#2 - Bruce's Beach: Why Can't A Sister Just Chill?

TRANSCRIPT

TONY  0:36  
I don't know what it is, but it seems like a lot of white people are just bothered by seeing black folks enjoying themselves in public. I don't know if you noticed that too. 

ADAM  0:49  
Yeah. What is that? You know, we really see it everywhere in public life. It's like, white people have this weird issue with African Americans just relaxing, and just hanging out, you know, it's like something doesn't look right. doesn't sit right about that, like, black people shouldn't be enjoying themselves.

TONY  1:08  
Yeah, I think it's got to be rooted in some notion of dominion, you know, some notion of control, right? And, and belonging, right, who belongs? Who belongs where? And conversely, who doesn't? And I'd be willing to bet that most white people aren't even really consciously cognizant of it. But it certainly, we see this pop up in a bunch of different, you know, examples, in public spaces.

ADAM  1:33  
So one area we've seen a new wave of lawsuits actually is black people who are staying at a hotel, and are paying guests of the hotel and can't just relax and enjoy being there. There was a case in the news a few years ago out of Portland, at the DoubleTree hotel where an African American man was staying there as a guest. And one night, he was making a cell phone call in the lobby, actually calling his mom and a security guard of the hotel came up to him and demanded to know his room number and proof that he was staying there. He basically accused the guy of trespassing. And the guy didn't have his room key handy. And the guard threatened to call the cops, he eventually did call the cops who came out and we're sort of mumbling about, you know, the guard is in charge here. Not much we can do. Wow, just outrageous.

TONY  2:25  
Yeah, well, another area where we've seen some of these issues pop up are at swimming pools, communal pools. There was a recent example in Indianapolis at an apartment complex, where a black guy was a resident of the complex, was chilling poolside, minding his own business, and the security guard who was an off duty cop and the apartment complex manager approached him and asked him for his ID. And of course, he was befuddled, but he's like, alright, he showed him his access card that led him into the gate where the pool is located. And 

ADAM  3:00  
That sounds legit. 

TONY  3:00  
Sounds legit. Right? And that wasn't sufficient. They wanted some governmental ID. Now, I don't know about you, but when I go to the pool, you know, I take flip flops, towel, maybe some sunglasses, maybe a book, I don't necessarily look to take my driver's license or my gas bill. His protests were not, you know, not persuasive. They kicked him out. told him that, you know, they didn't believe that he was a resident there was not welcome there. And he needed to go. And this is at an apartment complex where he was a resident, paying rent, had an access card on him. And none of that was sufficient. 

ADAM  3:41  
Yeah, and a few years ago, there was a case in California in the Napa Valley known for its wine, where they have a wine train for tourists to drink some wine and take a train through the countryside. There was a group of mostly black women, that was actually a book club that was celebrating one of their birthdays, they were aged between their 50s and their 80s. And they were enjoying themselves, laughing a bit. And at some point, white passengers on the wine train start to complain about the laughing and the train officials gave them a first warning and then they continued to enjoy themselves. So they were then basically kicked off the train. They made the train stop at the next small town and you know, paraded these people through the cars and made them get off. Just bizarre, and they were met by the local police there who had been called and they didn't know what to do because there was obviously no crime committed. But just the extreme humiliation for enjoying themselves. You know, they had the hashtag after that, laughing while black.

TONY  4:49  
Crazy. You know, it's it's a freakin wine train. Right? It's not like it's a damn library. What the hell 

ADAM  4:55  
Exactly.

TONY  4:56  
Aren't you supposed to be having a good time on a wine train like isn't that the whole purpose? Most of us are familiar with the Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper encounter in Central Park in New York. 

ADAM  5:06  
Yes. 

