Providence, Conn. Mayor Jorge Elorza (D) signed an executive order to pursue a “truth-telling and reparations process” in the city on Wednesday.
Determining what forms reparations will take is the last step of Elorza’s “process.”
Elzora’s move follows the Asheville, North Carolina City Council’s unanimous vote on Tuesday in support of a resolution apologizing for it’s past role in slavery and vowed to create a Community Reparations Commission to provide reparations to Black residents and their descendants.
According to The Hill:
The resolution would not provide direct payments to Black people. Instead it would distribute funding to different areas of society that see racial disparities in order to close those gaps, including in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety and fairness in criminal justice.
Last week, the United States Conference of Mayors President, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (D) wrote a letter to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), reiterating support for their Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.
“Our support of your bicameral legislation is not just an endorsement – it is a resolution,” Fischer wrote. “We have resolved to do better for our Black residents by promoting equal rights and opportunity through the implementation of policy reforms at the local level, as well as through our advocacy for action at the federal level.”
Booker’s federal bill was introduced in the Senate in April of 2019.