The commission studying reparations for the consequences of New York’s role in the slave trade remains in the administrative phase, but members said Tuesday they expect to start the difficult conversations this fall — with little time to spare.
The state’s Community Commission on Reparations Remedies met this week for the second time in Albany to get the $5 million, one-year study off the ground.
Commissioners initially squabbled about who should hold leadership roles in the group, but those tensions had dissipated at Tuesday’s meeting. Members elected The Rev. Deborah Jenkins selected to serve as vice chair, Linda Tarrant-Reid as secretary and Jennifer Jones Austin as treasurer.
“I am here to serve as best I can and do all that I can,” Jones Austin said.
The group pored over meeting rules, scheduling and other logistics for hours, including ideas to hold public forums across the state.
The group is not expected to start difficult discussions to examine the harms of slavery and its aftermath until October, which will leave them about nine months to do the work that’s expected to shape future legislation.
Commissioners will hire an executive director, interim operations manager and parliamentarian in the coming weeks.
They also reviewed the overall task at hand: The longterm impacts of building the Empire State on the backs of enslaved labor — consequences which, members said are not just echoes of the past, but continue today.
“The consequences of slavery in New York state… can still be observed in daily life,” Tarrant-Reid said. “Systemic racism has cemented a legacy of generational poverty and we still see this today. Instances of voter suppression, housing discrimination, biased policing, food apartheid and disproportionate rates of incarceration.”
Prior to the American Revolution, there were more enslaved Africans in New York City than any other city except Charleston, South Carolina. At that time, commissioners said about 40% of colonial New York households owned enslaved Africans, and slaves accounted for 20% of New York’s population, which contributed to longstanding racial, social and economic discrimination of people of African descent.
The group will compile a report of recommendations to be submitted to the Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul next summer.
Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who sponsored the law to create the commission, said the timeline was intentionally kept short for changes to take place more quickly.
“I hear the concerns about the timeline, but we have to make sure that we’re not waiting because New Yorkers can’t wait,” she said Thursday.
She added reparations have been studied in places like California and the city of Boston, but are still a new national conversation, and will look different in New York.
“It’s going to take some time, you know, to get out all the kinks, but I’m more than confident that by the next couple of meetings, it’s going to be seamless,” Solages said.
Members will set a meeting schedule for the coming months by Sept. 4. Meetings are expected to take place in other parts of the state. Regular updates and more details will be posted on the commission’s website.