TONY  5:07  
you know, black cat, out in Central Park, chilling, watching some birds. I actually didn't even know there were many black bird watchers. But that's a whole nother story and comes across a woman whose dog is off leash, you know, he asked her to put the dog on leash, like the law states. She refused. One thing led to another and next thing you know, she's pulled out her cell phone called 911.  To report a black man whose threatening her right and

ADAM  5:39  
I think the claim was also that she threatened before she even called she told him that she was going to call the police and so you know, we know what could that can be... 

TONY  5:47  
Absolutely you know, and he said go ahead and call the police which was brave but also you know, dangerous right because that could have gone in a whole nother direction. As we have seen before. Sure. Situation did go deadly for Ahmaud Arbery, which we all know who was jogging in rural Georgia, hunted down by three white men who thought he was suspicious, thought they had a right to track him down like an animal, shoot and and kill him - merely for jogging while black. So these situations sometimes can be frivolous, but sometimes they can be serious and deadly. And Ahmaud Arbery paid the ultimate price for being being Black and trying to enjoy leisure space. Andrew Kahrl, a historian who has researched the exclusion of blacks from beaches and other leisure spaces, wrote this in a recent article: "There's a long history of whites being profoundly uneasy with the notion that black people should even have any leisure time at all. And there's a long history of efforts to suppress that."

ADAM  7:02  
So the backdrop for our story today is Southern California, in the 1910s, at a time when black people were fleeing the brutal conditions of the South. And a lot of people came all the way out to California, and found that they still faced discrimination and segregation when they got here.

TONY  7:20  
Now the laws in California, on the books gave equal access to public spaces to black folks, but the reality was quite a bit different. There wasn't official segregation, like in the south. But what there was was a very highly unpredictable, tricky terrain for black people to navigate, especially at the beaches.

ADAM  7:39  
So we spoke with Alison Rose Jefferson. She's a historian and scholar in residence at Occidental College and the author of the book Living the California Dream, African American leisure sites during the Jim Crow era. Allison is a leading force in telling the truth about our past, and especially commemorating black history. When we talked to her, she spoke about the importance of black people being able to have safe places to go and enjoy some downtime. 

ALISON  8:07  
Back in those days, during the Jim Crow era, African Americans were trying to own particular places where they could recreate or go, places where they didn't have to deal with the white people trying to subjugate them. They didn't want to be embarrassed, they didn't want to have to have some sort of ugly incident. And so just like everybody else, black people wanted to be able to relax on occasion. And so it was sometimes perilous for black people because of the nature of the American system. All over the country, not just in in Southern California, African Americans were establishing their own places of leisure.

ADAM  8:59  
So the story of Bruce's beach starts in 1912. A couple named Willa and Charles Bruce had just arrived with their young son in Manhattan Beach. They were a middle aged couple and had been trying to buy land on the west coast for quite some time with no luck, because basically nobody would sell to black people. So they showed up in Manhattan Beach, which was a newly incorporated city just south of Los Angeles. And they were finally able to buy a small plot of land right on the coast. So Willa Bruce started to develop a beach resort for African Americans on the land. It was a plan that she had had. She saw herself as a pioneer in this area. Her husband Charles was away most of the time working as a chef on the Union Pacific Railroad. So she did the business side of things. And at the time, there were no other beach amenities anywhere in Southern California where African American people could just go to enjoy the beach. There was some definite Jim Crow conditions going on. So because it was the only place around, the business started to really take off. She was also a great business person, eventually adding more buildings. And by 1920, the Bruce's Beach property included a cafe, a pavilion, they had live music, that was way back before the days of playlists and Spotify, changing rooms and a lot of other amenities for people to enjoy the beach,

TONY  10:30  
Bruce's Beach was jumping off, I mean, it was a happening place. Black folks were coming up from San Diego, certainly driving down or trolleying down from Los Angeles. And as Alison Jefferson points out, it was also powerful for customers to see an example of what was possible for black people in this time.

