The empowering story of a Kansas City teen mom who became a voice for Black reparations

This interview is part of the second season of Voices of Kansas City, a project created in collaboration with KKFI Community Radio to highlight the experiences of Kansas Citians making an impact on the community. All the episodes are available at the KKFI.org site https://kkfi.org/program/voices-of-kansas-city/ and listen to KKFI live on 90.1 FM, or at KKFI.org. Do you know someone who should be featured in a future season of Voices of Kansas City? Tell us about them using this form.

Nearly every time Janay Reliford, who chairs the Kansas City Reparations Coalition, is out and about at events around the city, she is literally wearing evidence of her Black pride, assuring there will be no mistaking where her passions lie. Usually she is adorned with some combination of a head wrap, earrings and a dashiki ( a colorful tunic worn mostly in West Africa and made popular in the U.S. during the 1960s), or a sweat shirt or “T” shirt with some positive Afrocentric expression emblazoned across the front. Her attire pairs perfectly with the smile she also flashes proudly.

Reliford’s smile and Black pride are two things she had to learn. She found both with the help of family and friends who supported her as an unmarried teen mom taking care of her child while getting her education and building a reputation in Kansas City as a citizen whose passion is service to others. That and striving to repair the harms historically done, through systemic and overt racism to Black Americans. Her story is powerful and relevant. That’s why The Star invited Reliford to join us in the studios of KKFI radio where she recently spoke to Mará Rose Williams, The Star’s assistant managing editor for race and equity. That interview, with minor editing for space and clarity, is published here in a question and answer format to share Reliford’s authentic voice.

Meet Janay Reliford

The Star: Janay we want to hear all about the Kansas City Reparations Coalition, but first, is there something else you do? Do you have another job?

Reliford: No, I do not have a 9-to-5. It seems more like a 24-7 kind of thing that I have going on, which makes it difficult to find balance with all the things that I have going on. But along with my role with the Kansas City Reparations Coalition, I also am the CEO and founder of Camp CHOICE, which is a life enrichment resource for youth and families. CHOICE stands for Children Having Opportunities In Creating Environment.

That means the choices we make create the environment we find ourselves in. On top of that, I am also the program and fundraising coordinator for the Yvonne Stark Wilson Park with Heart of the City, Dunbar neighborhood. I’s through the AmeriCorps program.

I’m an AmeriCorps VISTA worker in the historic Dunbar neighborhood to raise money for this park that is named after Senator Yvonne Starks Wilson. And I’m also engaged with a lot of other wonderful community organizations that I volunteer for.

So how would you sum up all of these projects that you’re working on into one title?

I would call myself a community servant.

I love that. What is your goal with each of these? Are they different, or is it all about creating a better quality of life for every individual?

That’s a great question because while some of them may have uniqueness about them, they are all connected in some way. And I would say that my ultimate goal is to help enhance the quality of life for others. So for my youth camp, I want young people from all walks of life to understand the power of their choices so they can have a better quality of life.

Are you from Kansas City originally?

I am. I grew up right off 39th Street; My childhood home is at 39th (Street) and Tracy (Avenue). I went to Westport High School and I’m a product of Project Choice, which is a scholarship program through the (Ewing Marion) Kauffman Foundation that afforded me the opportunity to go to college.

I got my bachelor’s degree from Central Missouri State, and then my master’s program I did with KU (University of Kansas).

So what about your upbringing in Kansas City and your education in Kansas City led you on the path to become such a community servant?

So my mother passed away when I was 15. I always say the two great things she did for me before she passed away was she first gave me a spiritual foundation. She taught me about Christ. And, she signed me up for that scholarship program. She did that literally months before she passed away.

Also, when my mother passed away, I got pregnant immediately. The same month.. And that experience of becoming a teenage mom really shaped my desire to want to start Camp CHOICE.

Tell me a little bit about being a teenage mom. Tell me about that challenge.

Well, it was awful and it was a blessing at the same time. Of course, any mom would want to welcome their child. But being a teenage mom I wasn’t in the mindset to be able to be happy about my pregnancy, and especially about being a single mom. So that was hard. And I felt I was an embarrassment.

And that will kind of make me cry because I’m the oldest of four, and our grandparents took us in. They came and got us when my mother passed away in a car accident. So it was very sudden. And our grandparents, like they made a huge sacrifice to take us. And then for the fact of me getting pregnant right after that. To add to that, I mean, that was embarrassing.

I can see how emotional this story is for you. That feeling that you had, that you felt embarrassed, did that also give you some extra drive to be successful.

It absolutely did. And also, remembering my mothers words when she was signing me up for that program. Because my mother was pregnant with me at 15 and she dropped out of high school. But she went on to get her GED. So when she was signing me up for that program, she just turned around and looked at me and she said, “You’re going to go to college.” It stuck with me.

