Atlanta Considers Reparations in Form of Property Tax Relief Instead of Cash Payments to Black Americans

The Atlanta city council took a step toward establishing a task force to explore reparations for the Georgia capital on Monday.

It was not immediately clear what reparations would look like, but the “City of Atlanta Reparations Study Commission,” would aim “to research the extent of the City of Atlanta’s participation in the legal discrimination of African American residents and to provide recommendations for appropriate reparations,” according to the agenda item.

“We don’t want to interfere with the federal efforts,” Atlanta city council member Michael Julian Bond, who was behind the resolution, told Fox News Digital. “We just want to take the best of what is possible for a municipality to do. Atlanta has a similar history to other cities where egregious things, as in the way of public policy decisions, have affected the African-American population since reconstruction, so we have formulated our committee to look historically, economically and socially at the events, persons, places or things that were public policy generated that malaffected the African-American population in Atlanta.”

Bond explained that because cities can’t make direct payments to citizens under Georgia law, reparations would likely take the form of programs to mitigate racial gaps rather than direct monetary payments.

“But we could create programs or give or create incentives for those who can prove a legacy of discrimination directly from the Atlanta city and that is what this group will be empaneled to do,” Bond said.

Bond told Fox News Digital that nonprofits could serve as a workaround in providing reparations.

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Dr. Cynthia Spence, a professor and reparations expert with Spelman College, echoed Bond’s sentiment about reparations programs, describing it as a “necessary process for all of us to engage in.”

“Those outcomes have included things like reducing property taxes, providing monetary payments to Black individuals – African Americans in communities – to help with housing, there have been discussions about educational access,” Spence said. {snip}

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