ALISON  10:51  
That was something that was inspiring to many African Americans that were living during that day. Even today, it's inspiring to understand that African Americans had established a small community and having a piece of land at the beach to enjoy beach culture, they were sharing this information in the press to say, look at what we can do, look at what we can imagine for ourselves.

TONY  11:24  
Upon the opening of Bruce's Beach, literally from day one, there were fake signs put up to steer people in different directions. There was vandalism to you know, cars, the KKK, which you know, people try to act like it wasn't in Southern California but the KKK was alive and well was harassing folks and, mind you this is at the time of the infamous movie Birth of a Nation. There were beatings, there were fires set, there were cross burnings, parking scams, there were these fake you know, 10 minute, 15 minute parking windows and people were getting tickets, there were these rent a cops that were hired to harass folks, you know, there was a full full scale attack on Bruce's beach and people who wanted to try to enjoy, enjoy their time there. Again, black people not bothering anybody, just trying to do their own thing. And there was this uproar of folks who weren't having it. The system of white supremacy just can't tolerate black success. Black self sufficiency, Black joy. Alison speaks to the fact that there are few images more threatening than seeing black people chilling and enjoying themselves.

ALISON  12:35  
Black people were not working for them. And they could not control them in the situation, because they were not working for them. And they weren't asking them for necessarily for anything other than to have peace and quiet to do what they wanted to do. And going to places like Bruce's Beach. They didn't even have to ask them to use the bathroom, or to buy some sort of beverage or other kinds of a refreshment where they might encounter some kind of negativity from the standpoint of if it's a restaurant, they might say, well, we'll serve you but you got to go around to the back.

TONY  13:23  
At the same time, there were a few other black families that were buying houses in the area, moving to Manhattan Beach. In fact, they had formed a small community there. And the media stoked the fear of a negro invasion, quote, unquote, black folks coming in and you know, ruining the neighborhood, right? We've heard that before.

ADAM  13:43  
Right. So by the mid 1920s, there was a standoff. You had this thriving black owned business, on the one hand, and on the other hand, white residents and newspapers, doing their best to make life miserable for the black people there and trying to get them to leave. Politicians of Manhattan Beach very much wanted to drive the black people out of town. But they also knew that California had those laws Tony was talking about where you can't discriminate in public accommodations. So they were a little worried, they didn't want to be labeled as as law breakers and racist and so forth, 

TONY  14:16  
heaven forbid. 

ADAM  14:17  
But they did come up with a plan. They used a legal tactic known as eminent domain. Eminent domain is where the government takes somebody's property when it's needed for a legitimate public purpose. Here the city claimed that they needed the Bruce's and the other family's land to build a public park. So they voted and they just did it and they basically shut down the resort and took the properties of all these families and basically drove them out of town. 

TONY  14:46  
Well and this was all a sham and and the reason why we know it was a complete sham, was because Manhattan Beach already had a larger and better located parcel that had been gifted to the city for the express purpose of creating a park. In fact, a city official later admitted that it was a scam. And it was really all about race.

ADAM  15:08  
But the Bruces and the other families fought back. And with the help of the NAACP, they immediately filed a lawsuit against the city. And that case dragged on for actually a number of years. And while it was pending early on, the city tore down the resort. So they took care of that. And, you know, years later, there was a very bitter settlement where the families all got a fraction of the actual value of their properties. I think the Bruces got about $14,000 for their entire property. And so the thriving business and all that it represented were gone.

TONY  15:42  
So meanwhile, the city of Manhattan Beach allowed this white developer to build a new facility in the same location. And they declared whites only, police upped their harassment game. They took down the names of folks who swam in the area, did more harassing in terms of cars that were trying to park there. In 1927 the NAACP staged a swim-in that was led by a UCLA student named Elizabeth Catley. And this was a pushback to say, Yeah, we're not we're not having this, right. This is public space. They were arrested. But they they took a stand and made some noise. And ultimately, could claim victory because the city was forced to acknowledge that the beaches were open to everybody.

