Spiritual Reparations Project

UUCC collects financial reparations for the performance of Negro Spirituals, and has done so since April 24, 2022.  For details about giving reparations for Negro Spirituals, see https://congregationalsong.org/reparations-royalty-pilot-program/

Why Reparations for Negro Spirituals?

The creators of Negro Spirituals did not receive compensation for their works, adding to the many other acts of trans-generational economic marginalization heaped on them and their communities.

Additionally, when majority-white congregations perform Spirituals, it can be an act of “cultural misappropriation.”   Virtually all modern music is a blend of many cultures, but if music is wrested from members of marginalized cultures, and if the original meanings of the music are casually ignored or mocked, these blends take on a hurtful, oppressive element.  Paying reparations for the performance of these Spirituals is a drop in the bucket, but it’s a start to rectifying the harm.

Paying reparations for the destructive legacy of enslavement is a controversial topic in the USA, but it shouldn’t be.  We need to make whole what we, as a nation, broke.  Only then can we move forward in right relationship with each other.  Reparations are not charity – they are the repayment of a moral and humanitarian debt that human beings and institutions owe to one another, enabling us to move forward together.

How the Spiritual Reparations Project works

• Each time a spiritual is sung in worship, either by the congregation as a whole or by a vocal ensemble or choir, a reparations basket is placed in the sanctuary on the hymnal bookcase in the rear of the room. Attendees are free to donate to the reparations fund by placing cash or checks into this special basket, or by making a donation on the online Realm Giving Form (select “Music-Reparations” as the Fund in the dropdown field).
• Our Spirituals Reparations Team is Michael Adcock (Director of Music Ministry), Jenny Afkinich, Laurie Coltri, John Harris, Pam Henry, and Glennor Shirley. This committee selected a recipient organization in August, 2022.  The recipient organization was chosen because of the close-by community that it serves, and because it can support repairing intergenerational harm to the descendants of the music’s creators and original.
• In worship, some information about the origins and original meanings of the song is made available, so that we can better respect the originators of these songs, those contemporaries who sang them, and the descendants of these persons.
• We’re also keeping an archive of the works we’ve sung. Please feel free to browse the archive, below, to learn more about this sacred music.

About the Recipient Organization

From its inception, UUCC’s Negro Spirituals Reparations Project was intended to be dynamic, selecting local recipient organizations that best embody the intention to repair the intergenerational harm caused by enslavement and White Supremacy Culture.

The project’s first recipient in 2022-2025 was the Community Concert Choir of Baltimore, whose mission is to “preserve and promote the sacred music tradition of the African American church.” We are deeply grateful to have been able to begin our work in collaboration with this eminent organization.

2025-2026 have been difficult years for the work of racial justice, and has featured frontal attacks on inclusiveness in portraying American History. These challenges demand adaptation and change, and accordingly our Reparations Committee in 2026 selected a new recipient of reparations, HoCo Roots Revisited. A member of the Community Services Partnership of Howard County, HoCo Roots Revisited is dedicated to researching, collecting, and publishing/showcasing information concerning the history of African Americans in the county that have been left out of historical narratives. This nonprofit began as Howard County Lynching Truth & Reconciliation, Inc., which was the local organization uncovering the accurate lynching history in connection with the state’s mandated examination by commission. The nonprofit quickly expanded to include the historical context of the county in which lynching was tolerated, and changed its name in 2025 to more accurately reflect its actual activities.

The Committee determined that HoCo Roots Revisited fulfills a vital role in unearthing, maintaining, and publishing a complete local historical record of enslaved and free people of African descent. We are hoping that our reparations can help this worthy organization strengthen its efforts.

Negro Spirituals represent a vital element of American History. We believe that performing them, even by predominantly white choirs — if sung with respect for the original composers and singers, and including information about their original meanings and contexts — can help preserve, protect, and leverage this history to create a just future. The emotions these songs stir can build empathy, energy, and a sense of accountability for the needed work of building the Beloved Community.

You and the Spiritual Reparations Project

Your decision about whether to contribute, and how much to put in the basket, is an opportunity to ponder what you receive from hearing or singing these wonderful songs, as well as your relationship to White Supremacy culture.  And it is a chance to start building your own muscle of reparative justice-making.  We hope that you will not make payment for reparations a performative act of signaling your virtue.  Let it instead be a private personal struggle on your spiritual journey, an act of joy and healing, and one small step in our larger collective action to dismantle a racist system.

Questions About the Project

Contact the Project organizers: Michael Adcock, Director Music Ministry, michael@uucolumbia.net, or Laurie Coltri, lay volunteer, lscoltri@verizon.net.

About the image behind this page title: This image is a wall mural painted by a Cambridge, Maryland artist, Nancy Webb, for the Harriet Tubman Organization. It can be seen at the organization’s museum and education center at 424 Race Street, Cambridge, Maryland 21613. On the web, the mural is cropped to fit the space available.