Georgia county home to Atlanta approves task force to study reparations for Black residents

A county government in Georgia approved $250,000 to fund a reparations task force.

The funding was approved during a Jan. 18 Fulton County Board of Commissioners meeting in a  4 to 3 vote, according to a Fulton County press release. Fulton County is home to Atlanta. 

The reparations task force will provide recommendations “to the Board of Commissioners regarding priorities, objectives, and policies which will support the revitalization, preservation, and stabilization of the Black/African American population in Fulton County in the form of reparations,” according to the press release.

According to FOX 5, the task force was first created in 2021 to study the feasibility of giving reparations to Black residents in the county.

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The funding was requested in order to study if the county owes Black residents reparations for slavery, Jim Crow, as well as the effects of “urban renewal.” If it is decided that reparations are necessary, the study will also determine how much Black residents should receive.

Task Force Advisory Board Chair Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado said the funding is a victory.

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“It was a great victory to secure a majority vote from the Board of Commissioners granting $250,000 to perform an empirical-based study and a feasibility study,” Sims-Alvarado said. “Qualitative and quantitative data will allow the Task Force to critically examine the ways slavery, Jim Crow, and Urban Renewal denied African Americans opportunities to acquire personal, political, and economic autonomy. Recommendations will be offered based on the empirical evidence. The feasibility study will demonstrate how Fulton County can support the recommendations made by the Task Force.”

The task force will present their findings to the board of commissioners in October 2024.