SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Eleven U.S. mayors — from Los Angeles to tiny Tullahassee, Oklahoma — have pledged to pay reparations for slavery to a small group of Black residents in their cities, saying their aim is to set an example for the federal government on how a nationwide program could work.
The mayors had no details on how much it would cost, who would pay for it or how people would be chosen. All of those details would be worked out with the help of local commissions comprised of representatives from Black-led organizations set up to advise the mayor of each city. But the mayors say they are committed to paying reparations instead of just talking about them.
“Black Americans don’t need another study that sits on a shelf,” said St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, the city’s first Black female mayor and a member of the group. “We need decisive action to address the racial wealth gap holding communities back across our country.”
The effort comes as Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the United States, has become a federal holiday. President Joe Biden signed a bill Thursday that was passed by Congress to set aside Juneteenth, or June 19, as a holiday.
Slavery officially ended in the United States in 1865 with the adoption of the 13th amendment to U.S. Constitution. But its effects have lingered far beyond that, contributing to disparities in wealth and health between white and Black populations.
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Since 1989, lawmakers in Congress introduced a bill that would form a commission to study and develop reparations proposals in the United States. But it has never passed. Last year, California became the first state to set up its own reparations commission. That group held its first meeting earlier this month.
Proud #Juneteenth is now a federal holiday.
As we reflect on the significance of what this day symbolizes, let’s keep fighting to address the lasting consequences of slavery.
Next step: reparations.
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) June 19, 2021
Friday’s announcement marks the largest city-led effort at paying reparations to date, but it isn’t the first. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in March to appoint a 15-member African American Reparations Advisory Committee. That same month, the City Council of Evanston, Illinois, voted to pay $400,000 to eligible Black households, part of a pledge to spend $10 million over the next 10 years. Qualifying households would get $25,000 to use for things like home repair or putting a down payment on property.
Last year, the City Council in Asheville, North Carolina, voted to approve reparations in the form of investments in areas of disparity for Black residents.
This group of mayors, dubbed Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE), is led by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. Their stated goal is for these reparations programs to “serve as high-profile demonstrations for how the country can more quickly move from conversation to action on reparations for Black Americans,” according to the group’s website.
“Let me be clear: Cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own,” Garcetti said during a news conference on Friday to announce the group. “When we have the laboratories of cities show that there is much more to embrace than to fear, we know that we can inspire national action as well.”
It’s similar to the aim of another group of mayors who have experimented with guaranteed income programs, where a small group of low-income people receive cash payments each month with no restrictions on how they can spend it. The first such program was set up in Stockton, California, by former mayor Michael Tubbs, who is listed as an “emeritus member” of the reparations group.
The other mayors are Jorge Elorza of Providence, Rhode Island; Steve Adler of Austin, Texas; Steve Schewel of Durham, North Carolina: Esther Manheimer of Asheville, North Carolina: Quinton Lucas of Kansas City; Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, California; Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota; and Keisha Currin of Tullahassee, Oklahoma.
Tullahassee — a small town of fewer than 200 people in northeast Oklahoma — is the oldest of the surviving all-Black towns in the states that were founded after the U.S. abolished slavery. Many of the first Black people to live there had been enslaved by Native American tribes that had allied with the Confederacy during the Civil War.
“Slavery has played a huge part in my family and in my community,” Currin said. “This program is going to show our community that we care.”
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Yep, typical mentality of Democrats, they want to pay negros who never were slaves or didn’t had parents that were slaves and make White and other races who never owned slaves or their parents never owned slaves pay these Negros for ?????????????????? (take your pick). 🙁
These Dishonorable liberal Democrat phony crusades have little or nothing to do with protecting the sensitivities of Black Americans and everything to do with the Democrats setting themselves up as their saviors. Their practice of patronizing groups cannot yield to the facts that the Democrat Party has a long history of racial discrimination. For their cause is not defending the oppressed or the offended but about making themselves look wonderful with their latest destructive political Con, to get black votes.
Pay the reparations but they come with a one way ticket to Uganda.
Uganda would not want them.
TOUGH, send them to uganda anyway!
They would all just come running back-you can’t get rid of them.I bet Uganda has no freebies.
From what i know, there’s not a single nation IN AFRICA that does have those ‘freebies’ that these cretins, are so USED TO getting here in the USA.
First,have the Black Race prove they were related to former Slaves then let those who had relatives who were slaves, pay the White Solders relatives who died fighting freeing the Slaves.
the above comments that I pxosted, I meant to say…. ” Pay the relatives of the White Solders who died….
