Fulton County, Georgia, Commissioner Bridget Thorne has alleged that the chairwoman of the county’s reparations committee has told her appointee to the task force that he may not speak to the media.
Thorne claimed to Fox News that the chair and vice chair of the reparations task force wanted to be the only ones to speak with the media regarding the task force, while the appointees and the rest of the board were told not to speak to the media.
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“I prefer if my two appointed reparations task force members felt welcome to speak to the media. But currently, the head of the reparations task force does not want them speaking to the media. And to me, that’s concerning because they’re the ones who I appointed to be on there, and they’re privy to all the information and follow everything closely,” Thorne told Fox News.
Reparations task force chairwoman Karcheik Sims-Alvarado clarified to Fox News that members of the task force “have the right to speak to the press about reparations.”
Thorne first accused the task force chairwoman of silencing her appointee while speaking at a board of commissioners meeting earlier this month.
“My task force member on the board has been censored and told he cannot speak, so I’m glad I can speak out on this issue,” Thorne said at a meeting on July 12.
When pressed on who told her appointee he could not speak by Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts, Thorne said it was “the chair of the reparations task force.” Pitts dismissed her allegation as “nonsense.”
She then expressed her concern about awarding $210,000 of funding toward a reparations study to be conducted by the county and Atlanta University Center.
“This is just such a divisive concept, and I feel like it’s just gonna hurt Fulton County, it’s just gonna rip us apart. We heard in public comment how people are gonna be paying for it — this is coming out of taxpayer dollars — this $210,000 is coming out of taxpayers dollars, whatever reparations, whatever they decide, whatever they find, they are going to make the taxpayers pay for it. And we don’t have money for a jail, we don’t have money for a hospital, that’s what we need to be focusing on,” Thorne said prior to the vote.
The board would vote 4-2 in favor of the funding, with Thorne voting against the measure.
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The reparations task force in Fulton County, Georgia, is one of several around the country evaluating if black descendants of slaves should receive reparations. California’s reparations task force recently submitted its report to the state legislature for them to consider implementing changes the committee says will remedy past discrimination against black Californians.
The Fulton County reparations task force is expected to submit its recommendations by October 2024.