New York was a vital cog in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but it’s California where those pushing for reparations to the descendants of enslaved people are making progress.
A task force in California has proposed a series of recommendations for compensating descendants of the formerly enslaved, including cash payments that could top $1 million, for lost wealth and opportunity dating to the state’s birth in 1850.
The panel identified “Historical Atrocities” beyond slavery, touching on voting, housing, education, and mass incarceration, among other areas. In addition to the payments, it recommends a formal apology for state-sanctioned racism.
The future of the California proposals, which have been met with skepticism, is highly uncertain, but the effort is gaining attention back East, where “enslavement is a defining feature of New York City’s origin story,” as a 2022 report by the Montgomery, Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative put it. The Golden State, by contrast, was not technically a “slave state,” though it allowed enslavement to endure for many years.
“When people lead with the pessimistic question of, ‘This is not feasible, why are you wasting your time?’ we have no idea of what is feasible or not, tomorrow or the next day,” said Darrick Hamilton, the founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, and a member of New York City’s Racial Justice Commission. “The point is to commit to justice because it’s the right thing to do.”
The task force’s final report is expected to go to the California legislature this summer.
Here is a primer on reparations and where things stand.
Why is anyone talking about reparations?
The issue goes back to the earliest days of emancipation, with the promise of “40 Acres and a Mule” to formerly enslaved families by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. After President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, his successor Andrew Johnson reversed course and…
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