Nelson, Moorhead Represent Territory At International Reparations Summit In New York

New York — Hundreds of reparations advocates, activists, and leaders from throughout the Diaspora of African descent are gathering in New York City this week (April 9-12) for a historic Reparations Summit.

The US Virgin Islands is being represented at the summit by Senator Terrence “Positive” Nelson and African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) President Mr. Shelley Moorhead, who has for the last decade led the Virgin Islands reparations movement.

According to a press release issued on Thursday, the purpose of the Summit is to advance discussion and debate around reparations issues and to provide a platform for advocates from around the world to support and reinforce each other’s campaigns. The event is being hosted by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) and the recently established National African-American Reparations Commission (NAARC), comprising some of the leading scholars, activists, attorneys and historians in Black America and follows closely on the establishment of a European Reparations Commission.

L-R ACRRA President Shelley Moorhead, Congressman John Conyers sponsor of the House’s Reparations bill H.R. 40 – May 2014, Capitol Building Washington, D.C.

“Tomorrow (April 11) will mark exactly 10 years to the day that ACRRA signed the historic Memorandum of Understanding for reparations with the Danish Institute for Human Rights,” said Moorhead, noting the significance of the territory’s participation in the summit.

“That Senator Nelson and I were in Denmark with a handful of other Virgin Islands leaders to open reparations talks 10 years ago today, and that now on the 10th anniversary of that historic reparations delegation we are here again representing the territory on this issue is not a matter of coincidence,” Moorhead added.

Speaking to the continuity of the Legislature’s partnership with ACRRA on the issue of reparations, Senator Nelson said, “That we are here today demonstrates the senate’s commitment to the issue of reconciliation between the USVI and Denmark with respect to these colonial issues.

“After 10 years of engagement, it demonstrates the territory’s ability to provide vision and leadership internationally as regards reparations and it illustrates ACRRA’s commitment to the process of reparative justice for the people of the US Virgin Islands.”

The three-day summit is to be held across three of New York’s five boroughs – Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, and will feature keynote speakers such as Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), who is a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the longest serving Congressman in the US House of Representatives, and the sponsor of reparations legislation H.R. 40, Civil Rights leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Mireille Fanon, chair of the UN Working Group of Experts on Peoples of African Descent and daughter of Frantz Fanon, the Black liberation theoretician from Martinique.

Funding for Moorhead and Nelson’s participation in the summit is being provided jointly by the Office of Senate President Neville James and the Office of Senator Terrence “Positive” Nelson.

Photo: L-R ACRRA President Shelley Moorhead, Congressman John Conyers sponsor of the House’s Reparations bill H.R. 40 – May 2014, Capitol Building Washington, D.C.