CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — At Chicago’s official Juneteenth flag raising, Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke about how he is advancing his administration’s efforts to make reparations a reality in the city.
African drums, dance and other music heralded the raising of the Juneteenth flag in Daley Plaza, and there were several speeches in the blazing sun, but Johnson also used the opportunity to say the city stands solidly behind the movement for reparations for the descendents of slaves.
“The very institutions in which we represent today have harmed Black people, so on behalf of the city of Chicago, I apologize for the historic wrongs committed against Black people in Chicago,” he said.
The mayor went on to say that he was signing an executive to create Chicago’s Reparations Task Force. In a press release sent out ahead of the flag-raising, Johnson said the order was “a pledge to shape the future of our city by confronting the legacy of inequity that has plagued Chicago for far too long.”
Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th), whose ward includes Englewood and West Englewood, was among those who talked about what this nation owes African Americans.
“America is the country it is today because of the hundreds of years of free labor that our ancestors gave unwillingly,” she said. “Hello, reparations. We will not be ashamed of who we are and what we have overcome.”
The mayor also spoke of the $500,000 the city will commit to studying how reparations should be given.
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