ADAM  16:31  
So all of this would have been forgotten, except for the work of a grad student in the 50s in the LA area, his name was Robert Brigham. And he was doing his thesis and basically dug up the records of Bruce's Beach and the city's eminent domain and all that and he told the city officials at the time in the in the 50s. Now, Hey, guys, you know, you never built a park. You took away this land and supposedly you need it for a park and it's been over 30 years. Where's the park? 

TONY  17:05  
Our bad. 

ADAM  17:05  
So the city? Yeah, the city hastily put together something resembling a park in that area, they were definitely worried about a new lawsuit. And basically, for the next 50 years, that park sort of existed there, there was a plaque put up and they kept sort of changing the name. But never did the city acknowledge what had happened. And there was a lot of pushback by people, including Alison to push the city to recognize the actual history of the location. And finally, in the year 2007, the park was renamed Bruce's Beach. But despite the renaming of the park in 2007, there was still no reparations or any kind of remedies to the people who were affected by this action. 

ADAM  17:59  
We've heard about reparative justice. We've heard that term when we talk about reparations as a way of repairing the past and, you know, making amends. But it's also important to look at commemorative justice. And this is one of Alison Jefferson's specialties. As she told us, it's super important that we recognize the past and honor the past,

ALISON  18:20  
Naming the park Bruce's Beach that helps black people and other people of color, take ownership of that space and feel like it's available to them so they would want to go to the beach.

ADAM  18:33  
We also forget sometimes how important it is just to know what happened in our past and how that's tied to our future.

ALISON  18:41  
There's many people that didn't know about this history until the last year, in terms of Bruce's Beach, in terms of Santa Monica, in terms of other places around the country. We have to know our history. In terms of understanding how we got to where we are today. You can't shape the future without knowing the past. 

TONY  19:05  
So that's the story of Bruce's Beach. That's what went down in Manhattan Beach, California going back over 100 years. The city government helped to harass and terrorize the Bruces and other black families in the area, and eventually ran them out of town. And the costs were huge. There was the loss of prime beachfront property, the decimation of a coveted leisure space for black people near and far. And the erasure of a booming business that served as a beacon of black joy and pride.

ADAM  19:36  
So let's take a look at what's been done so far in the form of reparations here. There's actually some big news to report. It looks like the land itself is going back to the Bruce's family and their descendants by the county of Los Angeles and the state of California, 

TONY  19:54  
Which is huge. 

ADAM  19:55  
It's huge. And it turns out that over the years that land that parcel right by the beach had gone over to the county of Los Angeles where Manhattan Beach is located, they now have a lifeguard building of some kind there. And in 2020, a local politician in Los Angeles heard the story of Bruce's beach and was pretty freaked out by it by learning about this history. And she started pushing some buttons. And, you know, the protests were continuing by the the Bruce family and others for for some justice here in 2020. And so the upshot was that LA County is going to give the property back to the descendants of the family. And it's pretty amazing, the state of California actually passed a bill that officially admitted that the city's taking away the property was racially motivated and unlawful. And the state of California authorized this, this deal to go forward. So it's pretty huge. It could set the tone for other actions like this. In the United States. 

TONY  20:58  
Well, it certainly shows that this is possible, right? That this can be done. And now that property is worth $75 million. So if we're talking about real reparations, that's what we're talking about.

ADAM  21:10  
So meanwhile, the city of Manhattan Beach, which took this action in the first place, set up a task force in 2020, in the wake of public pressure, and a lot of the events of 2020 that were going on with racial reckoning, and they had some public discussions, and we were at least hoping there would be some kind of commemorative justice, involving Bruce's beach. But nope, in the end, the city couldn't even bring itself to apologize for what had happened. And there were public statements, they were worried about being labeled as a racist city. So they basically did nothing.

TONY  21:48  
That's embarrassing. I mean, honestly, it's so disappointing that here we are in 2021, after everything that's happened over the course of the last couple of years and the city couldn't even go to extend an apology, to try to make amends for the damage that's been done. I mean, that's really just a damn shame.

