When voters overwhelmingly approved a reparations ballot initiative in 2021, they tasked the city with confronting deep-seated, long-standing injustices. In 2023, the Detroit Reparations Task Force — a 13-member body composed of Detroit residents and community leaders — began intensive work, gathering public input, reviewing decades of municipal decisions, and wrestling with the legacy of discriminatory policies.
Their final report, a 558-page report submitted at the end of October 2025, aims to do more than acknowledge past wrongs: it charts a comprehensive, city-wide plan for repairing harms inflicted on generations of Black Detroiters by systemic racism, neglect, and economic displacement.
At its core, the report makes a stark claim: the wealth and economic stability many enjoy today are directly tied to the exploitation of Black labor — from slavery to forced labor and discriminatory municipal practices. The report argues that municipal policies over decades not only favored downtown and corporate interests, but systematically eroded the foundations of Black communities…