On Thursday, New York City lawmakers passed a bill to analyze town’s significant role in slavery and consider compensation for the descendants of enslaved people.
If the package of laws passed by the City Council goes into effect, it could follow within the footsteps of several other municipalities across the United States which have sought ways to handle the country’s dark history, in addition to a separate commission of the State of New York which began its work this 12 months.
New York abolished slavery completely in 1827But corporations, including the predecessors of some modern banks, profit financially from the slave trade – probably by 1866. Lawmakers behind the proposals identified that the harm brought on by the institution remains to be felt by black Americans today.
“The reparations movement is often misunderstood as simply demanding compensation,” Council Member Farah Louis, a Democrat who sponsored considered one of the bills, told the City Council on Thursday, explaining that systematic types of oppression still affect people through redlining, environmental racism and underfunded services in predominantly black neighborhoods.
The bills still must be signed by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams. City Hall signaled its support in a press release calling the laws “another critical step toward addressing systemic injustices, promoting reconciliation, and creating a more just and equitable future for all New Yorkers.”
The bills would direct town’s Commission on Racial Equity to recommend remedies for the legacy of slavery, including reparations. They would also launch a truth and reconciliation process to uncover historical facts about slavery within the state.
One of the proposals would also require town to erect an information sign on Wall Street in Manhattan to mark the situation of New York’s first slave marketwhich operated between 1711 and 1762. An indication was placed nearby in 2015, but Democrat and Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, who sponsored the bill, said the situation was inaccurate.
The Commission would work with the present state commissionwhich also considers the potential for compensation. A report from the state panel, which held its first public meeting in late July, is predicted in early 2025. The city’s efforts mustn’t produce recommendations until 2027.
The city commission was founded from a racial justice initiative in 2021 through the administration of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. It also really helpful that town track cost-of-living data and add a commitment to treatment “past and ongoing harms” to the preamble of town charter.
“Your call and the call of your ancestors for redress have not gone unheard,” Linda Tigani, executive director of the Commission for Racial Equality, said at a news conference before the council’s vote.
An evaluation of the financial impact of the bills concluded that the studies would cost $2.5 million.
New York is the newest city to handle reparations. Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a notorious massacre of black residents took place in 1921, announced an analogous commission last month.
Evanston, Illinois, was the primary city to supply compensation for Black residents and their descendants in 2021including the distribution of some $25,000 payments in 2023, in line with PBSEligibility was based on harm suffered because of this of town’s discriminatory housing policies or practices.
San Francisco approved reparations payments in February, however the mayor later cut the funds, arguing that reparations should as a substitute be carried out by the federal government. California has allocated $12 million for a Reparations program This included helping black residents research their ancestry, however the bill failed within the state parliament this month.