ADAM  22:05  
What's really pitiful is the city had a moment here, when it could have done something historic and heroic. And, you know, it had some media attention to all of this. And this would have been the time, you know, 

TONY  22:16  
and could have shaped, you know, the conversation across the country. 

ADAM  22:20  
So we wanted to think, you know, what would it look like if the city of Manhattan Beach actually took responsibility for the lasting harms that it did, and started to repair them? Right, we thought what would be the most fitting and bold action the city could take to repair the flat out banishing of black people from the city 100 years ago.

TONY  22:40  
So we've developed a three point plan for the city to accomplish what it could have and should have done, on its own, to really create some reparative justice here. So point number one, fully own and commemorate what happened at Bruce's beach, and educate the Manhattan Beach residents about that. Point number two, aggressively move to attract black people to visit Manhattan Beach be a magnet for black folks to come. Just the opposite of what happened in the 1920s. Point number three, create enhanced business opportunities for black people in Manhattan Beach. 

TONY  23:18  
So on point number one, that reckoning and education piece has to come first. You know, we have to acknowledge what what actually happened, we have to acknowledge the damage.

ADAM  23:27  
So the city should set a strong example for the rest of the country in this case, and acknowledge what really happened at Bruce's beach. And while you're at it, apologize for its role in that.

TONY  23:39  
That'd be nice. Yeah. And it's not just what the what happened, but also the overlaying messaging, right of white supremacy, and black exclusion, right, who belonged where and who and who didn't,

ADAM  23:52  
Right. So the way you would have to do it, if you're a city government, this has to be a big deal. You know, it has to be a big public deal. It's kind of the opposite of the run and hide and don't want to be labeled as racist. It's like, you need a big photo op, you need some kind of ribbon cutting ceremony for unveiling this program. Have a press conference, you know, announce it to the world. You can't back into this and do it halfway. It has to be a big public deal. If it's going to be effective at all. 

TONY  24:20  
Say it with a chest as the young folks say. You know, we can think about how to get the word out, right. There's there should be a public awareness campaign wrapped around it about Bruce's Beach and other examples of segregation and discrimination in California. Yeah, you know, school curricula, opportunities there for young kids to be educated about what happened. Essay contests, reading programs in libraries, public talks, you know, town halls and not just addressed to school kids but to grown folks too. Everyone needs to hear about what happened and what's being done to repair that damage.

ADAM  24:55  
Yeah, and these public awareness campaigns, you need some kind of common theme or logo or slogan, you know, to kind of unify the message and get it out to people. There could be a slogan something like "racism happened here" and put that throughout the city, you know, own that. And let's talk about it - that is kind of the whole point of this.

TONY  25:15  
Yeah, damn, I'll be curious to see who who's willing to go there, you know, that'll be a sign of who's who's brave, who's willing to embrace this.

ADAM  25:23  
So the second part of the program we want to talk about is what the city can do to actually draw black people back after what the city did in the 1920s, which is, as we said, basically cooperating with the KKK to drive all black people out of town was the stated goal. The city needs to now adopt another bold goal, you know, to make Manhattan Beach the most welcoming city in America for black people, and start an actual program to attract black visitors. So there's a few things they can do right off the bat. Set up a program where African Americans will get different discounts and perks when they visit Manhattan Beach. Free parking at beach areas, discounts on hotel stays, preferred seating in restaurants, free gym memberships, things like that. And if the city really wants to be bold, and make a statement about repairing its injustice of the past, really do some shit. Let's talk about a beachfront resort and retreat space, with priority for black visitors. Or maybe even some exclusive areas for black people, to literally replicate what Bruce has Beech represented. 