This is inexcusable. I’ll say it again: there are no slaves to pay reparations to and there are no slave owners from whom the money should come. Even IF reparations were warranted, they should go to the actual victims—not modern-day descendants looking for a handout. This is just more gasoline being poured onto ginned-up racial tensions by Black activists and Leftists in their quest to divide the Nation and misrepresent our history while ignoring the great strides that have been made in addressing the wrongs where slavery is concerned. Slavery was a historical black eye, but it has received the necessary medical attention and if everybody would allow the healing process to work rather than reopening the wound at every opportunity, we would all be better off. Tearing down Confederate monuments and statues, denigrating the Confederate flag, and parading false narratives is doing more harm than good.
AND yet again, the left is doing the nancy dodo thing “PASS IT then figure out what is in it” ballony.
Son of Thunder, your so right in your comments…
Yep, all of these Mayors are running cities that are sewers of crime, so these clowns can take their reparations, which would be paid on the backs of taxpayers and shove them you know where.
As I’ve stated several times in the past in this forum, and similar to what Scruffy stated above, no one alive today in this country was a slave, and no one alive today owned any slaves. No one in my family tree owned any slaves at any point in the past. I’ll be damned if my taxes should go to people who have absolutely nothing to do with slavery except the color of their skin.
Go look for your “free ride” someplace else.
I have a great idea.
WE GIVE every black, who can VIA ANCESTRAL RECORDS prove their grand or great grand parents were slaves, 100k. BUT WE THEN ELIMINATE ALL WELFARE FOR EVERY BLACK OUT THERE.
See how hey like THAT.
They have been riding free on the backs of taxpayers for decades now. They have no intention of stopping. I have always said welfare is evil and churches and charities that get tax breaks and donations should be doing their jobs. Eliminate welfare.
Which is why for a long time, i’ve said MAKE everyone ON welfare a “Ward of the state”, thus THEY LOSE THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE!
Considering that slavery existed everywhere in the world until the British and Americans abolished it in the 19th century, maybe the money should flow in the opposite direction: from those who were freed to those who freed them. But of course none of those people are alive today, either. So maybe the money shouldn’t flow at all. How’s that for a novel thought?
ALSO, why is it only WHITE AMERICANS ever get pushed to give “Reparations for slavery”, when in most cases, it was their FELLOW BLACK AFRICANS, or muslims, who SOLD THEM INTO SLAVERY IN THE FIRST place!!!
Don’t forget that white Europeans were slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. White European men, women and children were forcibly stolen from their coastal homes and from ships and enslaved and murdered in Africa. Africa never freed the white slaves.
NO, we had to FIGHT TO get our freedom…
By addressing the racial wealth gap in communities Mayor Jones should look only to her Democrat Party and the social measures it passed in the past that kept those communities in poverty and the citizens subject to welfare measures that discouraged individual advancement.
you’ll get nothing and like it!!
or get out of america.
It’s Obama money but where did it come from, Well I don’t know but we’re going to get some!!
Hey Mayor Tishaura Jones,,you want reparations? You pay for it with gofund me acct,donations etc,but NO TAX DOLLARS,GOODBYE & GOOD LUCK
TAKE IT first out of the bank accounts of ALL LIBERALS IN OFFICE, since the dem party was the ones in CHARGE Of the south/formed the KKK…
ONE THEY ARE ALL broke, then we may talk about taxing every american.
If these hypocritical black race hustlers want reparations then they need to get on the first plane back to Africa and get them from the descendants of the people who sold their ancestors into slavery. Let me know how that works out.
AND demand it not just from their own clansmen there, but ALL THE MUSLIMS who did the slave trading.
Are the descendants of the 3777 blacks who where slave owners at the start of the Civil War going to have to pay reparations? How do we handled the fact that the very first black slave owner in the American colonies was a black farmer. How about reparations for the descendants of the over 600,000 white soldiers who gave their lives to free the slaves. You clowns are a bunch of BULLSCHIFF spewing spawns of the devil!!!
What’s the betting, NOT ONE OF THESE mayors, even know that 3000_ BLACKS owned slaves.. OR That during that time frame, there were also WHITES who were slaves!
AND what’s the bet, MOST OF THOSE MAYORS Don’t care to know the truth.
How about the fact that white Europeans were slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America? Africa never freed the white slaves, they murdered them. I want my white European reparations!
