NEW YORK — Legislation to create a New York commission to study reparations for the descendants of slaves was approved Tuesday by Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul, who called on New Yorkers to “rebuke and not excuse our role in benefiting from the institution of slavery.”
Hochul, a Democrat, signed the bill at a ceremony on the Upper West Side of Manhattan six months after the state Legislature passed the plan. The governor said the commission would make it “possible to have a conversation — a reasoned debate — about what we want the future to look like.”