TONY  26:33  
Yeah, I don't know, man, I can imagine a lot of folks' heads exploding right now. So wouldn't a program like this, just offend a whole lot of people? Wouldn't folks say, Look, this merely perpetuates the same kind of racial discrimination that we're trying to get beyond?

ADAM  26:49  
Well, it seems like the things that people are most freaked out by, about making things be all about race, which we hear a lot. Those are often the things that we most need, if we're going to actually address and change some things in our country. Things in this country have always been about race. We can't address the lasting effects of racism that are still very much with us without taking race into account. We have to kind of jolt ourselves and take a look at what's going on. I don't doubt that some folks can be offended by some aspects of this proposal. But the goal of it is to increase our awareness and to address the gross injustice that was done 100 years ago. 

TONY  27:31  
Help me understand like, how would this work? First off, how do you even define black to determine who's eligible for these benefits? And do people who identify as multiracial - do they count? Right? So someone who's a quarter black, what, they get 25% off parking?

ADAM  27:48  
There are definitely ways to do this that would be fair. Professor Darrity has talked about a fairly simple system for that, where someone who has self-identified as black in the past, you know, before the program was started, would qualify. And there's a number of different ways you can do that. Our country has been obsessed with defining race for over 400 years, there has never been a problem in, you know, defining it.

TONY  28:18  
Yeah so all this is, you know, a lot of fancy talk, but it seems like it would be a logistical nightmare. How would you actually implement it? And where would the money come from?

ADAM  28:27  
Right. Well, neither of those is really a big problem here. First of all, the cost is going to be pretty minimal, you know, the actual discounts and so forth, that we're talking about are not large cost items. And we're going to look for businesses to participate and get subsidized by the city. But it's not a big budget item compared to a lot of other things that cities do on a daily basis. And as far as how to do it, put it in the budget, and roll it out. And cities do these kinds of things all the time, especially things that have to do with public awareness and PR, and how businesses operate. This is not overly complicated. I think the real obstacle here is public awareness and getting people on board for actually doing it.

TONY  29:14  
So the third point of our three point plan is to enhance business opportunities for black people in Manhattan Beach, right? There was a theft of a thriving black owned business and the accompanying benefits to black residents. So we need a plan that counters that. Yeah, and let's let's get real about providing some business opportunities and incentives for black folks. That could be a program to provide exclusive contracts for black owned businesses, surf shops, restaurants, bike rentals, parking lot operators, you name it. Right. Could be a program to boost black owned businesses in the area, right startup financing, business incubators, coaching, similar resources that would be available to black folk who are wanting to establish or expand businesses in Manhattan Beach, that would go some ways towards reversing what happened at Bruce's beach.

ADAM  30:18  
I think some people might be sympathetic to addressing the injustice to the black owned business in this case, but there is some issue with the law, right? I mean, the civil rights laws say that you're not allowed to discriminate between businesses or people based on race. And so, you know, how would you give preferences to black owned businesses? And isn't that unfair to other businesses?

TONY  30:40  
Well, let me address the second point first, the unfairness. So what's unfair, has been hundreds of years of exclusion and racial injustice without proper redress if you want to talk about fairness. And there's a lot as lawyers, yes, certainly, there are laws that would have to be navigated. But laws are not set in stone. Right. So there are exemptions made, there are special provisions made for various groups to address these exact kinds of harms that we're talking about.

ADAM  31:07  
Yeah, so we should remember that cities and other governments do stuff all the time, when there's a policy they want to promote, they get their lawyers on it, they maybe try to change the law, they file something in court. Or if they get sued, they defend it. We do have laws on the books about racial discrimination, of course, and one of the huge problems with that is, if everything is supposed to be completely colorblind and neutral, then it's impossible often to get real, meaningful change in the area of reparations. And so clearly, some of this has to be changed. But there are ways to navigate the law as well. And that's what you get your lawyers for, right?

TONY  31:46  
Absolutely. Lawyer up, you know, and make it happen.

