Pastor Jason Coulter preaches a sermon on reparations at FCCE on Oct 23, 2022. Watch the sermon at time marker 39:34-56:55, or Read the sermon. [7.5 mins]

Rev. Otis Moss III, one of the most powerful preachers in the United Church of Christ, examines the history of violence against black bodies. [22 mins]

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ opening statement on reparations at the House hearing, June 19, 2019. [5 mins]

Nikole Hannah-Jones shares how our entire economy and financial markets are rooted in the genocide and displacement of Native people and the enslavement of Black people: [32 mins total; highlighted segment 7:45-25:21]

Details how white colonists and Americans have been granted white-based affirmative action (land, goods, education, etc.) by the government from the 17th century onward: [48 mins total; highlighted segment 6:10-23:50].

Reparations: The US Town Paying its Black Residents By Mike Wendling, BBC News, October 12, 2022.

Summarizes the City of Evanston’s housing reparations initiative.

A Christian Call for Reparations by Kelly Brown Douglas, Sojourners, June 2020.

The Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary shows how Christian theology was used to diminish and disenfranchise Black people. She argues that the Church has a responsibility to account for its sins and make amends through reparations as a first step in the fight against white supremacy.

The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, 2014.

An historical look at the source of Black disinvestment that illustrates how powerful white institutions enslaved and defrauded African-Americans for generations. It makes a powerful case for why reparations are necessary to correct the injustice.

Reparations: How we white relatives must try to pay back the unpayable debt by Hilary Giovale, Community Centric Fundraising, Aug 14, 2020.

Emphasizes white Americans' responsibility for financial reparations and racial healing.

View the new Redlining Evanston exhibit now on display in our church narthex and attend our 2nd forum on Sunday, Nov 13th, 11:15-12:30pm, "Practicing Reparations: What Do We Owe?"

In this forum, we'll discuss the history of race in our country and what we as individuals and as an institution owe in reparations. We'll talk about the logistics of where our local reparations money will be going, and how the practice of reparations goes beyond one payment. We'll begin to determine the reparations amount our congregation will commit to making locally, as well as ways to take action on a national level as part of the larger reparations movement.

In addition to the City of Evanston administered Housing Reparations Initiative, there is a growing reparations fund called the Evanston Reparations Community Fund administered by the Evanston Community Foundation. This fund is where First Congregational Church of Evanston will make our reparations payment, along with interfaith congregations across Evanston. Engage in our congregational discernment process to help determine our reparations down payment amount.

Learn more and urge your representatives to support US House Resolution 40 (H.R. 40) that would establish a federal commission to examine the impacts of the legacy of slavery and recommend proposals to provide reparations.