NEWARK, NJ — An annual “Juneteenth March and Rally for Reparations” will return to Newark for 2024.
The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ) will cohost this year’s event on Saturday, June 22. It will begin at noon at the Lincoln Memorial, 12 Springfield Avenue. Masks and social distancing protocols are being encouraged, organizers said.
According to a news release from the POP:
“The annual march began several years ago to amplify the push for a NJ Reparations Bill, a law that would establish a commission to study how reparations should be developed based on New Jersey’s history with the slave trade and post-slavery institutional racism. New Jersey was the last northern state to abolish slavery. New Jersey gave birth to racial profiling. New Jersey’s public schools are the fifth-most segregated in the country.”
The NJISJ was among the advocates who have been pushing for what is now A-602/S-3164.
On Juneteenth last year, the nonprofit established the NJ Reparations Council, a community-based research body that aims to “shine a light on structural racism in New Jersey from slavery to today, and propose bold, transformative policy recommendations for repair.”
The nonprofit plans to unveil a report on the first year of work of the council at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 19 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Learn more about this local event here.
Spokespeople with the POP said the group’s members have supported the demand for reparations since its inception 42 years ago.
“We demand that the New Jersey Legislature follows the example of the New York State Legislature and the California State Legislature, both of which have passed reparations bills,” the POP said.