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Commission outlines community-engagement push, genealogy pilot and school partnerships
Summary
Commissioners discussed a genealogy feasibility project to identify descendants of enslaved people, plans to partner with UMass’s Center for Racial Justice and local schools for panels and outreach, and a Reparations Religious Roundtable event as an initial community touchpoint.
Northampton’s Reparations Study Commission used part of its meeting to flesh out community engagement and research initiatives that would contextualize recommendations in the preliminary report.
Commissioners explored a genealogy pilot to trace descendants of enslaved people in Northampton. Chair described two starting approaches discussed by commissioners: (1) working backward from living family lore and long-established local families, which many speakers said is easier, and (2) attempting to track forward from lists of enslaved people, which is more time-consuming and limited by historical record gaps (the 1890 U.S. Census is missing nationally). Renika Montgomery Tomlkay noted probate and court records, state archives, historical and genealogical societies and local libraries as useful sources and warned that “it’s gonna take a lot of time and a lot of digging.” Commissioners recommended starting small, securing funding for database subscriptions, and partnering with local genealogists (Forbes Library was cited as a resource).
On community engagement, Marsha Morris and others described the Reparations Religious Roundtable (RRR) first event, where commissioners will present and solicit input; Carolyn Oppenheimer is joining the engagement committee. Felicia Lundquist (UMass Center for Racial Justice and Youth Engagement) proposed collaborating with UMass students and Northampton High School to convene panels or events in the spring semester that center youth voices on reparative justice and education. Commissioners agreed to form a small working group (Jeremy and Felicia to represent the commission) and to explore dates and include additional local schools such as Smith Vocational.
Commissioners emphasized data consistency when collecting community input so that survey and interview instruments mirror across groups; Marsha and others urged outreach that reaches working-class and less-educated residents in addition to academic audiences. Several commissioners offered to pursue partnerships and to identify funding for database access and a possible summer research assistant.
The commission treated these engagement and research initiatives as ongoing work to inform the final report and implementation recommendations rather than items that would block transmission of the current preliminary report. Commissioners asked staff to return with feasibility details, funding options, and recommended next steps at follow-up meetings.
