Linda Brown-Robinson, a longtime leader of Syracuse’s Black community, will serve on a state commission that will recommend how to address the harmful effects of slavery in the state.
Gov. Kathy Hochul chose Brown-Robinson as one of her three appointees to the nine-member New York Community Commission on Reparations Remedies.
Hochul signed a bill into law in December that established the commission. Its task is to examine the extent to which the federal and state government supported the institution of slavery.
The commission also will look at how New York – which fully abolished slavery in 1827 – engaged in the transfer of enslaved Africans. New York City, especially, profited off the slave trade.
Brown-Robinson, 77, said Friday she realizes the importance of the role she will play on the commission, and knows the historic significance of the task ahead.
“This is long overdue for our state and long overdue for our country, especially for people who didn’t have a voice in the past or had it taken away,” Brown-Robinson told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.
Brown-Robinson is a former president of the Syracuse and Onondaga County branch of the NAACP. She and her husband, Van Robinson, helped start the local branch.
Linda Brown-Robinson is now the western region director of the NAACP, overseeing 11 branches in Upstate New York.
As part of her initial outreach as a member of the commission, she plans to consult with NAACP leaders at the 11 branches for their ideas to address the wrongs of slavery.
The reparations commission could recommend cash reparations, policy changes or other actions aimed at providing a remedy for the long-term effects of slavery on New York’s Black community.
Brown-Robinson said all possibilities should be considered by the commission. The group is required to issue a final report a year after its first meeting.
“I guess the scope of it would look at what we have, what we don’t have and what we think we’re due,” she said.
Brown-Robinson said one possibility is that the commission could recommend compensation for ancestral lands or other property taken from Blacks who had no recognized rights.
The commission’s findings would be non-binding. But Brown-Robinson said she is confident that Hochul will follow through.
“The governor is pretty fair,” she said. “I have no doubt that she will sit down and figure out the right thing. She wouldn’t have put this together if she wasn’t going to take our recommendations and act on it.”
Brown-Robinson said she suspects any final decision will be put to a voter referendum.
Other states are taking similar action to address slavery. In 2020, California became the first state to form a reparations task force.
The California group concluded the state was responsible for more than $500 billion in reparations from decades of over-policing and redlining that kept Blacks in certain neighborhoods and made it difficult to obtain bank loans.
The New York commission stems from a bill passed by state lawmakers in June 2023.
Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie each appointed three members to the commission Thursday.
In addition to Brown-Robinson, Hochul appointed:
- Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, an anti-poverty group in New York City. She is the former chair of the New York City Racial Justice Commission.
- Timothy R. Hogues, commissioner of the state Department of Civil Service. He is also president of the state Civil Service Commission. Hogues is the former personnel commissioner of Erie County.
Stewart-Cousins appointed:
- Darrick Hamilton, a professor at The New School in New York City, where he is founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy. He is also the school’s Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy.
- Linda Tarrant-Reid, author and historian who heads a project to grow and distribute fresh produce for free to the food insecure in Westchester County. Tarrant-Reid is executive director of The Lincoln Park Conservancy, which oversees the project.
- Seanelle Hawkins, president and CEO of the Urban League of Rochester. She is also an adjunct professor at St. John Fisher College. Hawkins received her bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University.
Heastie appointed:
- Ron Daniels, founder and president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century. The resource center strives to empower people of African descent and people from marginalized communities.
- Lurie Daniel Favors, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. She is also an author, activist and lawyer who hosts the Lurie Daniel Favors Show on Sirius XM’s Urban View Network.
- Rev. Deborah D. Jenkins, founding pastor of Faith @Work Christian Church in New York City. Jenkins has more than 30 years of experience with youth development programs.
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