NORTHAMPTON — The city has named the 11 members that will make up its recently formed reparations commission, a panel created in February amid nationwide conversations about redressing racial harms against Black Americans.

The new Commission to Investigate Racialized Harms Perpetrated Against Black Residents and Workers drew considerable interest from residents, with 31 people applying to serve. Council president Jim Nash said at last week’s council meeting that 20 people were interviewed before narrowing it down to the 11 selected.

“This whole process was very inspiring and very hopeful,” Nash said when he announced the members. “I’m very gratified by the group we’re appointing tonight and I want to thank the mayor and the counselors for working so well together.”

In addition to two city councilors — Marissa Elkins, at large, and Garrick Perry, Ward 4 — commission members include Jeremy Baker-Paquette, Felicia Lundquist, Alton McCray, Renika Montgomery-Tamakloe, Marsha Morris, Rachel Naismith, William Newman, Sarah Lynn Patterson and Ousmane Power-Greene.

Elkins and Perry were two of the original sponsors of the resolution that created the commission, which will consider initiatives to be funded and implemented by the city to support and sustain the Black community within its borders, redressing past actions and legislation that entrenched systems of racial discrimination and segregation in the city.

Eight of the members are Black, or 72% of the total, which surpasses a requirement that at least half of the panel had to be Black.

Patterson, an assistant professor of English at UMass Amherst, is a member of the Northampton Reparations Committee, a seven-member group that advocated for the resolution. Power-Greene, an associate professor at Clark University, is a member of the David Ruggles Center in Florence, dedicated to promoting the history of abolitionism in the region.

Two members, McCray and Baker-Paquette, are also members of the Northampton Human Rights Commission and the Northampton Youth Commission, respectively.

Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra said during last Thursday’s council meeting that she would send a financial order to the council, to be voted on at their upcoming Aug. 17 meeting, so that the commission may begin to receive funding.

“We’re just figuring out the best way to structure it right now, but we will be bringing forward that order to provide assistance to this commission,” Sciarra said. “I’m very excited about this work and this group.”

Now that it is formed, the commission will be working to issue a preliminary report by May 24, 2024 with a final report to be submitted by Oct. 5 of the same year.

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

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