Report lists reparations for NJ African Americans, including payments to slave descendants
"The goal is simple and radical: create a New Jersey where Black people are free to flourish — and where everyone benefits when that happens."
That's the assessment in an op-ed published by NorthJersey.com by Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Taja-Nia Henderson, co-chairs of the New Jersey Reparations Council, which released a report on Juneteenth outlining reparations for Black people impacted by the legacy of slavery in the Garden State.
There are 1.2 million Black people in New Jersey, which makes up about 15% of the state's population, according to U.S census data. New Jersey was known as the 'slave state of the North," as it was home to more than two-thirds of the entire slave population of the northern U.S. by 1830, and the last Northern state to end the practice in 1866.
The two, in the opinion piece, argue for the recommendations for reparations in the 244-page report to be implemented in New Jersey, which range from improving access to health care to narrowing the wealth gap for African Americans.
They also call on state legislators to carry out the recommendations by passing a bill that would include the long-awaited formation of a state reparations task force.
"New Jersey built wealth on Black backs; it can now build a future on Black flourishing. The reparative work is past due. The time is now to do it," Muhammad and Henderson said in the op-ed.
Two years after the New Jersey Reparations Council launched, with the intention of putting forward a report on Juneteenth 2025, the report, "For Such a Time as This: The Nowness of Reparations for Black People in New Jersey," was released to the public.
The council, consisting of nine committees addressing various aspects of the brutal and damaging institution of slavery in New Jersey, produced the report after holding two- to three-hour virtual sessions over the past two years to discuss their findings and hear public comments.
The report lists about 100 policy recommendations for reparative redress carried out by the state in nine categories that the council addressed: History of Slavery in New Jersey, Public Narrative & Memory; Economic Justice; Segregation in New Jersey; Democracy; Public Safety & Justice; Health Equity; Environmental Justice; and Faith and Black Resistance.
The recommendations include some of the following:
Providing direct payments to the descendants of enslaved Black people in New Jersey for the uncompensated labor extracted from their ancestors.
Creating a reparations bureau that would oversee and manage reparations initiatives in New Jersey.
Establishing a guaranteed income for New Jersey residents.
Creating a mental health task force that meets the standards of high-quality care, particularly for Black residents.
Ending the requirement that public school students attend school within district boundaries.
Establishing a scholarship fund and trust for Black students.
Implementing zero emissions standards for buildings.
Prohibiting the incarceration of youth offenders.
Reissuing an official state apology for slavery that does not include a denial of liability (a follow-up to the state's official apology in 2008).
Invest in research related to the legacies of slavery and segregation in New Jersey.
As stated in the report, the recommendations are based on two principles: Black people in New Jersey are eligible for reparations because "slavery harmed both enslaved and free Black people, and because segregation and institutional racism have harmed descendants of enslaved people, as well as Black people who arrived in New Jersey well after slavery," and "comprehensive reparations must include both direct payments and policy remedies."
The report cites various disparities and historical harms impacting African Americans in New Jersey, such as the substantial "racial wealth gap" between Blacks and Whites, where the median household net worth (where half of households have more wealth and half with less) for Blacks in New Jersey is approximately $20,000 while for Whites it's $662,500.
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Then, there's the historic advantage provided to Whites when New Jersey during its slavery period gave "White families 150 acres of land and up to an additional 150 acres of land for each enslaved Black person they brought with them."
The New Jersey Legislature has yet to pass the bill introduced in 2019 for the formation of a state reparations task force, and no hearing on the bill has been scheduled for discussion. However, numerous municipalities in New Jersey, including Montclair, have supported its passage.
Jean-Pierre Brutus, who heads the Reparations Council, said in a recent interview with NorthJersey.com, that he hoped the council's report would spur the passage of the bill and the creation of the task force to carry out the report's recommendations. He pointed out that the lack of progress on the state level was what led to the creation of the council in the first place.
The task force created by the legislation would be known as the "New Jersey Reparations Task Force," consisting of 11 members, including four legislators and seven public members. Three members would be appointed by the governor, and eight by the state Legislature.
Their task would be to examine the institution of slavery that existed within New Jersey; the extent it existed in the state and how the federal government put barriers to former enslaved persons and their descendants thriving economically after slavery ended; look at "the lingering negative effects of slavery" on African Americans and society as whole in the modern day in New Jersey and nationwide; gather research methods and materials for bringing about reparations; make recommendations for the remedies, through what means should they be administered and to whom they would be awarded, and how those recommendations would comply with "national and international standards of remedy for wrongs and injuries."
The task force would hold at least six public meetings across the state and would hold its first meeting within three months of enactment. It would issue "an interim report of its progress to the governor and the State Legislature, no later than a year following the initial meeting." Then, the final report and recommendations to the governor and the Legislature within two years of the first meeting. A timeline similar to the one pursued by the Reparations Council in issuing its report.
Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, D-Paterson, is an original co-sponsor of the reparations task force bill in 2019 with the late Newark assemblyman Ron Rice.
Sumter said in comments emailed to NorthJersey.com that the reparations report by the New Jersey Reparations Council is "timely and essential" and "confronts the hard truths of New Jersey's history and draws a direct line from centuries of systemic racism to the stark disparities Black residents face today."
Sumter said some of the recommendations in the report can be implemented in the immediate future, such as guaranteed income for New Jersey residents.
She also hoped that the report would prompt the Legislature to pass the task force bill, but noted that any legislative action would come about when "the people demand it."
"We've been advocating for this bill since 2019 because true healing requires truth and accountability. This report offers the Legislature a detailed, evidence-based roadmap informed by research and lived experience," Sumter said. "That said, there are still obstacles."
Sumter said some of the obstacles to the bill's passage are the discomfort of some of her fellow legislators and the general public around the word 'reparations," and the state's slavery past.
"The reality is that many people remain unaware of New Jersey's deep entanglement with slavery and systemic racism. They don't see this as a New Jersey issue when in fact, it absolutely is," Sumter said. "Until we educate the public and create space for honest, informed conversations, the resistance will persist."
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter/X: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Reparations in NJ: Report outlines payment to slave descendants
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