ADAM  31:50  
I mean, that's what we always did. I was in-house lawyer for a city for many years. And you know, if the city wanted to do something kind of new or different, they would get us in action. And we'd go off to court and you know, you win some you lose some but you got to try,

TONY  32:03  
It's going to be awkward, it's going to be uncomfortable for some people, but it needs to be, right? Because if it's not, then that means we're not hitting in the right direction, or we're not hitting hard enough. You know, these are long, festering problems that have taken root that require big bold solutions, right? We're not going to redress 100 years of injustice with some tinkering around the edges. 

ADAM  32:28  
Yup. 

TONY  32:28  
It's not worth talking about if it's not, if it's not big and bold. And that goes back to one of our initial points, which is educating folks about what really happened. 

ADAM  32:38  
Yes.

TONY  32:38  
Right? To create the support, to create the awareness that okay, yeah, this was some, this was some bullshit, you know, this was not some minor transgression. This was, you know, city sanctioned government sanctioned, theft of black business, and black joy. There's a price to pay, you got to pay the tab.

ADAM  32:57  
So programs like this are really needed all across the country, right, wherever a gross injustice has happened. Let's bring it out in the light and deal with it. You know, these issues are not limited to Southern California, or definitely not beach areas. It's in the news today, everywhere we see, the same discrimination and resistance to accepting black people enjoying public places. 

ADAM  33:24  
So Tony, what are some things that our listeners can do if they want to get involved on some of these issues we've been talking about?

TONY  33:30  
One thing that all of us can do is to call out public racist behavior when we see it. That's not how, you know we want to engage. That's not how we want to live in a civil society where everyone should have the ability to live free and enjoy and thrive. So when you see that, examples of that, call people in - let them know that you're watching and that's not cool, right?

ADAM  33:54  
And all people can do this, but especially us white people need to jump in more. For example, you know, we're at a restaurant and you might see the host weirdly ignoring a black customer, like there's a group of black people waiting to be helped. And the host greets and helps a white party who just walked in. So in these situations, we can just say something. So it can just be like, Excuse me, I think those guys were waiting to be helped or you know, pretty much anything. And we can't always be sure that race is involved. And that's okay, too. This stuff is never comfortable to address. And it's always going to be awkward, but you know, it's good practice and sort of see what it feels like to shake up the status quo a little bit

TONY  34:36  
Well, and moving through the discomfort and awkwardness as part of what it what it means if we're looking to really create a an equitable and just world. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be a little messy, a little sticky and a little awkward, but that's part of the price to pay to get to where we want to get to.

ADAM  34:52  
Well for listeners who would like to learn more about the real history of their own city or town and you know, start learning the truths about racial injustice in these different places. There are organizations out there that you can get involved in. So, one example we've heard about is the truth, racial healing and transformation or TRHT nonprofit that has local chapters that are rising up in a number of cities, and they're doing good things.

TONY  35:19  
Something else we encourage you to do to get involved is support HR 40. HR 40 is a House of Representatives bill that's been introduced every year since 1989. The bill will establish a commission to study the effects of slavery on African Americans and recommend appropriate remedies for Congress to enact. In 2021, for the first time ever, the bill was moved out of committee to the House floor for full consideration.

ADAM  35:45  
Right. 

TONY  35:46  
HR 40 isn't the only or final answer. But it is a critical starting point for a national discussion about reparations. 

ADAM  35:54  
Yeah, for sure. 

TONY  35:54  
It's you know, and it's an official acknowledgement that something needs to be done. So we encourage you to read up on it, study it, and then call or write your congressperson and tell them to support HR 40 now.

ADAM  36:13  
Hey, everybody, thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed the show.

TONY  36:16  
Please subscribe to our podcast and tell your family and friends about us. Also, check out our website, pay the tab.org it's got show notes, how to reach us and all of our episodes.

ADAM  36:25  
And remember, reparations will only happen if enough of us mobilize to push this conversation forward.