New York, New York – Racial justice advocates have released a new report calling for reparations for Black New Yorkers for the ongoing legacies of enslavement.
“New York’s wealth was built in large part on the labor of enslaved Black people, while they were simultaneously denied access to primary sources of wealth. The result is one of the widest racial wealth gaps in the nation, an outcome shaped by policy, not personal failure,” reads a new report released Tuesday by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Legal Defense Fund.
Entitled The Other New York: The Legacy of Slavery and the Case for Reparations Now, the document lays out the harms that have impacted Black New Yorkers, starting with the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1626 through the present day.
Though New York outlawed slavery in 1827, the report details how state and local governments continued implementing discriminatory laws, policies, and practices against Black New Yorkers…