FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County is budgeting hundreds of thousands of dollars to study reparations for the area's African American community.
The county board of commissioners approved funding for the Fulton County Reparations Task Force. According to a county news release, $250,000 was approved.
The task force was created in 2021 and is supposed to be made up of 14 members, but still has 11 vacancies. It is meant to serve as an advisory body for commissioners to investigate and give recommendations about policies that will "support the revitalization, preservation, and stabilization of the Black/African American population in Fulton County in the form of reparations," a county news release reads.
"To get a county to approve to investigate themself is a victory in itself," said the task force's vice chair Marcus Coleman.
Task Force Advisory Board Chair Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado said the budgeted funds will help conduct an empirical-based study and also a feasibility study.
“Qualitative and quantitative data will allow the Task Force to critically examine the ways slavery, Jim Crow, and Urban Renewal denied African Americans opportunities to acquire personal, (political), and economic autonomy," Sims-Alvarado said.
She said the work the task force is doing can also serve as a game plan for other counties hoping to start their own.
"I wanted to provide an example of what other counties who are proposing having a task force of this kind, how they can actually use this as a blueprint," she said.
So far, the research team has retrieved more than 4,600 documents – while examining slavery and the impact of eminent domain on residents of Bagley Park.
The group is hoping to expand its reach and host two town halls to help educate residents on what forms these reparations could take while collecting feedback for what the community needs.
A final report is planned to be presented to commissioners in October 2024.