Student Involvement in the Reparations Movement
There is an African Proverb that states…”When the student is ready, the teacher will come.” This moniker expresses the notion that life will always provide those ready and willing to learn with the necessary resources to facilitate their growth. It is in this same spirit that a call is made to the present generation of students, the Reparations Generation, for our time has come to get involved! But who will serve as our teachers? Because many of us are looking for a mentor to nurture and develop not only our minds, but our spirits as well, we are not satisfied with the academic rigors that college life provides. We desire other venues through which to channel our energy for service…service not only to ourselves and our family, but the Black community as well.
This is an energy, which resonates through the many students in the Atlanta University Center (AUC) who are full of an undying desire to serve their community. Their desire is displayed through the numerous community service programs that color the landscape of the colleges and universities of the Atlanta University Center (AUC). However, for some, spending a day at a local school or building a house on the weekend is not enough. For those, the desire to help their community is not satiated by occasional service. These are the students that feel the rich legacy of activism that is flowing through the AUC like the Nile River, looking to breathe life into the surrounding West End Community. These are the students who, like the many that came before, are ready to make their mark on the world by enacting social change of the highest order.
As you walk around the Atlanta University Center, you are reminded of the ancestors who came before you. You feel the presence of those students who joined Ella Baker in forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Those young college students not only added youth and energy to the Civil Rights “Movement,” but they brought with them the winds that stirred the mighty wave as the “Movement” rushed towards the shores of desegregation in the south. It was also their energy that brought about the next wave of the “Movement.” The likes of Malcolm X, as well as Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party, ushered in the Black Power phase of the “Movement” and elevated the plight of poor Blacks around the country. Their actions shed more light on the heinous acts that were depriving Black Americans of their Humanity.
Now is the time for you, the students, to propel the next wave of the “Movement” for liberation. However, unlike any time before, your participation is of vital importance for you are the Reparations Generation. You are those individuals who will form the unified front that will bring about a kind of social change the world has never seen. You are the generation who will stand on the shoulders of William Tucker, Harriet Tubman, Denmark Vessy, Queen Mother Moore, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X. You are the generation who will take our people to the “Promise Land” Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently described. You are the generation that will make sure that the next check America signs for us does not come back marked “insufficient funds.” You are the Reparations Generation and it is now time for you to stand up, reclaim, and assert Our Humanity!