San Francisco supervisors on Tuesday will discuss if and how to pay reparations to eligible Black residents, a proposal that comes with a hefty price tag.
It’s the first time the Board of Supervisors will discuss the plan to right how the city and county of San Francisco can try to right the wrongs of centuries of slavery and the denial of opportunities for centuries after.
Under the proposal, eligible residents would receive a $5 million individual lump-sum payment.
The Fillmore District and Western Addition feature prominently in the report by the African American Reparations Advisory Committee. For a year and a half, it chronicled the destruction of what was considered “the Harlem of the West,” which some historians say destroyed the renaissance of the African American population in the name of urban renewal.
The goal is to rectify what happened in the past and correct policies that continue to perpetuate the harm today, and to create a pathway for Black families in San Francisco to be able to prosper on equal footing.
As the committee chair explains, Black people were held back long after emancipation.
“Everything from denial of services to removal from employment or refusal around employment; land was taken, houses destroyed, businesses lost,” said Eric McDonnell of the advisory committee.
Supervisors will hear the full plan, which we know will include a proposal to offer reparations to anyone over the age of 18 identifying as Black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years. They must be San Francisco-born or have migrated to the city between 1940 and 1996.
Or they could have decended from a person enslaved or owned by another person before 1865.
The proposal also suggests supplementing low-income households for at least 250 years.
If San Francisco moves forward, it will be the first large city in the U.S. to offer reparations to its Black citizens.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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