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Senator James Sanders Jr., Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, and Nearly 70 Elected Officials Call on Governor Kathy Hochul to Sign Reparations Commission Bill into Law to Begin the Path toward Justice for African Americans
Senator James Sanders Jr., Chair of the
Senate Banks Committee, Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, Chair of The
New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative
Caucus, and nearly 70 elected officials from around the state signed a
letter to Governor Kathy Hochul urging her to sign the reparations
commission bill into law. The bill (S.1163-A/SANDERS Same as
A.7691/Solages) would establish the New York State Community Commission
on Reparations Remedies.
This letter was delivered to Governor Hochul along with a list of
numerous organizations and petitions with hundreds of signatures from
individuals who support the bill and urge the Governor to sign the bill.
Some of the organizations that support the bill include the following:
New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative
Caucus; New York State Council of Churches; The Black Institute;
Churches United for Worldwide Action, Inc; NY Renews; New Economy
Project; African American Redress Network and the NAACP Far Rockaway
Branch.
Slavery remained legal in New York until 1827. And even after that, it
remained closely tied to the institution when it continued to exist in
southern states. There’s a real question of whether slavery would have
been economically feasible without New York. New York provided insurance
for the slave industry. New York bought much of the cotton. African
Americans have been subjected to racial, economic, and institutional
injustices in New York and around the nation throughout history.
The letter includes the following passage: “The history of chattel
slavery and all of its successors including but not limited to, America
apartheid (Jim Crow Era), and mass incarceration, is a history comprised
of atrocities too brutal to fully comprehend. Not only were African
American’s sold and bought as property, but African Americans in this
nation have been lynched, beaten, wrongfully incarcerated, intentionally
deprived of bare necessities, treated merely as second-class citizens,
with very little action taken to provide an equitable society.”
This bill would create a commission tasked with studying the history of
slavery and racial discrimination in New York and recommending possible
reparation payments. The commission would look at more than just
slavery. It would also examine the lingering negative effects of the
institution of slavery and discrimination on living people of African
descent. The bill details the history of slavery within the United
States and provides a particular focus on New York State’s profitable
relationship with the slave industry. The bill details long-standing
generational impacts of slavery on African Americans in New York
including legal battles to secure basic civil rights for African
Americans, New York State’s history of segregation, housing
discrimination and redlining, unequal pay, voter suppression, and police
bias and brutality.
