NORTHAMPTON — The City Council is expected to introduce a resolution to create a commission that would look into racial injustices perpetrated against Black residents and workers in the city, part of ongoing nationwide efforts to explore the idea of reparations. 

Groups in the city, such as the Northampton Reparations Committee, have been advocating for months for such a proposal, seeing it was a way to fix historic injustices such as enslavement of Black people in Northampton for the first century of its existence, and more recent concerns such as racial inequality in housing and employment. 

The resolution is sponsored by Councilor Garrick Perry of Ward 4 and Councilor at-large Jamila Gore, the two African-Americans on the city council, along with Councilor at-large Marissa Elkins. 

Although the resolution appears on the agenda for the City Council’s Thursday meeting, the specific details of the resolution had yet to be shared publicly by the council as of late Wednesday. Per the rules of City Council, all agenda items must be shared 48 hours prior to a meeting. However, the final text of a resolution does not have to be shared during that time frame, and can even be revealed during the meeting, although Elkins said in an email that it would be shared before the meeting. 

The Reparations Committee listed four demands as part of its petition: to investigate the historical and current effects of enslavement and racism in Northampton; to make recommendations for reparations; to issue a formal apology to Black residents past and present for historical racial injustices; and to fund the proposed commission’s research and publish its findings.

Amherst approved a similar resolution in 2020, creating a reparations fund and a seven-member African Heritage Reparation Assembly. The town has committed $2 million so far to its reparations fund over the next decade.

Other cities across the country that have established reparation funds are Evanston, Illinois, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

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