North Carolina City Planning "Reparations" for its Black Residents

The Asheville city council announced its reparations will include adjustments to the city's budget.

On Tuesday, Asheville, North Carolina's city council voted 7-0 to pass a resolution to provide reparations to its Black residents. The city council announced the move, apologizing for the city's role in slavery.

Councilman Keith Young, one of the city council's two Black members, was the plan's creator.

"It is simply not enough to remove statues," Young said. "Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature."

The resolution will not mandate direct payments to its Black residents. However, the council plans to make investments into sectors where Black residents face disparities. The text of the plan reads:

"The resulting budgetary and programmatic priorities may include but not be limited to increasing minority home ownership and access to other affordable housing, increasing minority business ownership and career opportunities, strategies to grow equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety and fairness within criminal justice."

Read the full three-page resolution below, via Scribd:

Reparations for Black Ashev... by Denise Pridgen on Scribd

The council held a two-hour period for public comment on the resolution. Most were in favor of the decision.

"This is a really, really good gesture as far as the foundation of what we can build," said Rob Thomas, community liaison for the Racial Justice Coalition. "The potential of what can come out of this document is amazing. Thomas and the RJC pushed the council to consider the resolution.