The City of Ann Arbor is considering a reparations program to remediate historical injustices.
Tonight’s City Council meeting agenda includes a resolution to study a reparations program. The resolution says that while slavery was abolished in Michigan when it approved its first state constitution in 1937, Black citizens were still subjected to discrimination and injustices.
Ward 1 Councilmember Cynthia Harrison, who is sponsoring the resolution, says there has been a significant decline in the Black population in Ann Arbor in the past several years.
“The disproportionate number of arrests of Black men who live here in the City of Ann Arbor and the economic decline of Black businesses, including the closures of many brick-and-mortar shops.”
The bill directs the City Administrator to identify a funding source for the study and conduct a study into the feasibility, process and structure of a potential Municipal Reparations Program.
The resolution requires the report be completed as soon as practical with a status update to the council no later than December.
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