New York City lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill to study the city’s significant role in slavery and consider providing reparations to descendants of enslaved people.
If the package of bills passed by the City Council is signed into law, it would follow in the footsteps of many other municipalities across the United States that have sought ways to address the country’s dark history, as well as New York State Separate Commission Which started operating this year.
New York completely abolished slavery. In 1827But companies, including the predecessors of some modern banks, continued to Benefit financially From the slave trade—most likely until 1866. Lawmakers behind the proposals noted that the harms caused by the institution still affect black Americans today.
“The reparations movement is often misunderstood as simply a call for reparations,” Councilwoman Farah Lewis, a Democrat who sponsored one of the bills, told the City Council on Thursday. She explained that systemic forms of oppression still affect people through racial discrimination, environmental racism and underfunded services in predominantly black neighborhoods.
The bills still need to be signed by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams. The City Council expressed its support in a statement calling the legislation “another critical step toward addressing systemic inequalities, promoting reconciliation, and creating a more just and equitable future for all New Yorkers.”
The bills would direct the city’s Commission on Racial Equality to propose ways to address the legacy of slavery, including reparations. They would also create a truth and reconciliation process to establish the historical facts about slavery in the state.
Among the proposals the city might ask for is to install a sign on Wall Street in Manhattan to mark the location. First slave market in New Yorkwhich operated between 1711 and 1762. A nearby marker was placed in 2015, but Attorney General Juman D. Williams, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said its location was inaccurate.
The committee will work with State CommitteeThe government committee is also considering the possibility of compensation. The committee, which held its first public meeting in late July, is expected to issue a report in early 2025. The city’s efforts won’t need to issue recommendations until 2027.
The city committee was created from 2021 Racial Justice Initiative During the administration of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, it also recommended that the city track cost-of-living data and add a commitment to address “past and ongoing harms” to the preamble to the city charter.
“Your call and your ancestors’ call for reparations has not gone unheeded,” Linda Tijani, executive director of the Commission for Racial Equality, said at a news conference before the council vote.
A financial impact analysis of the bills estimated the cost of the studies at about $2.5 million.
New York is the latest city to consider reparations. Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a notorious massacre of black residents occurred in 1921, A similar committee was announced last month..
Evanston, Illinois, has become the first city to offer compensation to Black population and their descendants in 2021Including the distribution of some payments of $25,000 in 2023, according to PBSEligibility is determined based on harm to the City as a result of discriminatory housing policies or practices.
San Francisco approved the compensation in February, but the mayor later cut the money, saying That compensation It should instead be implemented by the federal government. California has allocated $12 million to Compensation Program This included helping black people trace their origins, but it was defeated in the state legislature. This month.