BROOKLYN, NY — On Thursday morning, the New York City Council is going to pass legislation that will help the city reconcile with its history of slavery and legacy of racial discrimination. This will make NYC the largest city in the United States to pursue reparations.
Brooklyn Councilmembers Crystal Hudson and Farah Louis sponsored two bills to establish a Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Commission and create a reparations task force, respectively. Both will pass today and take effect immediately.
This legislation will ensure that a task force and action plan are finalized no later than June 19, 2027, and that proceedings — which will include at least one public forum in each borough — will start no later than June 19, 2028.
“The harm slavery caused Black Americans continues to be felt today,” Hudson, who is the lead sponsor of the bill to create a commission, said. “And it is my hope that as the nation’s largest city — with the biggest municipal budget — our truth, healing, and reconciliation process will work; it will identify racist, anti-Black policies at the foundation of our city’s institutions and it will yield material solutions to address these foundational cracks.”
Hudson represents District 35, which includes Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.
This legislation follows the passage of a 2022 ballot measure to add a statement to the City Charter, stating that the city must acknowledge “the grave injustices and atrocities that form part of our country’s history, including the forced labor of enslaved Africans” as well as “the discrimination, racial segregation, mass incarceration, and other forms of violence and systemic inequity that continue to be experienced by marginalized groups.”
“By documenting and quantifying the impacts of enslavement and its legacies, while recommending concrete measures for redress, we take a crucial step towards justice and equity,” Louis, the lead sponsor on the bill to create a reparations task force, said. Louis represents District 45, which includes East Flatbush, Flatbush, Flatlands, Marine Park and Midwood.
The task force will likely recommend a combination of monetary and non-monetary reparations. The study would also propose eligibility criteria for receiving reparations.