Nearly a dozen mayors moving forward with slavery reparations plans

Nearly a dozen mayors in towns and cities across the United States are moving forward with local plans to offer reparations in one form or another to black Americans in an attempt to rectify the alleged lingering effects of U.S. slavery.

The group, Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity, consists of high-profile U.S. mayors such as Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles and Steven Adler of Austin, Texas, along with executives from smaller cities such as Asheville, N.C.’s Esther Manheimer and Keisha Currin of Tullahassee, Okla. 

The mayors “are committed to moving that needle with action and advocacy that points toward justice and healing the wounds of history,” the group says on its website. 

“Our coalition stands on the belief that cities can — and should — act as laboratories for bold ideas that can be transformative for racial and economic justice on a larger scale,” they continue, arguing that the project could “demonstrate for the country how to pursue and improve initiatives that take a reparatory approach to confronting and dismantling structural and institutional racism.”