New York establishes commission on slavery reparations

Clyde Hughes
·2 min read
15
UPI
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill to create a reparations committee on Tuesday. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
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Dec. 20 (UPI) -- New York became the second state to create a commission to study reparations and racial justice for those whose ancestors suffered from slavery.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday signed legislation to create the commission which, while acknowledging the historic injustice of slavery, will be tasked with examining the legacy of slavery, subsequent discrimination against people of African descent, and the impact those forces continue to have today.

The reparations committee, which will be appointed over the next six months, will have one year to draft a report before presenting it to the public.

Black leaders in New York joined Hochul and numerous state lawmakers during the bill's signing, saying it could start correcting generations of issues caused by slavery's aftermath and discrimination.

"Some of the media will act like [Hochul] met us here and she gave Rev. Al and all of us a check for a billion dollars," civil rights activist Al Sharpton said at the signing. "But that's not what this does. This is the beginning of healing the scars."

While slavery is more associated with the South, during the country's formation, most colonies held slaves. Some 20% of New York City's population was made up of slaves at the time of the Revolutionary War, second only to Charleston, South Carolina at the time.

"We're proud to be home of courageous leaders like Harriet Tubman, Conductor of the Underground Railroad buried up in Auburn, NewYork, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist like John Brown,whose farm is way in the north country," Hochul said.

"What is hard to embrace is the fact that our state also flourished from that slavery. It's not a beautiful story, but indeed it is the truth."

In 2022, California became the first state to name a task force and release a report detailing the harms of the slavery of African Americans.

That report said that governmental action was heavily involved in slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining and other actions that excluded Blacks, created the modern racial wage gap, and other racial inequalities.