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Watch recording of Lunch with the League: The Case for Reparations

Published on 11/11/2022
Click here to view on YouTube

Our featured speaker is Nimbilasha Cushing, Vice President, South Bend Reparation Working Group (SBRWG). Monica Tetzlaff and GlendaRae Hernandez are also featured.

This month they spoke with us about Reparations and why they believe Reparations are called for. One definition of Reparations: the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury. This group is guided by their mission statement which is: to advocate for reparations at the local, state, and federal level as a way of acknowledging and repairing the harm caused by historic and current injustices experienced by African American descendants of slavery and its aftermath.

Nimbi, Monica, and GlendaRae talke about why SBRWG believe Reparations are due. HR 40 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1989 by late Congressman John Conyers, Jr. If passed the bill would allow for a commission to be established to study the need for reparations. While the federal government has not yet passed a reparations law, reparations have taken place in comparably small areas and entities in the past few years.


Speaker Bio: After her mother’s death, Nimbi lived with her maternal grandparents from age 3 to 14. They were sharecroppers in Tennessee and that became Nimbi’s occupation as well.
After graduation from High School, she enlisted in the Air Force and served one term of four years. After discharge, Nimbi attended a community college in Tacoma, Washington for almost two years. During her studies there, she was seeking employment with an airline as a stewardess as they were then called. The opportunity came in 1972, three months before she would have gotten an Associate’s degree in Business. From 1972 to 2003, she worked at the profession that she says was created for her. In her spare time, she took several courses at IUSB.
After taking early retirement from United Airlines, she worked in sales at Marshall Fields, in Security at Saint Mary’s College, and also for Palmer Funeral Homes.
She has one grandchild, 16-year-old Paulo in San Antonio.
Nimbi moved to South Bend in 1980 from the Washington DC area. She is known in the community as one who whenever possible, says yes to any cause she finds worthwhile. In addition to being a League member, she is a member of Christ Child Society, Knute-Rockne Kiwanis, and South Bend Reparations Working Group. She is also deeply engaged in her church