By Shireen Korkzan
All Saints Episcopal Church in East Lansing, Michigan, has committed to donating at least $130,000 – half of the proceeds from the sale of its rectory – to help close the racial wealth gap in central Michigan.
The Rev. Kit Carlson, All Saints’ rector, told Episcopal News Service that the church in 2021 had started looking into doing reparations work in response to racial injustices.
At the same time, retired entomologist Willye Bryan founded the Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan, a nonprofit dedicated to removing racial disparities by establishing an endowment fund via donations from individuals, churches and other faith-based organizations.
Until the federal Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, realtors intentionally blocked Black buyers from purchasing homes in nearby Lansing, Michigan’s capital, resulting in a property wealth disparity that remains today.
Another factor was the discriminatory practice known as redlining, rooted in federal policies dating to the 1930s, in which banks nationwide were discouraged from lending to residents in neighborhoods deemed “hazardous” to investment, often because people of color lived there.
All Saints recently closed on the sale of its rectory for $260,000 and, with unanimous consent by the church’s vestry, pledged to give half, or $130,000, to the Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan’s reparations endowment, which will locally support Black homeownership and startups by Black entrepreneurs, as well as provide scholarships for Black students.
The donation from the rectory sale was part of a broader reparations plan that the vestry approved in May by vote. The church will donate the money to the Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan during a worship service scheduled for Aug. 20.
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