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New Jersey Seminary to Pay $27 Million in Reparations for Ties to Slavery
NNPA NEWSWIRE — “The Seminary’s ties to slavery are a part of our story,” Barnes stated. “It is important to acknowledge that our founders were entangled with slavery and could not envision a fully integrated society. We did not want to shy away from the uncomfortable part of our history and the difficult conversations that revealing the truth would produce.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
The Princeton Theological Seminary, in Princeton, NJ, has set aside $27 million to pay reparations for its ties to slavery.
Among the institutions of higher education, the more than two-hundred-year-old Seminary joined Rutgers and Princeton Universities to publicly disclose their ties to the slave trade.
However, neither Rutgers nor Princeton have pledged reparations.
The Seminary recently began a study of its history with the enslavement of African Americans after three Black seminarians launched a petition calling for reparations.
“These payments are an act of repentance,” M. Craig Barnes, president of the Seminary, said in a statement. “We are committed to telling the truth,” Barnes said.
Although he noted that the Seminary never owned slaves, it was complicit in the slave trade.
Barnes said Princeton Theological Seminary benefitted from the slave economy when it invested in Southern banks. They also received funds from donors who directly profited from slavery, and the founding fathers of the academy used slave labor.
Faculty leaders also once advocated for sending free Black people to Liberia.
“The Seminary’s ties to slavery are a part of our story,” Barnes stated. “It is important to acknowledge that our founders were entangled with slavery and could not envision a fully integrated society. We did not want to shy away from the uncomfortable part of our history and the difficult conversations that revealing the truth would produce.”
The Princeton Theological Seminary was the first Seminary founded by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1812. The establishment of The Theological Seminary at Princeton marked a turning point in American theological education, according to historians at the school.
The College of New Jersey, later known as Princeton University, was supportive of this plan, historians stated.
With fewer than a dozen students, in 1812, Archibald Alexander was the first— and for one year the only — professor at the Seminary. He was joined the following year by a second professor, Samuel Miller, who came to Princeton from the ministry of the Wall Street Church in New York.
John White, the dean of students and vice president of student relations, said in a statement that the reparations decision came after a lengthy historical audit and the formation of a task force to investigate the Seminary’s past.
“This is the beginning of the process of repair that will be ongoing,” White stated.
White served as chair of the task force, which included trustees, faculty, administrators, students, and alumni.
He noted that they took part in a deliberative process to provide opportunities for the campus community to discuss and respond to the audit report.
The task force hosted more than 25 events, meetings, and conversations on the campus in the previous academic year.
Feedback gathered from students, faculty, administrators, and alumni were incorporated in the recommendations presented to the Seminary’s board. The Board of Trustees also conducted a year-long process of study, the Seminary’s website reported.
“From the beginning, the Board of Trustees has encouraged a thorough process of understanding our history that would lead to a meaningful response,” White stated.
With an immediate rollout of the plan and continuation through 2024, the Seminary intends to make a “meaningful and lasting change” with the more than 20 approved initiatives, including:
- Offering 30 new scholarships, valued at the cost of tuition plus $15,000, for students who are descendants of slaves or from underrepresented groups
- Hiring a full-time director of the Center for Black Church Studies
- Hiring a new faculty member whose research and teaching will give critical attention to African American experience and ecclesial life
- Changes in the Seminary curriculum, including a required cross-cultural component and integrating into the first-year curriculum for every master’s student, sustained academic engagement with the implications of the historical audit
- Designating five doctoral fellowships for students who are descendants of slaves or from underrepresented groups
- Naming the library after Theodore Sedgwick Wright, the first African American to attend and graduate from Princeton Seminary
- Naming the Center for Black Church Studies after Betsey Stockton, a prominent African American educator in Princeton during the antebellum North and a Presbyterian missionary in the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii). Before gaining freedom, Stockton was a slave to the chair of Princeton Seminary’s Board of Trustees.
- Enhancing community partnerships and supporting historically disenfranchised communities in and around Princeton
- Ensuring every member of the Princeton Seminary community understands its history
- A committee has been established to oversee the implementation of the plan and will regularly report progress to the board.
- The program costs for the responses represent a commitment of more than $1 million annually on an ongoing basis.
- To sustain this programming in perpetuity, $27.6 million will be reserved in the endowment.
“Seminary’s ties to slavery are a part of our story. It is important to acknowledge that our founders were entangled with slavery and could not envision a fully integrated society,” Barnes stated.
“We did not want to shy away from the uncomfortable part of our history and the difficult conversations that revealing the truth would produce.”