I’m in favor as long as they, the Mayors, write the check from their own account. Not one penny from my tax dollars!
Unfortunately, citizens of their cities pay their salaries — which will undoubtedly be raised (from the pockets of taxpayers) to cover the cost of the payouts.
That is why i often feel, when a person SUES A government official, SUE THEM AS A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL, not a governmental represenative, so any pay they are forced to hand out, COMES DIRECTLY FROM THEIR bank account, NOT THE govt coffers.
they can take their reparations and shove them where the sun dont shine
What about the relatives of the very first slaves brought to North America: 100 Irish children?
THey be white, ergo NO reparations for you!
Oh, they don’t matter, they were white. Just like the white European slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. White European men, women and children were forcibly taken from coastal homes and ships and enslaved and murdered in Africa. Africa never freed the white slaves. I want my reparations.
Any public official who causes or even supports money to be taken from taxpayers to be paid to any ethnic group as “reparations” should be summarily impeached and physically run out of office. If this kind of thing actually gains traction (especially on a federal level) everyone should get ready for the race war.
This is ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!! There is NOT one slave owner alive today and NOT one slave alive today.. Slavery is over… it’s in the past… NO ONE owes anyone a dime because of slavery!!!! This is outright stealing of money from one race to give to another…. This country is being more and more racially divided, races are being pitted against each other… this total reparations garbage is stealing from others!!!!
None of them mention that there were black slave owners and white slaves… so they are only taking care of ONE race with their reparations.. dividing the country more and more
this insanity needs to end!!!! STOP WITH THIS GARBAGE!!! IT’S DAMAGING OUR COUNTRY!!!!!
WE all knew the “holiday” was going to be another racist scam by the Democrats. What else is new?
Dollars for Durags; Bucks For Bullets
BS alert. Give them jobs and that is reparation enough.
THEY already make PLENTY from welfare, ebt, section 8 etc..
What if you’re only half black? Do you only get half the money? What if you’re only 1 quarter black? You see where I’m going with this?
If you’re half black, I guess you have to take the money out of your white-half pocket and put it into your black-half pocket. Maybe have two separate bank accounts, one for black you and one for white you.
Not only can they not say how much, from where, or to who gets the money, but has anyone ever determined the amount of past reparations paid? Correct me if I’m wrong, but there has been reparations given in the past hasn’t there? If so, when is this nonsense going to end, or is it ever? Will it continue for each future generation?
AND Will all the BILLIONS WE’ve given blacks over the past 90+ years, VIA WELFARE and foodstamps, be considered enough reparations!
When will this stupidity over guilt that exists in only a few, be over . When will a movement be started among responsible Black people who say enough with the attempts to buy off guilt . This stupidity has reached epidemic , almost pandemic proportions in this country and is destabilizing society. I for sure ,do not pay taxes to my government so that they can be squandered in give away programs to people who in no way ever deserved it. Trillions of dollars have been spent over the last 50 years , in failed attempts to elevate black people and integrate them into society. Today the 13% of the population account for over 50% of almost all violent crime, much of it Black on Black crime. You can’t buy respect , only discourage it. You can’t purchase normalcy, only encourage it. STOP TRYING TO BUY THEIR COOPERATION . IT’S HASN’T WORKED AND WILL NEVER WORK.
True. When did any protection racket ever shut down after the first payment?
To my knowledge.. NOT A SINGLE ONE..
Well, I will not visit & spend money in the cities that were mentioned.
I already boycott everything to do with Commiefornia.. NOW Oklahoma, can JOIN that list.
The answer to the wealth gap is stay in school and work. The two things the 13% call racist. Have you ever Noticed that self made millionaires work over 100 hours a week ????. When was the last time ,you saw a mostly peaceful protest over work shoes ????
Who would get the reparations and who would be pissed off because they didn’t get any? Which black people should get it, all of them or those for whom it can be proven they descended from slaves? How about the African relatives in Africa whose ancestors were captured by other Africans and shipped to the New World? Should the descendants of the Scots and English slavers and shippers pay part of the cost? If I was an attorney I could have fun with this you silly dinks.
Actually very funny when you think about it much. The virtue-signaling wimpy little mayors think they are buying Love from their black constituents when in reality they are buying contempt – the blacks are pissing on their shoes and telling those mayors that it is raining. And those mayors are so stupid and intimidated that they believe it. Keep pushing, you commie libtards and see what you get in return.