56 percent of people in New Jersey don’t know that slavery happened here.

New Jersey likes to see itself as progressive and forward-looking – and in many ways, it is. Yet Black people in New Jersey endure some of the deepest racial disparities in the nation. One of the country’s most prosperous and racially diverse states is also one of its most inequitable.

Why?

New Jersey was designed this way. From its founding as a colony, slavery took deep root here, known as the “slave state of the North.”

Truth & Repair calls us, like the Sankofa bird that brands the campaign, to look back in order to move forward – acknowledging the past so that we can take responsibility for shaping a different future.

A future where Black people can truly thrive – and where everyone can share in New Jersey’s prosperity and rich racial diversity.

Repair Isn’t Possible Without Truth.

Pass the Truth, Reconciliation and Repair Act today

Building on the important but incomplete 2008 resolution “expressing New Jersey’s profound regret” for slavery, New Jersey must now complete the work the state began but did not finish. It must pass legislation that commits to Truth and lays the groundwork for Repair.

New Jersey must pass legislation, signed by the Governor: i) apologizing for slavery and accepting responsibility, and ii) committing to teaching the Truth about slavery and Black History in our public schools and beyond.

Pass the Truth, Reconciliation and Repair Act

We Are Living In A New Jersey Built By Slavery.

The Slave State of the North

The report is the culmination of an intensive two-year study by the Council into New Jersey’s deep but often overlooked history of slavery and its aftermath – and a call for transformative change through reparations.

Through a series of chronological chapters researched and authored by nine subject-matter committees, the report recounts New Jersey’s history of slavery, its own Jim Crow era, and its perpetuation of segregation and racial disparities in the more modern era. It draws a throughline to today, when New Jersey has some of the worst racial disparities in the country, including a staggering $643k racial wealth gap.

Read the Report