Defund SPD

6/22 PHONE ZAP ⚡️⚡️⚡️ TELL THE MAYOR: CARE NOT COPS

Last night, the City Council majority asked the Mayor to fund....

$1.4 million for an Alternative Emergency
Response outside of the Police Dept.

By sending trained community responders to mental health emergencies, we can help our neighbors and reduce their interactions with armed police.

The Council also called for...

$81,182 for an additional planner in the planning dept. & another $81,182 for a planner in the clerks to run Land Use.

By giving the City and Council direct access to experts, we can plan more affordable housing near transit, green space & good jobs.

The Council also called for...

$82,715 from free cash for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
To support more income-restricted housing!

Call the Mayor & tell her we need an Alternative Emergency Response, more planners, and more affordable housing!

(617) 625-6600 × 2100

This Black History Month, we celebrate the work of Black pioneers who fearlessly dare to challenge injustice with the next installment in our series.

In 1783, Belinda Sutton, a formerly enslaved woman, petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to provide her an annual pension after her enslaver, Isaac Royall of Medford, fled the country. This petition helped bring the subject of reparations into public discourse.

Belinda’s petition chronicled her life from her childhood in contemporary Ghana to her enslaved life in Medford. It took a similar form to the earlier abolitionist petitions, and was likely written with the help of Prince Hall (learn about Hall’s appeals for abolition in our post from Juneteenth 2022).

After her first petition, the state granted Belinda an annual pension paid by the Royall estate. However, the estate stopped payments after the initial first year, and after Belinda petitioned two more times, the estate refused payment.

The resolution to Belinda’s legal battle is unknown, but her story doesn’t end here. Her petition and story were published globally, and proved that paying reparations is possible. We honor this history and call for its long overdue conclusion to see that reparations are paid to the Black community.



Source: Roy E. Finkenbine, “Belinda’s Petition: Reparations for Slavery in Revolutionary Massachusetts,” The William and Mary Quarterly
Image: Zinn Education Project, http://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/belinda-sutton-petitions