Kentucky Slave Owner’s Descendant Makes Six-Figure Reparations Donation To Nonprofit

The white descendent of a Kentucky slave owner donated a six-figure reparations payment to Louisville nonprofit Change Today, Change Tomorrow.

The donor recently inherited money for her 25th birthday, and after tracing her family’s wealth back to her great-grandfather, who enslaved six people. After making the discovery, the undergrad wanted to attempt to track down descendants of the people enslaved by her great-grandfather. Unsuccessful, she decided to support the nonprofit for what they do for the Black community in Kentucky. 

“It is a blessing for us but also definitely owed,” said Taylor Ryan, the nonprofit’s founder and executive director, at a press conference.

According to a press release from Change Today, Change Tomorrow, the donor wishes to remain anonymous.

“We have to be willing to part with what was stolen and do so without expectations of praise or control over how the money will be spent,” the unidentified donor told the nonprofit.

Change Today, Change Tomorrow plans to spend most of the donation on staff and sustain community outreach efforts. The rest will be put into reserves.

Director Nannie Grace Croney said they initially thought they were being “scammed,” saying, “So the initial emotion was like, ‘Oh this isn’t real,’ but once it was real, we knew that we had to act on it.”

“We knew that as disruptors and changemakers, we have to challenge other corporations, foundations, and individuals to really pay reparations back,” she added.