Story
Dear Friends and Fellow Good Trouble Makers,
Here, I will share four “P’s” of reparations – (1) PREMISE, (2) POWER, (3) PRACTICE, and (4) PARTNERSHIP – which will help me tell the story of The Zacchaeus Foundation.
First, PREMISE
In Reparations, Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson write that the PREMISE of reparations is white supremacy, which has stolen truth, wealth, and power.
Kwon and Thompson write that racism is a four-part problem. Racism is an individual problem that requires repentance; an interpersonal problem that requires reconciliation; an institutional problem that requires reform; and a cultural problem – white supremacy – that requires reparations.
In Where Do We Go From Here, Dr. King writes that white supremacy is a false belief (that white people are better) used to excuse an unjust behavior (treating Black people worse).
Here, I think of Cain in Genesis 4. When Cain killed Abel, God asked Cain where Abel was. Cain said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain knew where Abel was, but he used a false belief to excuse an unjust behavior.
Kwon and Thompson write that white supremacy has stolen truth, wealth, and power.
White supremacy has stolen truth by romanticization and erasure. American history has been told from white perspectives and American history has not been told from Black perspectives.
White supremacy has stolen wealth by extraction and obstruction. When Black people have built wealth it has been taken from them and help given to white people to build wealth has not been given to Black people.
White supremacy has stolen personal and political power. The agency of Black people over their bodies and the body politic has been suppressed.
One example of white supremacy is the fact that between 1877 and 1950, about 5,000 Black people were lynched in America, and about 500 Black people were lynched in Arkansas. No Black people were lynched in Washington County after 1877, but three were in 1856. Their names were Aaron, Anthony, and Randall. In 2020, the Washington County Community Remembrance Project worked with the Equal Justice Initiative to tell their story:
On July 7, 1856, a white mob from present-day Elkins, AR kidnapped and lynched Anthony, a Black man and Aaron, a Black teenager. They were put on trial at the Washington County Courthouse in the death of a white man, James Boone, who enslaved them. Anthony was proven innocent. Aaron was released due to lack of evidence. Disregarding the rule of law, a mob led by Boone’s sons reacted violently, lynching Anthony and Aaron near the jail, most likely on the estate of Archibald Yell, the deceased former governor of Arkansas. Randall, a third accused enslaved person whom an all-white jury found guilty, contested his verdict but was refused a retrial. Like lynchings, court-ordered executions – with mobs standing by – did not require reliable findings of guilt. Randall was hanged by the state on Aug. 1, 1856, likely on Gallows Hill, which is now within the Fayetteville National Cemetery next to Oaks Cemetery. During this era when enslaved people commonly faced violence by white enslavers, local oral history contends that, on May 29, 1856, James Boone attempted to sexually assault an enslaved Black woman who fatally assaulted him in self-defense. The Boone family then implicated Aaron, Anthony, and Randall in Boone’s death. Slavery in Washington County, as elsewhere, devalued the lives of Black people resulting in violence, including sexual assault and lynchings for which hundreds of white perpetrators were never held accountable.
So, the PREMISE of reparations is white supremacy, which has stolen truth, wealth, and power.
Second, POWER
In Reparations, Kwon and Thompson write that the POWER of reparations is restitution, which we see in Zacchaeus, and restoration, which we see in the Good Samaritan.
The bad news is that white people and churches have sinned by actively and passively supporting white supremacy, which has stolen truth, wealth, and power.
The good news is that when we sin, we have two ethics that EMPOWER us to repent and repair.
The first ethic is restitution, which we see in Zacchaeus. Luke 19:1-10 says:
He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
In Luke 19, Jesus called Zacchaeus, who had sinned by stealing, to return what he had stolen. Like Zacchaeus, white people and churches are called to return what we have stolen from Black people.
The second ethic is restoration, which we see in the Good Samaritan. Luke 10:29-37 says:
But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
In Luke 10, when the Good Samaritan saw a person who had been stolen from, he returned him to wholeness. Like the Good Samaritan, white people and churches are called to return to wholeness Black people who have been stolen from.
So, the POWER of reparations is restitution, which we see in Zacchaeus, and restoration, which we see in the Good Samaritan.
Third, PRACTICE
In Reparations, Kwon and Thompson write that the PRACTICE of reparations is the ethical Christian response to the sin of white supremacy.
Said differently, reparations is the fruit that white people and churches are called to bear for repentance from the sin of white supremacy.
Here, I think of John the Baptist in Luke 3. When people came to be baptized, John told them to bear fruit worthy of repentance. When they asked him what to do, he said, “Share, don’t steal.”
Said simply, white supremacy has stolen truth, wealth, and power; therefore, reparations returns truth, wealth, and power.
The Zacchaeus Foundation was started to PRACTICE reparations.
We are a non-profit named for Zacchaeus, who repented, repaired, and was healed.
We are working for racial healing in Northwest Arkansas (our vision).
We are repairing truth, wealth, and power (our mission).
We repair truth by educating white people and churches about reparations. We started events.
We repair wealth by raising funds from white people and churches for Black-led non-profits. We started The Zacchaeus Fund.
We repair power by empowering Black people to decide who receives funds. Black board members decide who receives funds.
In 2025, we raised $100,000 from white people and churches.
In 2026, we will give $50,000 to Black-led non-profits and raise $110,000 from white people and churches.
By 2035, we will raise $1.6M from white people and churches, give $500,000 to Black-led non-profits, and have a $1.4M endowment, which will enable us to give $50,000 to Black-led non-profits annually, perpetually.
Fourth, PARTNERSHIP
The Zacchaeus Foundation is one of more than 100 organizations that are PARTNERING with First Repair, a non-profit that is informing local reparations, nationally, led by Robin Rue Simmons.
We invite white people and churches to PARTNER with us by being PRESENT at events, PAYING 1% of their income to The Zacchaeus Fund, and PROMOTING the work (inviting other white people and churches to be PRESENT and PAY)
The Black / white wealth gap means that the average Black household has 10% of the wealth of the average white household. We invite white people and churches to invest 1% of their income in The Zacchaeus Fund for Black-led non-profits.
I am investing 1% of my income in the fund, my church (St. Paul’s) is investing 1% of our income in the fund, and I invite you to invest 1% of your income in the fund.
With hope for healing,
Lowell Taylor
Board Member, The Zacchaeus Foundation
info@thezacchaeusfoundation.org