New York state lawmakers are again looking to create a commission to research the possibility of reparations for African slavery. Assembly Bill A9435––sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who chairs the Assembly’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus––was passed in the State Assembly last year but did not make it out of the Senate. By re-introducing the bill this year, lawmakers are giving New York another chance to create an 11-member reparations commission that would examine African enslavement in New York City and state.
Commission members would be asked to detail how and why Africans were enslaved in the local area and, according to the bill’s language: “Examine the extent to which the federal and state governments of the United States supported the institution of slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions, including the extent to which such governments prevented, opposed, or restricted efforts of freed enslaved Africans to repatriate to their homeland…Examine federal and state laws that discriminated against freed enslaved Africans and their descendants during the period between the end of the Civil War and the present…Examine other forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against freed enslaved Africans and their descendants during the period between the end of the Civil War and the present…Examine the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery…on living African Americans and on society in the United States.”
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Solages told the AmNews: “It’s helpful that other states and localities are coming out with their reports or discussing similar commissions; it’s really creating a synergy amongst all of us that this is a topic that is so important to discuss, especially when we talk about the inequality that is happening to Black New Yorkers and Black Americans. It’s why we need to have a discussion about chattel slavery, segregation, mass incarceration and all of the other ills like redlining––how that impacts our community and how we can take the vestiges of these and create positive, moving-forward policies for Black Americans across the country and across New York state.”
The assemblywoman said that those who want to see this bill passed should speak up about the need for reparations for historical Black settlements like Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Black Wall Street, Central Park’s Seneca Village and upstate New York’s Timbuctoo.
New York residents can contact their state legislators and ask them to support Solages’s reparations bill when it is reintroduced. “Now is the time to really express your support and express that we need to be having this conversation within the confines of New York state,” she said. “It’s important that members of the community talk to their local state legislators and tell them that this conversation on reparations is very important to them and that we need to pass legislation supporting a commission on reparations.”
Assemblymember Michelle Solages and Senator Jabari Brisport have been pushing a flawed version of “Reparations” sponsored by well funded non profits.
There are many flaws in their bill including:
1) This is not a true reparations bill. It is using the term “reparations” to hide the fact it is another racial equity bill.
2) The bill does not identify the Community of Eligibility as the Descendants of Chattel Slavery and Jim Crow Discrimination, not all Americans of African descent. This is the group who experienced the atrocities listed in the article.
3) The bill writes 3 national non profits organizations directly into the legislation; N’Cobra, IBW21, and The Black institute. These organizations are given the ability to choose 6 out of 11 commission members allowing them to form a quorum. They will them be allowed to push their idea of what “Reparations” should be.
You quote Solages saying “It’s important that members of the community talk to their local state legislators and tell them that this conversation on reparations is very important to them”
However, both Member Solages and Senator Brisport have steadfastly refused to meet with grass roots organizers to discuss their concerns preferring to go a press tours.
In addition, Member Solages has resorted to a smear campaign against the organizations instead of engaging with them.
This bill is top town legislation meant to enhance the legislators reputations and line the pockets of non-profits organizations. It will do little to improve the lives of American Freedmen.
Community members should call their state legislators and