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Conversation with Al McFarlane and Coach Leah
May 29, 2023 – Welcome back to another episode of The Conversation with Al McFarlane! We bring you inspiring discussions …
The post Conversation with Al McFarlane and Coach Leah first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6ydjQ14cOJM&autoplay=0&cc_lang_pref=en&cc_load_policy=0&color=0&controls=1&fs=1&h1=en&loop=0&rel=0
May 29, 2023 – Welcome back to another episode of The Conversation with Al McFarlane! We bring you inspiring discussions …
The post Conversation with Al McFarlane and Coach Leah first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
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No Labels Endorses Bipartisan Deal to Resolve US Debt Ceiling Debate
NNPA NEWSWIRE — “We have always emphasized that there should be common sense bipartisan solutions to our nation’s problems that are supported overwhelmingly by the majority of the American people,” No Labels National Co-Chairs Joe Lieberman, Larry Hogan, and Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., said in a joint statement issued on Sunday, May 28.
The post No Labels Endorses Bipartisan Deal to Resolve US Debt Ceiling Debate first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
No Labels, a growing national movement of what the organization calls “common sense Americans pushing leaders together to solve the country’s biggest problems,” announced its support of the bipartisan deal that President Joe Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have agreed upon in principle to avoid the United States defaulting on its national debt before the June 5 deadline.
“We have always emphasized that there should be common sense bipartisan solutions to our nation’s problems that are supported overwhelmingly by the majority of the American people,” No Labels National Co-Chairs Joe Lieberman, Larry Hogan, and Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., said in a joint statement issued on Sunday, May 28.
Chavis also serves as president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade association of the more than 230 African American owned newspapers and media companies in the United States.
After months of uncertainty and verbal sparring, an “agreement in principle” has been reached to spare the United States from its first-ever debt default.
But now comes the hard part: convincing both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to agree to pass the measure.
After President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that they’d reached an accord to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and avoid a catastrophic default, Congress has just a few days to approve the deal.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a deal needs ratification by June 5, or the United States would breach its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.
If approved by Congress, the deal would raise the debt ceiling for two years, punting it to the next administration.
The GOP originally proposed a one-year deal but conceded to Democrats’ demand for two.
In the agreement, spending – except for the military – would remain at 2023 levels for next year, with funds being earmarked for other federal programs.
Biden also agreed to a $10 billion cut to the $80 billion he had earmarked for the IRS to crack down on individuals cheating on their taxes.
Instead, the funds will go to other programs that Republicans sought to cut.
Additionally, with billions remaining from pandemic relief funds unspent, both parties agreed to claw back those funds to the federal government.
“Avoiding America’s default in paying our national debt is vital to the future of our nation. We thank President Biden and Speaker McCarthy for their leadership to achieve the debt ceiling deal,” the No Labels leaders continued.
“We encourage Republican, Democratic and Independent members of both chambers of the US Congress to pass this agreement expeditiously because it is so important for every American.”
The post No Labels Endorses Bipartisan Deal to Resolve US Debt Ceiling Debate first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
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Three Years After #DefundThePolice, Schools Are Bringing Cops Back to Campus
SAN DIEGO VOICE & VIEWPOINT — As of January 2023, there were about 60 SROs remaining in D.C. schools, down from its peak of more than 100, according to the Washington Post. However, the progress made toward reducing law enforcement presence in D.C. schools appears to be in jeopardy. In what seems like a backtrack from the progressive momentum generated during “America’s racial reckoning,” four D.C. council members now support a proposal to retain officers in schools, citing an uptick in violence and crime in school vicinities.
The post Three Years After #DefundThePolice, Schools Are Bringing Cops Back to Campus first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

By
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, calls to defund the police rang across the nation during the summer of 2020. While few cities took swift action, many school districts — integral community hubs where young minds are nurtured, and where kids spend the bulk of their time — began to reevaluate the presence of armed personnel patrolling the hallways.
In September 2019, eight months before Floyd’s murder, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported nearly 25,000 school resource officers were assigned to primarily K-12 schools.
Those numbers slowly started to change in districts around the country as a response to calls to defund the police.
In Washington, D.C., for example, the D.C. Council unanimously voted in 2021 to reduce the number of SROs in both public and charter schools beginning July 2022, with the plan to end the Metropolitan Police Department’s School Safety Division in 2025.
In September 2019, eight months before Floyd’s murder, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported nearly 25,000 school resource officers were assigned to primarily K-12 schools.
As of January 2023, there were about 60 SROs remaining in D.C. schools, down from its peak of more than 100, according to the Washington Post. However, the progress made toward reducing law enforcement presence in D.C. schools appears to be in jeopardy. In what seems like a backtrack from the progressive momentum generated during “America’s racial reckoning,” four D.C. council members now support a proposal to retain officers in schools, citing an uptick in violence and crime in school vicinities.
