New York state has signed a bill into law to create a commission that will consider reparations for the enduring impact of slavery.
The commission, following in the steps of California and Illinois, will examine the history of slavery and its ongoing effects on Black New Yorkers.
The nine-member panel will deliver a report a year after its first meeting, potentially including monetary compensation suggestions, aiming to spur policy changes and projects to address the harms of slavery. (Trending: FBI Bribery Probe Caught Joe Biden’s Brother On Tape)
The move has drawn both support and criticism, with some believing it’s a necessary step towards reconciliation, while others argue it will come at a high cost to the state.
“In New York, we like to think we’re on the right side of this. Slavery was a product of the South, the Confederacy,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
“What is hard to embrace is the fact that our state also flourished from that slavery.”
“It’s not a beautiful story, but indeed it is the truth.”
“The battle for civil rights was not below the Mason–Dixon line. The largest port of slave trade was in Charleston, South Carolina and Wall Street, New York,” said Rev. Al Sharpton.
“So this today starts a process of taking the veil off of northern inequality and saying we must repair the damage and it can be an example for this nation.”
“I want to give credit to this governor for having the audacity and courage to do what others wouldn’t do. And I know she had to wrestle with it. And I know her political advisors told her it’s too risky,” he said.
“But she did it because it’s right.”
“This is not just about who we’re going to write a check to, and what the amount is,” Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said.
“It begins the conversation with one recognizing the issues that affected Black people and descendants of slaves in this state,” he added.
“The reparations of slavery were paid with the blood and lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans who fought to end slavery during the Civil War,” Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt said.
Similar initiatives in other states have faced challenges in turning proposals into policies due to budget deficits.
“States and municipalities cannot solve a national problem by themselves, but they can be a means by which we reach a national solution,” Cornell William Brooks said.
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