ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) — Governor Kathy Hochul signed racial justice legislation on Tuesday creating a commission to consider reparations for slavery.
The newly signed law will create a commission made up of nine members to examine slavery and discrimination against African Americans and the lingering impacts of it.
The commission will then recommend reparations and remedies to right the wrongs of the past and help those still living in the aftermath of it all.
“So, here’s what we’re talking about– working together so children of today are not weighed down by the shackles of the past,” said Hochul.
“Let’s be clear what reparations mean. It doesn’t mean fixing the past, undoing the past, we can’t do that, but it does mean giving people more than a simple apology 150 years later,” she said.
Slavery was abolished in New York State in 1827, but its legacy and subsequent discrimination against people of African descent– like denying them property or loans, for example– have had lingering effects impacting black New Yorkers to this day.
The commission will recommend what the bill calls “appropriate remedies” for descendants of enslaved New Yorkers, including changes to state laws and policies.
Paul Stewart, Co-Founder of the Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany, says this is a step forward in addressing the historic wrongs that have been done against African Americans.
He believes there needs to be more education on the history of racial discrimination and how it still impacts people today.
“I do think there are many people in this country who don’t understand or appreciate the idea of reparations, or affirmative actions or diversity-equity inclusion, and they’re going to get all bent out of shape and I think that in, one sense, it’s expected that they might get bent out of shape, but they have to sit down and take a look at the history and the things that have happened and realize this is not a zero-sum game. Just because somebody gets some rights or opportunities doesn’t mean something is taken away from somebody else,” said Stewart.
The legislation was passed along party lines in June with Republicans opposing it possibly costing the state a great deal of money if the commission recommends direct payouts.
New York will be the second state after California to form such a task force to consider reparations for slavery.