Under a measure that Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law, New York state will establish a committee tasked with investigating reparations to address the lingering, detrimental impacts of slavery in the state.
It builds on previous task teams formed in California and Illinois and comes at a time when many governments and communities around the nation are trying to find out how to effectively deal with the nation’s dark past.
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Democrat Hochul stated during the bill signing event in New York City, “In New York, we like to think we’re on the right side of this. Slavery was a product of the South, the Confederacy.” She added, “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.”
The committee will look at the legacy of slavery, which was completely outlawed in New York by 1827, and its continuing effects on Black New Yorkers today, according to a bill enacted by state legislators in June.
“The battle for civil rights was not below the Mason–Dixon line. The largest port of slave trade was in Charleston, South Carolina and Wall Street, New York Speaking at the signing event was Rev. Al Sharpton. “So this today starts a process of taking the veil off of northern inequality and saying we must repair the damage and it can be an example for this nation.”
A report from the nine-member panel must be delivered one year following its inaugural meeting. Although they wouldn’t be legally binding, its recommendations may include financial recompense. The panel’s recommendations are meant to inspire initiatives, programs, and legislative modifications aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of slavery.
It’s almost a given that some will object to the idea of using public funds to compensate descendants of slaves. These people may include some white people who feel they shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of their long-ago ancestors as well as other ethnic groups who weren’t involved in the slave trade.
Sharpton that he anticipated Hochul to incur political consequences for calling the commission to order.
“I want to give credit to this governor for having the audacity and courage to do what others wouldn’t do. And I know she had to wrestle with it. And I know her political advisors told her it’s too risky,” he noted. “But she did it because it’s right.”
Three eligible candidates will be appointed to the panel by the governor, the state Senate’s leader, and the Assembly’s leader. They have ninety days to choose.
“This is not just about who we’re going to write a check to, and what the amount is,” stated Carl Heastie, the Democratic Assembly Speaker and the first Black person to occupy the role.
“It begins the conversation with one recognizing the issues that affected Black people and descendants of slaves in this state,” he remarked.
In a statement, State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt expressed his opinion that the suggestions made by New York will come at an “astronomical cost” to every New Yorker.
“The reparations of slavery were paid with the blood and lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans who fought to end slavery during the Civil War,” He stated. He went on to say that it is not feasible for nations to cover the potentially high cost of monetary reparations.
The first state to establish a task committee on reparations was California in 2020. After receiving the group’s two-year report in June, state legislators filed a measure to establish an organization tasked with implementing a number of the panel’s more than 100 suggestions, which included assisting families with genealogical research. However, considering the state’s significant fiscal deficit, putting such suggestions into practice would be challenging.
While several states have studied reparations, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, none have yet implemented laws in this area. By building a $10 million housing complex in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, the city became the first to provide reparations to Black citizens in 2021.
State-led programs like New York’s are essential for achieving national reconciliation and repair, according to Cornell William Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School who studies the economics of reparations and teaches civil rights.
“States and municipalities cannot solve a national problem by themselves, but they can be a means by which we reach a national solution,” he noted.
2009 saw the U.S. Congress issue an apology to African Americans for slavery; however, a government plan to establish a commission to explore reparations has been stuck for a long time.
The act that created the New York Commission mentions that in the 1620s, the first Africans brought into slavery reached the southern point of Manhattan Island, which was then inhabited by the Dutch, and contributed to the construction of New York City’s infrastructure. — “including the wall that gives Wall Street its name.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams endorsed the legislation, pointing out that certain esteemed organizations in the city—as well as globally—are connected to riches that came from abusing the work of slaves.
“We have to reckon with that,” A press conference at City Hall was held by Democrat and former state senator Adams.
