A commission in Alameda County, California, designed to study anti-Black racism and come up with a plan to compensate harmed residents was expected to complete its work by this July. Instead, it has hardly started.
Created in March 2023, the 15-member body is now asking for two more years and $5 million in funding to get the job done.
Though county government moves slowly in a normal year, decisions kicked down the road during the COVID-19 pandemic and months spent handling the recall of the Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price have slowed the county’s decision-making process to a crawl, according to Nate Miley, president of the Board of Supervisors and author of the resolution that created the Reparations Commission.
The commission was borne out of two Board of Supervisors resolutions — in 2011 and 2020 — that apologized for the enslavement and racial segregation of Black Americans. The second vowed the county would examine the role it played in perpetuating discrimination against Black residents and come up with a plan to compensate them.
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