‘We want everyone to know this is possible,’ First Presbyterian Church of Lansing Pastor Stanley Jenkins said
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A Lansing, Michigan church is delivering on its promise to raise reparations funds for the Black community.
The First Presbyterian Church of Lansing handed out a $40,000 check to The Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan on Sunday, following an $18,000 payment in 2023, The Lansing State Journal reported.
The church voted last year to raise $100,000 in funds to give to the faith-based racial justice group that works to collect reparations from White churches in the community. First Presbyterian plans to add to this sum with funds from its endowment for up to ten years, the report said.
The Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan was founded in 2021 by some members of the church and says it works with local churches committed to providing reparations “to repair the breach caused by centuries of slavery, inequality of wealth accumulation, and the failure to live into God’s plan of equality for all of humanity.”
The Black faith leaders said the funds will go towards “education scholarships, homeownership, and business startups.”
“We hope it can reach and can impact the 100,000 African Americans living in the Greater Lansing region,” Prince Jerold Solace, President of The Justice League of Greater Lansing told Fox47. “But it won’t happen overnight.”
Justice League founder Willye Bryan and First Presbyterian Church Pastor Stanley Jenkins argued churches have a duty to make amends to the Black community for racial injustice they’ve faced in this country.
“Churches have been just as complicit in slavery as any other group in the country and sometimes even more so,” Bryan said to the Lansing State Journal.
“We are trying to get it right,” Pastor Jenkins said, adding he hopes their local movement will build momentum for a national reparations push.
“We’re an ordinary church, ordinary people, not wealthy or powerful and it is astonishing that we can do this,” he continued. “And we want everyone to know this is possible.”
After the check was handed out, one Black church member told Fox47 she felt that while many White church members “mean well,” they weren’t doing enough to help the Black community of Greater Lansing.
“If the money is going towards scholarships for helping people get to college, what are you doing once they’re there?” she asked. “Are you making sure there are programs there helping first generation students navigate the collegiate world, because it’s different?”
The Justice League previously told The Lansing State Journal it was seeking $1 million in reparations from White residents by the end of 2023.
Last August, Edgewood United Church in East Lansing also delivered a check of more than $170,000 to the group for reparations.
Fox News Digital has reached out to First Presbyterian Church of Lansing and the Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan for comment.
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Kristine Parks is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Read more.
