The ‘Reparations Action Fund For Tomorrow’ aims to address the wrongs experienced by African Americans in Lancaster County.
LANCASTER, Pa. — The Community Mennonite Church is now collecting donations for a Black reparations fund. The idea stems from the 2020 death of George Floyd.
The ‘Reparations Action Fund For Tomorrow’ aims to address the wrongs experienced by African Americans in Lancaster County.
“And we’re the ones that needed to take on and own that history. It gets labeled as Black History Month but it’s the whites in this country that have the history of being enslavers and we need to deal with that,” said Susan Gascho-Cooke, Pastor at Community Mennonite Church.
Gascho-Cooke, a Pastor with Community Mennonite Church, said the church’s journey toward creating the fund began after the death of Floyd in 2020.
After Floyd’s death, members of the church began conversations that centered around the effects of slavery and injustices against Black people.
Church members concluded that despite slavery being abolished and civil rights being restored for African Americans, the community still faces an uphill battle.
“The other things that were more hidden that are still going on today are laws that we have in place that impact one group of people over another,” said Marty Kelley, Chairperson of the Church’s Dismantling Racism Committee.
Kelley is the Chairperson of the Church’s Dismantling Racism Committee. She says their goal is to address the problems that African Americans in Lancaster County face.
Since the start of the ‘Reparations Action Fund For Tomorrow,’ Community Mennonite Church has raised over $35,000.
“The hope is that this work will be a beginning for that to happen. So our repression act is in lieu of the act the government should have,” said Kelley.
The church says they are working with a team of local African-American leaders who will determine how the money will be distributed back into the community.
Several other local churches in Lancaster have also donated to the “Reparations Action Fund For Tomorrow.”
