The City of Ann Arbor will conduct a feasibility study on “municipal reparations” for Black residents.
City council passed the resolution unanimously, a day before Juneteenth, at the Tuesday council meeting.
City council member Cynthia Harrison sponsored the resolution. She said reparations address historical and present injustices that disproportionately affect Black Americans.
“These injustices include slavery, segregation, and discriminatory laws and policies that have caused generational harm and economic disparities,” Harrison said.
She added, “reparations are not about exclusion or discrimination against any group but about rectifying specific historical wrongs. So we believe that addressing these inequities benefits the entire community by fostering a more just and inclusive environment.”
Harrison said she was inspired to work on the idea after seeing a significant decline in the city’s Black population and Black-owned businesses.
Harrison said the study would closely examine the few city reparations programs already in existence, including one in Evanston, Illinois, which set a goal of “revitalizing, preserving, and stabilizing Black/African-American owner-occupied homes.” Direct descendants of Black residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 are entitled to payments under the program.
But Harrison said reparations don’t necessarily mean financial reparations; they can also take the form of an official acknowledgement of specific harms to Black city residents, and an apology. She said the specific form of reparations would be determined later, if the study finds reparations are feasible.