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Kansas City has formed a committee to consider slavery reparations for black citizens. After passing a vote in January to form the commission, Democratic Mayor Quinton Lucas appointed 13 people to sit on the board and begin the process of forming reparation proposals.
The Mayor’s Commission for Reparations reportedly will research the city’s historical treatment of African Americans and, according to a 2022 proposal, be “expressing apologies on behalf of the city of Kansas City and declaring the city’s intent to make amends for its participation in the sanctioning of the enslavement of black people.”
Members of the new commission include Chair Terri Barnes, Linwood Tauheed, Cornell Ellis, Dionne King, Madison Lyman, Ryan Sorrell, Kenneth Ford, Fritz Riesmeyer, Bridgette Jones, Kelli Hearn, Will Bowles, Danise Hartsfield, Ajia Morris, Ex-Officio Mickey Dean and Ex-Officio Ester Holzendorf, FOX4 News reported.
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The city filed Ordinance #220966 in 2022 laying out the city’s reparations proposal and “expressing apologies on behalf of the city of Kansas City and declaring the city’s intent to make amends for its participation in the sanctioning of the enslavement of black people and any historical enforcement of segregation and accompanying discriminatory practices against black citizens of Kansas City, encouraging others to join the city in this effort and establishing a commission within 90 days to be known as the Mayor’s Commission on Reparations to advise the City regarding reparation issues.”
It is unknown at this time exactly what type of payments or how much in payments the commission will be seeking for black residents. However, the ordinance states that “the commission will issue a preliminary report of its findings within one year of its inaugural meeting, and a final report will be issued within six months thereafter.”
Proposals from San Francisco and California task forces are reportedly seeking to charge each individual taxpayer an estimated $600,000 for reparation payments to eligible black residents in the state.
–Lee Hartman | Metro Voice
With the absolute failure of the California Reparations Committee, and abandonment of Gavin Newsom’s support, it is a sad day. The news coming out of the Reparations Committee, in California, after rejections of the original demands are that prosecutors prosecute crime on the basis of race. In Kansas City, the talk is which tax should go to pay for it. In terms of reparations, the soldiers and their heirs used in medical experimentation by the US Army have received compensation, as have the Japanese Americans whose belongings were collected and sold, while they were interned during World War II. It seems the only citizens who never received reparations where the citizens of Jackson Cass, Bates, and parts of Vernon County who had their belongings, homes, farms, crops, and livestock burned by their own government under General Order Number 11, an order that was rescinded, after the fact due to Constitutionality of punishing people without finding of criminality. Now, those people are due reparations.