Vice President Kamala Harris’ longtime pastor and mentor could be a key player in the reparations push on the federal level if she wins the presidential election on Tuesday.
Rev. Amos Brown, who has made several controversial comments, including blaming the United States for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was appointed by California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve as the vice chair of the state’s reparations task force in 2021 and has called for a reparations push on the federal level.
In 2022, Brown hosted an event at his church called “Solidarity for Reparations,” which included the controversial Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III.
Brown, who Harris previously said has “been on this journey with me every step of the way, from when I first thought about running for public office almost two decades ago” and has traveled with her to different events, introduced Haynes as a “son of Third Baptist” and the “right man to come and to inspire us, inform us, and make sure that we have the map to implement in all that we might make reparations a reality not in the sweet by-and-by, but right down here in the here and now.”
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“America, you owe us. What you done to us has been immoral. It’s been evil. It’s been unjust. It’s been downright wrong and the only way to bring salvation to America – you gotta pay us what you owe us,” Haynes said at Brown’s church. “I’ve come by to say San Francisco, California, Texas, United States of America, if you want salvation to come to this house, you’ve got to engage in reparations.”
Haynes’ comments received high praise from Brown, who told the congregation “What a wonder. What a word. What a challenge.” He then told all the members of the San Francisco reparations task force in the crowd to “implement what our preacher has so eloquently stated in undescribable words. I told you you would receive information. You got all the inspiration you need. Now it’s time for implementation.”
During an event last year, Brown said those opposed to reparations are “heartless.”
“If anyone says ‘Y’all don’t deserve nothing. Stop complaining. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,’” he said. “I contend they are heartless, and they don’t know anything about that dictum that’s found in all of the world religions. What is that dictum?: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
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While Brown has warned activists about putting a monetary value on reparations, saying some of the numbers he has seen are “not rational” or “practical” and could lead to them being “stuck in quagmire and a skunk fight,” Brown said that if other groups are getting money, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
Harris has been pressed on reparations multiple times this year but has stopped short of fully endorsing reparations and instead has said she thinks the issue should be “studied.”
“I am running to be a president for all Americans. That being said, I do have clear eyes about the disparities that exist and the context in which they exist, meaning history, to your point. So my agenda, well, first of all, on the point of reparations, it has to be studied,” Harris said last month during a high-profile interview with Charlamagne Tha God. “There’s no question about that. And I’ve been very clear about that position in terms of my immediate plan,”
During a conversation with members of the National Association of Black Journalists in September, she was asked whether she would establish a commission to study reparations, but she deflected and instead suggested that “Congress ultimately will have the ability to do this work.”
However, during her failed 2019 presidential campaign, Harris told The Root that she believes “there has to be some form of reparations” for Black Americans.
In a follow-up question about whether she would be willing to lead a national conversation on what reparations look like for Black people, she said, “Yeah, including things like what we should be doing to take very seriously undiagnosed and untreated trauma.” She also said she would sign now-deceased Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s H.R. 40 bill, which would form a commission to study reparations for descendants of slaves, if it passed and came across her desk.
In addition to Harris’ pastor, several Black activists and advocacy groups supporting her presidential campaign have openly called for reparations and would likely play a role in a national push.
Ron Busby, the longtime president of the U.S. Black Chambers and a powerful ally of Harris, has repeatedly called for reparations. In 2020, Busby fumed, “If you can write a $2 trillion check to small business suffering from a pandemic, you can damn sure have a conversation about reparations.”
“It’s on the table now. It’s a real conversation,” added Busby, who Harris has praised as an “extraordinary leader” who exhibits “courageous leadership.”
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Busby, who has visited the Biden-Harris White House dozens of times, has also advocated for reparations through his Black Chambers organization. The group’s 2023 “BLACKprint” called for providing “reparations through investment and demonstrate a commitment to uplift Black enterprises.”
“As seen throughout the last several years, the growing discussion around reparations signals a renewed commitment to enter a new chapter in race relations. It comes, however, at a time when rhetoric and action threaten to deepen division,” the group’s annual report said. “We believe the concept of reparations is less a monetary payment and more so a dedication to an expansion and implementation of the priorities of this document when paired with intentional, growth, and equity-driven policies for Black businesses.”
Harris “hosted an exclusive reception at her private residence” in July of this year in partnership with U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., and featured Busby, who said the reception was a “powerful acknowledgment of the remarkable progress Black business leaders have achieved in shaping our nation’s economic landscape.”
The Black Voters Matters Fund, which received $150,000 from the Harris campaign on Sept. 19 and has been campaigning for Harris, has repeatedly called for reparations.
“We deserve to be compensated for the literal blood, sweat and tears our ancestors were forced to put into this country,” Black Voters Matters Fund posted in May. In another post last year, the group called reparations “crucial for acknowledging past injustices and moving towards a more just and equitable future.”
The group’s co-founder, Latosha Brown, who has been a frequent visitor to the Biden-Harris White House, has repeatedly posted about the group’s reparations push and said in a 2021 X post that she has been working on the issue for 27 years.
Black Church PAC, which also received $150,000 from the Harris campaign last month and is involved with “Get Out The Vote” efforts in at least three swing states, has several preachers on its board who have called for reparations including Rev. Michael McBride, who praised a $15 trillion plan that was proposed by Jennifer Epps-Addison, a self-proclaimed “Radical Truth Teller.”
Disgraced Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory, whose group has been partnering with the Black Church PAC, in Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, recently defended Harris against critics who claim Harris does not support reparations enough, saying she has heard Harris say “over and over again” that she supports reparations.
Pastor Jamal Bryant, who is also on the board, posted on Instagram last month that it was a “monumental moment” that he and another pastor walked from Baltimore to the White House to “bring attention to the administration that black people deserve #reparations for 400 years of oppression.”
“We are the only marginalized group in America that hasn’t been compensated,” he added. “We went 42 miles because we never got 40 acres! Even if it’s not on the ballot it needs to be on the agenda!”
Harris recently praised Bryant while visiting his Georgia-based megachurch last month.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign and Rev. Brown for comment.
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