the descendants of Linnentown families, some of whom are in their 70s and 80s.
“If we wait for the state of Georgia to change the law and wait for the Board of Regents and the University of Georgia to do the right thing, everyone will be dead,” said co-chair and Athens native Chaplain Cole Knapper. “We thought that if we can’t get institutions to do the right thing, we’ll form our own 501(c)(3) and make payments to these people.”
Co-chair Alys Willman said, “This is more than donations, this is justice. It’s our way to try to restore a broken relationship.”
Athens Reparations Action wants to raise a minimum of $110,000, which members will distribute in July 2024 to the Linnentown descendants. So far, they’ve received $50,000.
“It’s not about the money,” said Knapper. “No amount of money is going to atone for the harm done to these families. It’s about telling the truth about what happened to them.”Those wishing to donate to Athens Reparations Action may do so at athensreparationsaction.com/donate.
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