The basement wall of the Historic Vernon A.M.E. Church is the only edifice of the original Greenwood neighborhood that survived the conflagration. On May 31, the church is holding a dedication for a planned Prayer Wall for Racial Healing at the site, which will eventually include a baptismal pool and a place to hold weddings, and for which Turner hopes to raise $700,000.
“It’s really important to say [that] reparations means repair, and there are lots of ways this can and should happen,” says Lavanhar.
All Souls has a publishing house launched with seed money from the family of Richard Lloyd Jones, which recently published The Victory of Greenwood by All Souls member Carlos Moreno, which tells the stories of historically significant figures in Greenwood’s history. Lavanhar wants the press to create a division whose focus is publishing articles, essays, plays, and books by Black writers about the Greenwood story. “That’s a reparative thing,” he says, “taking money given by the family that used publishing to harm the community and try to support the community and its views, not from what white people think about this but the story Black people want to tell.”
All Souls held a service that included Turner and hosted a forum on reparations, and Lavanhar began publishing his editorial cartoons, and Lavanhar feels it is all adding up to positive change. Some city councilors are having “serious conversations” about reparations, he says.
To other UU congregations, Lavanhar has this suggestion: “Look at your own history, because there may be things you’re unaware of,” he says. “Was there a prominent member or a minister that may have caused harm to a community on the margins of your society, and, if so, how can you talk about it and learn about it, and is there a way to make any kind of amends for it?”