New York Reparation Payments, How Much It Could Cost

NEW YORK – New York City could soon become the largest city to implement reparations for slavery, a place that lawmakers say had one of the highest rates of slave ownership in the country.

On Thursday, the City Council approved legislation to study the city’s role in slavery in order to consider reparations to descendants of those enslaved.

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If the measure is enacted, the city will be one of the few cities actively working toward reparations.

This measure follows the Racial Justice Commission’s (RJC) “Roadmap for Justice”, a series of measures aimed at promoting racial justice and reconciliation.

According to Merriam-Webster, reparation is the act of making amends, offering atonement, or giving satisfaction for a wrongdoing.

“The reparations movement is often misunderstood as simply a call for compensation,” said Farah Louis, a Democratic council member who sponsored one of the bills.

Louis says systemic forms of oppression continue to impact people through redlining, environmental racism and underfunded services in predominantly black neighborhoods.

The RJC has developed a road map report that includes three structural changes in city government that it says would lay the foundation for achieving racial equality.

• Proposition 1: Add a statement of values ​​to guide government
• Proposition 2: Create a Racial Equity Office, Plan and Commission
• Proposition 3: Measuring the true cost of living

Once signed by New York Mayor Eric Adams, the RJC would then propose solutions for the history of slavery that would include reparations.

It would also constitute a truth and reconciliation process aimed at establishing the historical facts regarding slavery in the state.

The city would then install an information sign on Wall Street in Manhattan to mark the site of New York’s First Slave Marketwhich operated from 1711 to 1762.

The commission would then work with the existing state commission to consider possible reparations.

A report from the state panel would then be presented in early 2025.

The municipality will not need to make recommendations until 2027.

A financial impact analysis of the bills estimated the studies would cost $2.5 million (AP).

Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a notorious massacre of black residents took place in 1921, announced a similar commission in August.

In 2021, Evanston, Illinois, became the first U.S. city to offer reparations to Black residents and their descendants, with some receiving $25,000 payments in 2023, according to PBS.

Eligibility was determined based on harm caused by the city’s discriminatory housing policies and practices.

San Francisco approved the repairs in February, but the mayor later cut the funds, saying that the repairs should instead be carried out by the federal government.

California budgeted $12 million for a reparations program, but it was rejected by the state Legislature last month.

For more than 200 years, New York legally permitted the slavery of African Americans and Native Americans.

In the early 1700s, the rate of slave ownership was one of the highest in the country, with 15 to 20 percent of its population enslaved, according to reports.

Wall Street, now a global financial center, once functioned as a slave market where African men, women and children were rented, bought and sold.

New York finally abolished slavery in 1827, But reports suggest that businesses, particularly banks, continued to profit from the slave trade for decades.

What’s next for reparations in New York?

The bills still need to be signed by Mayor Adams.

The mayor expressed its support in a statement calling the legislation “another critical step toward addressing systemic inequality, advancing reconciliation, and creating a more just and equitable future for all New Yorkers.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.