On the other side of the country, the Denver Public School District Board of Education unanimously voted to bring SROs back to schools through June 2023. Similar to D.C., the decision followed closely on the heels of a shooting at Denver’s East High School. And 18 SROs were brought back to 17 schools in the district.
Schools around the country are running into roadblocks trying to remove SROs.
The Roadblocks
The roadblocks don’t look the same in every situation.
In D.C., for example, ACLU DC policy associate Ahoefa Ananouko cites Mayor Muriel Bowser as the biggest barrier. Bowser has been vocal about keeping SROs in schools, going as far as to say that removing SROs is “the nuttiest thing.”
And, like in D.C. and Denver, politicians, policymakers, and some educators nationwide cite violence in the area as a reason for keeping SROs, but there is little evidence to support that SROs actually do make schools safer. In fact, in a 2020 report, the Justice Policy Institute said, “rates of youth violence were plummeting independent of law enforcement interventions, and the impact of SROs on school shootings has been dubious at best.”
Plus, it’s been proven that SROs exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline, especially for Black students.
The Center for Public Integrity analyzed U.S. Department of Education data from all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico in 2021. The investigation found that school policing disproportionately affects students with disabilities and Black students. Nationwide, these two groups were referred to law enforcement at “nearly twice their share of the overall student population.”
What we often have seen is that the teachers or classified staff who feel that it’s not within their ability to handle certain situations automatically defer to the SROs.
ADONAI MACK, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION AT CHILDREN NOW
But it doesn’t stop many adults on the school campus from differing discipline to SROs, says Adonai Mack, the senior director of education at Children Now. This happens when there is either a fear around addressing disciplinary problems or concerns, or feeling they aren’t able to handle it.
“What we often have seen is that the teachers or classified staff who feel that it’s not within their ability to handle certain situations automatically defer to the SROs,” Mack says.
This is where the call for additional non-police safety officials comes in, like nurses, counselors, or psychologists, who “certainly do more help than harm,” Mack says.
But, like teachers and other educators, there’s a shortage of these professionals. But Ananouko says this shouldn’t be a barrier if policymakers decided it was more important to have mental health professionals or restorative justice interventionalists — people who are trained to handle trauma, behavior, and underlying issues.
“I believe they could and should shift those resources to incentivize those professionals being hired instead of investing more in police,” Ananouko says, “which have been shown to be harmful to students in a school environment, generally.”
A Detriment to Mental Wellness
Though it’s too early to have concrete data on students’ mental health without SROs, there are, anecdotally, reasons to believe it’s a positive change.
Aside from students leading police-free school groups, there are other historic factors that lend insight. For one, whenever there are fears around deportation, not only Black students, but Latino and AAPI students experience negative mental health impacts, Mack says.
The feelings, like with the Defund the Police movement, are split across racial lines. Black, Latino, and AAPI students don’t always feel safe with police around.
“With kids of color, what you often have is this alienation,” Mack says. “There are decreased feelings of safety. Now, I would say that’s different for white kids and white families. They often will feel that having police on campus makes the campus safer.”
Black and Brown students are more likely to attend a school patrolled by an SRO.
And, Black and Brown students are more likely to attend a school patrolled by an SRO. A 2023 Urban Institute study found that schools where the student population is at least 80% Black and Brown, students are more likely to have an SRO compared to schools with a high population of white students, regardless of income levels. And, 34%-37% of schools with high populations of Black and Brown students have an SRO, compared to 5%-11% of predominantly white schools.
But it’s clear that there’s “a detriment to kids of color” with police on campus, Mack says.
“From that perspective, with any decrease, what we see is that it automatically improves the mental wellness of students from those communities,” Mack says.
‘A Critical Point’
While the roadblocks might be tougher or the headlines have fizzled out, Ananouko says the police-free schools movement “isn’t slowing down at all.”
And now, D.C. is at a critical point. It’s budget oversight season, meaning it’s the time when funding for SROs could be restored. But, every year since the initial 2021 vote, students, school administrators, teachers, and advocates have continued to push for the phase-out, Ananouko says.
“Our messaging has not changed,” Ananouko says. “We’ve stayed consistent in saying that police don’t keep students safe. And none of that has changed in these past three years.”
The bottom line is that all kids deserve to feel safe and nurtured, Ananouko says.
“They should be able to feel like they can go to school with that fear,” she says, whether this fear comes from other students or armed officers in the building who can use their gun “at any point at the discretion of the law is on their side.”
“A lot of the issues that students are dealing with are not going to be addressed by somebody with a gun.”
This article originally appeared in San Diego Voice and Viewpoint.
The post Three Years After #DefundThePolice, Schools Are Bringing Cops Back to Campus first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
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