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The First Church Reparations Fund seeks to repay, in a small way, the debt owed to Black and Indigenous communities for centuries of harm. Money raised in the Reparations Fund in 2024 was dispersed in the following ways:

• $21,000 was given to “The Collective,” people of African descent engaged in activism and anti-racist work who, over the past 3 years of the Reparations Fund, have supported urgent immigration needs, prevented families from eviction, aided small business ventures, and more.
• $21,000 was given to the Slavery Legacy History Coalition, founded by the Lloyd family who are direct descendants of enslaved people in First Church’s archives.  First Church is a founding member of the Coalition.
• $10,500 was given to blackyard, a Cambridge-based, black-led grassroots initiative offering vital support through a unique blend of homeschool co-op opportunities (including for suspended and expelled youth), a welcoming creative drop-in space for families, and transformative after-school programming for ALL Black, Indigenous, and Brown youth, including Queer & Trans youth.

Your continued support is vital to the First Church Reparations Fund for ongoing support of “The Collective,” support for direct descendants of enslaved people in our church records, and for identification of a local indigenous group to receive a portion of the funds in 2025 as a small restitution for the leading role a First Church member played in the genocide of indigenous people.

You may give online; please be sure to choose “Reparations Fund.” Or you may write a check payable to “First Church in Cambridge” with “Reparations Fund” in the memo line.

Learn more about First Church’s Reparations work.

Give to the Reparations Fund.