Invest in a thriving Northside where Black families, neighborhoods and businesses prosper for generations.
The Reparations Investment Company is a bold new initiative to rebuild North St. Louis through community-driven renovation that contends with gentrification.
Ona Zené Yeshitela, Board President of the African People’s Education and Defense Fund
The Black community of North St. Louis is a heroic community, with a proud history of struggle for political and economic power. Yet for decades our people have been targeted by disinvestment, predatory development, and a system designed to keep Black people locked out of economic life.
In response, we created the Reparations Investment Company (RIC)—a bold initiative to build what we call ‘renovation that contends with gentrification.’
We are working to build a North St. Louis where our community can thrive again, where beautiful homes are restored, families raise their children in safety and prosperity, businesses flourish, parks and green spaces are enjoyed by all, and multi-generational families live and grow together.
Our message is clear: a new world under construction. We invite you to join the growing community of volunteers and investors today!
Did you know you can invest in build a Black-led program to end gentrification?
That is the vision behind the Reparations Investment Company. As the newest expansion of the Black Power Blueprint, co-sponsored by the African People’s Education and Defense Fund, RIC reclaims development in the hands of the Black community.
This is investment with a purpose, funding the acquisition and renovation of homes that will be sold or rented to sustain a positive social impact while generating a financial return.
Resources generated from RIC recirculate within the African community, reinvested into programs that expand renovation and development across the Northside.
A new world is under construction. You can be a part of building it.
Start your investment today.
For generations, North St. Louis has faced the consequences of deliberate disinvestment and neglect. Once-thriving neighborhoods were stripped of resources and infrastructure, leaving families surrounded by abandoned homes, collapsing buildings, and blocks that had been left to deteriorate.
In May 2025, an EF-3 tornado tore through North St. Louis, ripping roofs from houses, shattering windows, and damaging thousands of homes. Families who had already endured decades of policy-driven decay of their neighborhoods were forced to confront yet another wave of destruction.
The Reparations Investment Company was created to repair the damage of this legacy of injustice. Reparations means restoring communities, expanding community ownership and creating genuine economic development by and for the African community.
RIC is the newest expansion of the Black Power Blueprint, which has been restoring properties and building community programs on the Northside since 2017.
The Black Power Blueprint is buying abandoned, dilapidated buildings, initiating a rapid process of restoration or demolition and re-allocation of land to create community-generated, self-reliance programs that uplift the residents and engage them socially, politically and economically in the future of our community!
