Story at a glance
- The Amherst Town Council approved reparations for Black citizens in a 12-1 vote.
- It will require a ⅔ vote to administer funds.
- Reparations are being considered across multiple town and city governments following Black Lives Matter demonstrations last summer.
Amherst, an idyllic college town located in Massachusetts, has become the latest town to approve issuing financial reparations to its Black citizens.
The call for reparations intensified following the Black Lives Matter protests that began in 2020 as a way to help bridge the socioeconomic gaps that persist as a result of the U.S.’s history of institutionalized slavery.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that the Amherst Town Council voted 12-1 on Monday to establish a special fund for reparations.
So far, about $210,000 is anticipated to kickstart the fund when the money is approved later this year.
Michele Miller, the co-founder of the Reparations for Amherst group, said this legislation will be the first step in giving Black residents equity.
Any appropriations delegated from the new fund will require a two-thirds majority vote from the council.
The town is looking to Evanston, Ill., as a model for their own reparations initiative.
Evanston was one of the first cities to implement a constructive outline for reparations, featuring $25,000 payments to qualifying individuals for down payments on homes or household repair funding, among other provisions.
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