The idea behind Power Hour is simple:

Show up! Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, this event is specifically for you.

Be nourished! Food and drinks will be provided by Brown Hope and the business sponsor.

Receive $35 in cash as reparations, paid for in part by racially privileged folks.

Build power! Every Power Hour will feature a 40 minute discussion about a local and relevant policy topic for us to collectively to weigh in on.

Racially privileged people can support by GIVING reparations. Instead of physically attending, your presence will be felt through your active financial support for healing, leadership, and community building within Portland’s black, brown, and indigenous community.

$35 will support the leadership of one community member, and you are strongly encouraged to donate for more than one participant. Monthly donations are very much needed to sustain the Power Hours and other programs of Brown Hope.

Why Reparations?

In 2016, the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, which includes leading human rights lawyers from around the world, presented its case in support of reparations. "In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent," the report stated. "Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching."

Every year since 1989, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act has been submitted to the US Congress, which calls for comprehensive research into the nature and financial impact of African enslavement as well as the ills inflicted on black people during the Jim Crow era.

“When people think about reparations, they immediately think about people who've been dead for 100 years.”

–Ta-Nehisi Coates

For more information, please email: powerhour@brownhope.org

We’ve updated our participation policy for virtual meetings. In addition to having cameras on during the meeting, participation in Zoom breakout sessions will be mandatory. Folks will have 1 min notice to speak/send a message in chat with a response to the facilitator’s question before being moved to the waiting room and marked ineligible for payment.