The state's Reparations Council is continuing its public outreach sessions to explore the history and impact of slavery in New Jersey.

The council's Faith and Black Resistance Committee recently held the third installment of the hearings and focused on the rarely discussed role of organized religion supporting New Jersey's slave trade.

Senior political correspondent David Cruz reports.

It's worth noting that New Jersey was the southernmost of the northern states, and as such, was geographically well positioned to take advantage of the economic value of enslaved people.

It was also the last northern state to abolish slavery.

It was in that context that Faith and Black Resistance, a committee within the New Jersey Reparations Council, held its third public session recently.

The topic of discussion.

There was the historical role organized religion played in supporting the slave trade.

Charles Boyer is the director of Salvation and Social Justice and the committee co-director.

So whether that's the Presbyterian Church, the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran church, the Catholic Church, many religious educational institutions like seminaries and many others all benefited from enslaved labor in some way, whether it was members of clergy or the churches themselves, slaves owning enslaved black people or the churches receiving taxes and tithes from congregants in the form of props, farm and by enslaved people or money earned by slave owners.

The wealth of these churches, which they still benefit from today, these denominations, these beautiful cathedrals and these endowments which are in place which keep many of them alive, is inextricable, intertwined with the slave trade.

This is a range of of culpable behaviors, a range of supporting behaviors.

And there will be folks who are thinking, I never thought about church church tithes on the backs of enslaved people as being the church supporting, supporting slavery.

It now is the time for us to think about that and to talk about that.

It was in response to that that the A.M.E. African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in New Jersey and other states, noted Boyer.

The Council is the creation of the New Jersey Institute of Social Justice, formed in response to the slow pace and reluctance on the part of state government to take on the discussion of reparations, including the WHO and the how of it.

Ryan Haygood is the president and CEO The New Jersey Reparations Council, is finally confronting and working to repair the enduring harm from New Jersey's deep and often overlooked institution of slavery and its enduring impact on the contemporary life of black people in our state.

With partners that include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Rutgers Law School, the Council will release a report on Juneteenth of 2025 with recommendations which they hope lawmakers will use to deliberate on how a system of reparations could be implemented in New Jersey.

David Cruz NJ Spotlight News.