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On November 11, 2022, I finished a 48-state car ride with flights to Alaska and Hawaii. I visited all 50 governor offices in hopes of shining light on a much too slow reparations movement for indigenous people ( particularly descendants of chattel slavery) in the United States of America. I delivered a main street proposal for reparations to each governor. Now I am continuing my quest for reparations by addressing all 24 states with proposals completed or in progress as listed by a study from Amherst Massachusetts. I will be hopefully encouraging unity in all groups to present one proposal to the federal government by August 26th in Washington DC. During this continued movement I will be intentionally addressing or attempting to address the 30-plus states which have issued bans on Critical Race Theory from K-12, and post-secondary, including colleges, and universities funded by federal and state monies. I shall visit as many educational institutions and speak to students and staff.
I need your help to accomplish this.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter…”
Martin Luther King Jr.
As of August 18, 2022, I have visited 31 state capitols and requested acknowledgment of slavery with a proposal left in the office of the Governor. Only three capitols asked for it mailed to the governor due to Covid (California, New Mexico, and anthrax (Nashville, Tennessee). It has been an exhilarating and educational ride. I now enter the last phase of the ride, the eastern seaboard. Meeting such distinguished individuals as Jane Elliott and the first people. I continue to spread the word of reparations, but I still need your help to complete the $4800 required for gas, lodging and food. My funds were strongly impacted by a car accident in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 19th. It did not stop my ride; I placed over 8000 miles on a rental car to complete the 31 states. Now I go back to pick up my car and continue this journey. I am still hoping that many of you will continue to follow me on Facebook live, Instagram, and youtube. As I state on my live feeds, "Doing Nothing is not an option!" Please send letters and emails to your senators, representatives and our president supporting reparations for the First people and descendants of enslaved people in these United States. We, the people, must be the united people now. Please help in all the ways you can. I am still hoping for physical cars to follow me into Washington DC in mid-September.
My name is Vilena Briggs I am a 72-year-old African American woman who is raising funds for a car trip which was to start in New Orleans to interview Lawrence Brook, a 112-year-old Veteran of World War II who was trying to get the GI Bill of WWII reinstated so that his daughter could attend college at Tulane university under GI benefits denied him then. He, unfortunately, passed away before I could reach him. I will continue my car journey to each capital of all 50 states. I will stop at the capitol and request an apology for the atrocities of slavery from each governor. I will present a proposal to the governor outlining the Reparation Initiative based on our present Veterans Administration. The funds requested will be used for gas, lodging, food, and 2 round-trip airline tickets to Hawaii and Alaska. This fundraiser is to end at our nation's capital, where I pray to present the governor's apologies to our president and an oversized check stating insufficient funds from Doctor Martin Luther King's march on Washington in 1963. I hope that many will join me on this historic ride for reparations. Let us pray that our sitting president will then issue an apology long overdue to the African American descendants of enslaved people and receipt a proposal for resolving the payments due to us.
- In January 2022, I was inspired naturally and spiritually to start a ride throughout all 50 states to place a face on reparations. I was born in 1950, a baby boomer. Still, probably one of few that remember the great great grandmother or father vividly that lived through the horrors of Jim crow and lynching's in the south before the great migrations to northern cities; you see, I had been given a new car as a blessing. From a prayer delivered over two years before. The car had to be used for spiritual reasons while walking my deceased son's Yorkie.I had to stop on hwy 301 here in Tampa. The sadness and ache in my chest. No, it was not a heart attack. It was the wailing of the many victims of Jim crow. I picked up Bruno and I felt weeping as the thoughts of the mothers, sisters, etc who were, if not the victim then the witness to the horror and terror of the lynched and burned victims before them. I knew then that the first words were Oh My God, please help us. God states in his word, 1000 years is like unto 1 day for him...so 400 years is less than half a day for him. So as he heard my request. He heard theirs also. So every day since 1/3/22, I have attempted this ride. Everything seems to have stopped me, mainly illness, covid predominately,. Then a mass in my right leg. But I am resisting everything now except this call to say the names or cities, and states of these victims. I know there are senators and private organizations talking, writing, and debating the need for reparations. I know that, but I am a 72-year-old great-grandmother, praying woman, and child of God who was given the silver Gator(the name I gave my car) to take main street and survivors of slaves and its atrocities to the state and, finally the federal government. Hopefully, with God's grace, the governors will give me their apologies which I will take to the president. I represent main street and the voiceless in all the years of denied rights and protections. I go back to the bank of justice and say you are not bankrupt;, you must honor the promissory note called the constitution, which Martin Luther King spoke of. It is time, now right now. So please let my vanilla sisters and my African American brothers and sisters hear your voices be heard. Please support me and all movements seeking reparations for disenfranchised people made less than human for profit.