reparations

The recently appointed members of the Boston Reparations Task Force now have the report commissioned by the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry (UUUM) to guide their inquiry on slavery in colonial Roxbury.

When the Boston City Council voted unanimously last week to establish a task force to study reparations for Black Bostonians they had to be concerned about something other than slavery. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts outlawed slavery in 1783, so the City of Boston has no liability for damages inflicted by slavery.

The Bay State Banner urges Gov. Charlie Baker to sign the law creating Emancipation Day. Even Boston City Councilors seem to be unaware that in 1783, Massachusetts became the first state to outlaw slavery.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley responded to constituent questions and concerns about student debt relief, Black maternal health, reparations and climate change at a Boston event on Oct. 19.

The Boston City Council last week unanimously approved a measure to “acknowledge, condemn and apologize for the role played by the City of Boston in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The notion that Boston should apologize for the slave trade is misguided. And to suggest that Boston might be at all liable for reparations is absurd.

As Boston moves to establish a commission charged with crafting a municipal reparations policy, District 1 City Councilor Lydia Edwards is raising questions about the potential cost of such a commission and how its membership would be determined.

During last week’s City Council meeting, Councilor Julia Mejia introduced an ordinance calling for the creation of a commission to look into reparations for Black Bostonians facing repercussions of the city’s involvement with slavery, redlining and other forms of discrimination.

Citing records of slavery in 1638 in what is now East Boston, Dorchester activist Kevin Peterson is calling on the city of Boston to issue an apology for what he says was its complicity in the Atlantic slave trade, and to begin a dialogue about reparations.