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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Thi is expected from a dummycrat sewage lagoon like California, but OKLAHOMA?!! I’d say that city needs to be clean up with an EF5 tornado.
You could give every Black person in America $10,000 per week for the next 100 years and they’d still be whining..
Hell, you could give them 10 million, and they would STILL SAY IT was not enough.
Nice mural…. isn’t Whitey supposed to have horns on his head though?
The criteria for paying anyone with Taxpayer money is that Taxpayers should have a vote as to whether or not reparations should be paid, and then, if so, the only ones to be paid are those who were enslaved. Pretty simple.
Other than that a recall of all of these quack Mayors should be started as soon as possible in order to get them out of office so that they can’t do any more damage than they’ve already done.
THAT Is how it damn well SHOULD BE..
BUT we often see tax money being used for stuff we NEVER EVEN GOT NOTIFIED was going to happen, LET ALONE HAD A VOICE IN whether it was to be done or not.
Mark Twin once wrote this thought down in his Note Book, ” The Skin Of Every Human Being Contains a Slave. ” I think What Mark Twin Was Expressing here was that every Human Being was A Slave, In one Form or Another because of Fate.
It should include white Europeans to be paid reparations because white European men women and children were slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. The white slaves were never freed, they were murdered.
Looking forward to blue states bankrupting themselves AGAIN, in order to pay reparations. Hopefully, by that time, there will be a conservative President who can tell them all to go pound sand when they ask for another round of bailouts (a.k.a. “other people’s money”).
If reparations somehow get paid out, don’t imagine for a second that it will put an end to the victimhood posturing and demands for ever-increasing payouts, any more than electing a black President–twice!–did. The racial grievance industry will always find a rationale to demand more, more, more.
THING IS, if they do ‘go bankrupt, they will just demand the dems in congress bail them out, and WILL LIKELY GET IT.
You have expressed. Exactly why the present generations of Black Races are putting a claim for ” The Present White Race to Pay them ” Reperations , ” Why this is wrong that the White Race, 150 Years Ago, didn’t own Slaves as they didn’t own enough land to justify them having Slaves and besides the White Race who were poor themselves, Worked for other more wealthy people at that period in America’s history….
White Europeans were slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America so if we’re going to start reparations we need to start giving to white Europeans. Firstly because they were slaves first before blacks in America, secondly because they freed the black slaves in America, thirdly because they make up most of the population of America they have paid the bulk of the welfare to the blacks. We need to deduct the amount of welfare the blacks have received and we can deduct the amount of welfare that whites have received.White people built America that’s why it’s not like Africa, a sh-thole country. That’s also why blacks want to come to America.
“Let me be clear: Cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own,” Garcetti said
Yup, Garcetti spilled the beans. We want *YOU* to give us money so we can hand it out and buy votes.
Let the Black !minorities repay all of the benefits in the form of special welfare benefits, public housing, free medical And free public education, special consideration when de entering University’s and diversity when entering the work fore. After repaying for all these freebies to them, then America will weight reparations for Slavery which Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with his proclamation, plus all the lives lost freeing the slaves.
If we are not going to pay out reparations fairly then this needs to be challenged in the courts as racism. Our laws prevent giving out money from taxpayers based on skin color. If they want to start giving reparations to white people first since they were slaves in Africa before blacks were slaves in America than that something to discuss.If we are not going to pay out reparations fairly then this needs to be challenged in the courts as racism. Our laws prevent giving out money from taxpayers based on skin color. If they want to start giving reparations to white people first since they were slaves in Africa before blacks were slaves in America then that may be acceptable. We have to be fair.
As John F. Kennedy once said when asked about Civil Rights movement, He said, ” When did the civil Rights Movement go off the Raills, The Answer is When proponents went from Justly Demanding Equal Rights to unjust demanding Equal Results . “