That was very important to you. So how did you juggle? Did your grandparents help you with the child and you work too, so that you could get your education? Or were there some outside agencies and organizations that also stepped up to help you?

It was all of that. It does take a village. So I could not have gotten through without my family. But there was an aunt in particular who would stay the week over to my grandparents and go home on the weekends to help my grandparents.

And then when I ended up getting pregnant, this same aunt was helping me with my babies. And then just all kinds of people in the community programs. I went on Section eight. I was on all that government assistance. And thanks be to God, I was able to work my way off of those assistance programs and stand on my own two feet.

It’s a beautiful thing that you had that kind of a network around you. But I’m thinking that struggle is what has powered you to become the kind of social worker that you are today.

I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about it like that, but I think you’re right. But I don’t know where I would be without that college degree and I mean, they (Project Choice) took teens through, you know, all kinds of career assessments to help us figure out what we might be good at. And that’s where I came up with the thought of being a social worker. I just knew that I wanted to help people.

Right? If you don’t see the career path, you don’t realize that it exists. How much of what you experienced as a single mom and then also the loss of your mom, the wrapping arms around you that your family and community did, translated to you as a mom?

I think that translates to me as a mother, knowing that my children need the same support that I received. I definitely did everything that I could to ensure that. I have two sons, they’re 31 and 28 now, and I have grandchildren as well. I have one granddaughter and two grand babies on the way. I’m learning that nurturing never ends, right?

Well, tell us a little bit about what you’re doing with the city now as the chair of the Kansas City Reparations Coalition. People have been talking about reparations for many years. Tell us what exactly is that, reparations? For whom and for what.

Reparations, as simple definition, is repair for harm. So reparations can apply to many different things. But this in particular is repair for harm that was done to a specific group of people. African-Americans are who we’re fighting for. As you know, other ethnic groups have been harmed, have had crimes against humanity bestowed upon them by America, and they have received reparations so it’s definitely past time for African Americans to receive reparations. No other group in this country has undergone chattel slavery. But unfortunately, with African-Americans, there hasn’t been any (reparations/repair). And the anti-blackness that was created, that message that we’re less than human., it lives today.

Right. So what kind of reception are you getting?

I would definitely say it is mostly positive. But there is still so much educating to do. I mean, even for me.

So when you talk about reparations, I think that most people immediately think its a big fat check from the government. Is that what we’re talking about? Or are there other forms of reparations?

There are lots of forms of reparations. And I definitely want the community to understand there is way more than a check because the harm was way more than economic. There is psychological damage that was done, being done, because anti-black racism runs deep. It’s something like a disease because it’s passed down through the generations.

And really killing racism is really the highest form of reparations that we can achieve. But aside from that, you know, there’s land, there’s education, there’s entrepreneurship, health care. There are all kinds of ways that African Americans can receive healing and repair from the damage.

What do you say to those people who say, my gosh, slavery was hundreds of years ago, that there have been laws passed that give African-Americans the same rights as everyone else? We should just get over that.

I would implore them to think deeper and have more compassion, because, first of all, as I stated, it wasn’t so long ago. It’s today. People definitely can’t say just get over that because it still impacts the lives of African-Americans daily.

How important is the process of educating people?

It is top priority. So there is a distinction made between the Kansas City Reparations Coalition and the mayor’s Commission on Reparations. Their role, the commission’s role, is to get the research done. They won’t necessarily be the ones doing the research, but they have to organize all that gets done, and then they have to develop proposals that will repair the harm in five injury areas.

Those injury areas are housing, health care, education, criminal justice, business and economics. Business and economics are one, right? . Our role as the coalition is to educate the community on what reparations are and what they are not, and to get the community engaged in the reparations movement.

And that is so important because I think that’s the way to change the hearts and the minds of people. That’s the way to cure racism, is if people are educated on it. I don’t see how anybody can continue to not be for reparations if they really have an understanding of the journey that African Americans have had and that they can see that there are residual effects.

Where did your passion for this movement come from?

This is where I might cry again because I believe God, chose me for this. I believe all of us in this movement, were chosen. I truly believe that there’s a time and a place for everything, you know, Ecclesiastic. I don’t know the exact scripture, but He talks about a time for everything. And I believe now is the time for reparations.

And I believe I was born to be in this movement. Mickie Dean, who was with the National Black United Front, put out the invitation for lots of other black-led entities to join this coalition. And so I was with Sankofa For Kansas City at the time.

Sankofa is from the language of Ghana, and it means go back and fetch you. Go back and get those things that you have left behind that you need for the journey ahead. So the mission of Sankofa is to get people in the community out of their silos and working together.

It sounds to me like this is an extension of your community servant mindset. Do you see it that way?

I absolutely do. I have so much hope and so much vision for what we can be.

if someone wants to get involved with the reparations movement how would they do that?

They can go to our website, kcreparationscoalition.com.