New York legislature passes bill to establish commission on slavery reparations News
Matt Wade, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
New York legislature passes bill to establish commission on slavery reparations

The New York State Assembly and Senate passed legislation Thursday to establish a state commission on reparations for slavery. If Governor Kathy Hochul signs the bill into law, New York will become the second state with such a commission, following the creation of California’s Reparations Task Force in 2020.

The legislation will establish a commission of nine members. Three members will be appointed by the state’s governor, three by the speaker of the assembly, and three by the temporary president of the senate. The commission will meet within 180 days of the legislation’s enactment. A report recommending possible remedies and reparations will be prepared within one year of the commission’s first meeting.

The legislation’s text contains a thorough history of racially motivated oppression in the State of New York, beginning in the 1600s. The goal of the bill is to examine the institutions of slavery and discrimination and to undo what it calls “a legacy of generational poverty.”

New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie praised the legislation was as “historic” and “an important step in changing a long history of systemic racism and discrimination.”

California’s own state reparations commission recently submitted a nearly 500-page report in early June with recommendations. California’s recommendations include repeals of certain provisions of the state penal code prohibiting incarcerated people from voting and to serving on juries as well as free tuition for qualifying African-American high school graduates.

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