By Carlyle Harry
Founder/President of the Black Institute- Bertha Lewis made an impassioned plea for financial and material reparations to be awarded to two categories of black persons- -(i).. the children of former slaves; and (ii).. persons who have been wrongly convicted and incarcerated.
In an address to members of the Thomas Jefferson club, on Thursday evening, Februrary, 23rd., Ms.Lewis in pleading her case, pointed to the reparations that were handed out to (for example) Jews by the German Government following the Holocost; and to the Japanese after World War II, by the Reagan Administration.
Ms.Lewis asked the audience to calculate what the offer of ‘forty acres and a mule’ would be today; and she further urged them to try to figure out how someone who had been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated could be compensated for the many years spent in jail and prison.
Ms.Lewis listed some of the main deprivations and sufferings that those wrongly convicted/ incarcerated persons and their family members had to endure.
Ms.Lewis went on to give examples of the advocacies that she was involved with in her reparations’ efforts, and invited elected-officials who were present in the audience to join those efforts.
Ms.Lewis added that she was also involved in discussions and negotiations with Mayor Bill de Blasio, seeking to have him make bigger investments of money and resources to black and minority communities who make up larger proportions of New York city’s population.
Ms.Lewis noted that she would like to see increased job-training and entrepreneurial opportunities being made available to women and minorities.
At the commencement of her address, Ms.Lewis recapped the biased and prejudiced treatments that were meted out to blacks, especially in the Southern States, prior to the non-violent protests that were led by Dr.Martin Luther King and his colleagues.
Several elected Officials attended the Discourse… They included State-Senator, Roxanne Persaud; Council-Members, Matthew Eugene and Alan Maisel; Acting Brooklyn District-Attorney, Eric Gonzalez; and District- Leader, Anne J.Stern.
The Leadership of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic club–Frank Seddio; Henry Bolus; and Sue Ann Partnow indicated that they had decided to host the ‘Black History- month’ lecture in order to (a) stress the racial and nationality diversity of Canarsie; and (b) to draw attention to the harm(s) that was done to blacks and minorities in the earlier years.
They also gave notice that lecture–discourses would be regular features of the club.
and then 