Texas Episcopalians Will Pay $13 Million in Racial Reparations

Compensating descendants of slaves is controversial, but the idea has gained traction in recent years. 

The Texas Episcopal Diocese says it will pay $13 million in reparations to descendants of slaves, one of several institutions that confess they once benefited from human bondage.

The Texas Diocese is based in Houston, one of the most diverse metros in the country. But the denomination is among the least racially diverse religious groups in the US. Slaves in 1839 built its first house of worship, Christ Episcopal Church in Matagorda, Texas.

The regional diocese, with $1.8 billion in assets, said it wants to atone for its past by channeling some of that money to various organizations supporting African Americans.

“It was an opportunity to do something positive in leadership, to show ways in which other funds can make a difference in an area where we find a lot of conflict—and where people want to see health and vitality around the race conversation,” said Andrew Doyle, bishop of the Texas Diocese, who is also chair for the diocese’ five foundations that oversee their investments. 

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The effort includes supporting scholarships at seminaries to support black leaders in the church, as well as funding for students at historically black colleges. It will also help fund community outreach through partnerships with the Equal Justice Initiative, the nonprofit responsible for building the lynching museum in Alabama. 

“What we envisioned was a way to create a gift that would amplify any dollars the congregation would give,” Doyle said in a statement. 

Some critics question the effectiveness of funds set aside in scholarships, versus a tax paid directly toward the descendants of slaves. And the idea that slavery reparations should be paid is controversial.

However, it’s a cause that’s recently gained traction at places like Georgetown University. Students at the school voted to tax themselves to create a fund for the descendants of the 272 slaves sold at an auction before the Civil War—a sum that was used to support the university at the time. 

Last year, the Virginia Theological Seminary followed suit by setting aside $1.7 million for a reparations fund. In October, the Princeton Theological Seminary created a $27 million fund for reparations. 

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Georgia Senate Passes Bill to Allow Teachers’ Pension to Invest in Alts

$78.9 billion pension fund would be permitted to invest as much as 5% of portfolio in alternatives.

The Georgia Senate has passed a bill that would allow the $78.9 billion Teachers Retirement System of Georgia to invest in alternative investments, despite criticism from some state lawmakers that the move would be too risky.

Georgia Senate Bill 294 would amend provisions relating to investments under the state’s public retirement systems standards law. It would change the definition of “eligible large retirement system” to remove the exclusion for the Teachers Retirement System. According to state law, alternative investments by an eligible large retirement system can’t exceed 5% of the retirement system’s assets at any time. The law defines “eligible large retirement system” as any state pension with more than $100 million in assets.

If the proposed bill becomes law, it would allow the system to invest, in aggregate, as much as $4 billion in a range of alternative investments, including leveraged buyout funds, mezzanine funds, workout funds, debt funds, merchant banking funds, funds of funds, and secondary funds.

However some state senators, such as Democratic Minority Leader Steve Henson, have said that now is not a good time to add the possibility of risk to the pension fund, as some economic forecasters have warned of a possible economic downturn in the near future.

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“I think the conservative path is to stay the course we have,” Henson said, according to Capitol Beat News Service. “I don’t think now is the time to jump into a riskier market.”

The bill is sponsored by Republican state Sen. Ellis Black, who said the pension fund’s investment managers could help the portfolio earn higher returns by adding alternatives to their investment strategy. Black said concerns about the bill were unfounded.

“You’ve got a whole spectrum of risk involved,” Black said, according to Capitol Beat. “A wise investor is going to have a balanced portfolio.”

TRS manages the retirement accounts of 262,000 active members and pays a monthly benefit to 128,000 retired members and survivors. As of June 30, the pension’s asset allocation was 52.9% in domestic equities, 23.2% in US treasuries, 17.3% in international equities, 6.1% in corporate and other bonds, and 0.5% in international obligations, corporates.

Having passed the state Senate, the bill will now be sent to the Georgia House of Representatives for consideration.

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