Painting depicting the erasure of the Linnentown community, with a beautiful Black American girl in the foreground, hand over her mouth.

#Reparations4Linnentown

Social Media Toolkit
#Reparations4Linnentown

Athens Reparations Action is leading #Reparations4Linnentown, a social media and communications campaign in October 2023 to help Athens recognize historic harm and work together toward repair through reparations for Linnentown first descendants. We are hoping everyone can post on October 30 about why they support reparations. Here we provide ideas and resources to help you craft posts.

Join the campaign in 3 easy steps:

Follow us on Instagram (@athrep22) and Facebook (@athensreparationsaction). Share, like and/or comment on our posts, old and new!
Copy and paste the suggested social media posts below, or develop your own customized posts to share out the content from your personal and/or organizational social media accounts.
Add the #Reparations4Linnentown and #athensreparationsaction tags to your posts. Consider other tags like: #UGAStudents4Reparations, #UGAStaff4Reparations that can energize your networks.

Need inspiration?

Have a look at these resources to get ideas:

Read Giving Voice to Linnentown. Take a photo or reel of yourself with the book, sharing your thoughts.
Read this NYT article on Linnentown. Think about what this national recognition of Linnentown means to you, and for Athens. What do you want people to know?
Read the 2022 UGA study detailing the financial losses from the seizure of Linnentown and the evidence descendants are owed $5 million today.
Think about ways UGA staff and students have engaged the story of Linnentown, through the Linnentown mosaic, or the School of Social Work Complex Cloth project. Help amplify these efforts within UGA and connect them with reparations.
See this historical timeline by the University of Amhurst Library of cases in which the federal, state or local governments delivered financial reparations to different groups from 1783-2023.
Film or photograph a walk through what used to be Linnentown. What does this place mean to you? What would you like to see done?
Photograph or film yourself in your ARA t-shirt. Don't have one? Email us at athensreparationsaction@gmail.com and we'll hook you up!

Suggested Tweets

Grab some of the text below, or get inspired and write your own:

Let's make history in Athens by being the first community to put money back in the hands of descendants of the Linnentown community. Join us! www.athensreparationsaction.com #Reparations4Linnentown #AthensReparationsAction

UGA erased Linnentown. Join us as we work to repair this harm through reparations www.athensreparationsaction.com #AthensReparationsAction #Reparations4Linnentown

We can't change history, but we can recognize harm and work to make it right. Reparations for Linnentown starts with us. www.athensreparationsaction.com #AthensReparationsAction #Reparations4Linnentown

Be a part of justice for the descendants of Black homeowners in Linnentown. www.athensreparationsaction.com #AthensReparationsAction #Reparations4Linnentown

Suggested Facebook or Instagram posts

As a student/faculty of UGA/resident of Athens, I walk through what used to Linnentown every day, and am haunted by the invisible, but palpable presence of the injustice perpetrated there. I can’t bring Linnentown back, but I can be a part of making sure there are no more Linnentowns in Athens. I am supporting Athens Reparations Action because I want to be a part of repairing the harm done and building a more just future.

#AthensReparationsAction
#Reparations4Linnentown
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Athens is my home. I have been able to buy a house, and put down roots in this community. Recently, I learned about the community of Linnentown, whose residents did the same thing. They bought homes and raised their children in a place they called home. But instead of being able to build on that wealth and pass it on to their children, they had to start over.

We can’t change history, but we can heal from it by taking action today. I stand in solidarity with the descendants of Linnentown and am supporting Athens Reparations Action in their efforts to raise money for reparations. By compensating those who bore the brunt of racist policies, we can take a vital step toward healing Athens and our national society.

www.athensreparationsaction.com

#AthensReparationsAction

#Reparations4Linnentown

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When I was a student at UGA, I lived in Brumby/Russell/Cresswell dorm. At the time I had no idea that a vibrant community had been destroyed in order to build the dorms, but now I do. In 1962, the City of Athens and UGA won a federal contract through the Federal Urban Renewal Program (Project GA R50) to demolish Linnentown, calling it “slum clearance.” The properties were condemned, and seized for as little as $2000, sending many families to public housing. The University and City demolished houses through controlled burns before homeowners’ very eyes in order to build Brumby, Russell, and Creswell Hall dorms.

Now that I know what my education cost my neighbors, I am committed to telling the story of Linnentown and helping repair this historical harm. Find out more and join me at athensreparationsaction.com

www.athensreparationsaction.com

#AthensReparationsAction

#Reparations4Linnentown

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Did you know that the 1988 Civil Liberties Act of 1988 gave surviving Japanese Americans $20,000 in direct payments and a formal apology by President Reagan for their incarceration during World War II? Reparations are not new, or unprecedented. Here in Athens, the descendants of Linnentown, a community erased by the city of Athens and the University of Georgia during the early 1960s, have worked tirelessly to tell their story and demand compensation. While they won recognition and redress under the Linnentown Resolution, the state constitution prohibits direct payments for the harm they experienced. That’s why I’m supporting @Athens Reparations Action to raise money for reparations payments to Linnentown first descendants. Let’s learn from the past, and make things right.

www.athensreparationsaction.com

#AthensReparationsAction

#Reparations4Linnentown

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Images to use

I am proud to be part of a community that recognizes when harm has been done and works to make it right. The City of Athens has recognized Linnentown descedants' right to redress in the 2020 Linnentown Resolution. They have approved and are funding the Center for Racial Justice and Black Futures (on the way in 2024) and set up the Justice and Memory Commision to make needed investments in infrastructure and programming. But the Georgia Constitution prohibits the City of Athens from paying compensation to Linenntown descendants for the seizure of their land. That's where #athensreparationsaction comes in. We are raising funds in the community to make direct payments to Linnentown descendants. This has not been done before in the USA. I want to be part of making history.

www.athensreparationsaction.com

#AthensReparationsAction

#Reparations4Linnentown

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The following images are publicly available and can be used in posts for this campaign. Please include photo credit if possible. (To use these images you can right-click to save them, or if you are on mobile press and hold on the image to save or share)