DETROIT (WWJ) -- The Detroit City Council is expected to address the possibility of paying reparations for the city’s residents at Tuesday’s meeting.
Detroit voters could see a ballot question in the November election asking whether the city council should form a committee to explore the idea.
The council’s proposed question, according to a report from the Detroit News, asks: “Should the City of Detroit establish a reparations committee to make recommendations for housing and economic development programs that address historical discrimination against the Black community in Detroit?”
It is not yet clear who would pay the reparations or how they would be paid if a ballot measure were to be approved by voters.
City Council President Pro Tem Mary Sheffield has sponsored two resolutions on reparations that acknowledge African-Americans have been “systematically, continually and unjustly enslaved, segregated, incarcerated, denied housing through racist practices and redlining,” according to the story from the Detroit News.
Sheffield says in order to combat that, the city needs to make a process that would “develop short- and long-term reparations recommendations in a bid to create generational wealth as well as boost economic mobility and opportunity for Black residents.”
Related
Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, recently became the first American city to offer reparations to residents.
The city approved a $400,000 plan which uses a combination of tax dollars from marijuana sales and donations to provide $25,000 to qualifying Black households for home repairs or down payments on property. Evanston has also pledged to pay $10 million over the course of 10 years.