ST. LOUIS 鈥 City Hall should cut checks to Black residents as reparations for slavery and anti-Black discrimination, a city panel has decided.
But the Reparations Commission isn't planning to say how much recipients should get, leaving a key issue up in the air as the group prepares to send final recommendations to Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Oct. 7.
Instead, the panel is set to recommend the formation of another committee to study the matter.
鈥淲hat we have decided as a commission is to set forth a cash payment process that is equation-based,鈥 commission Chair Kayla Reed said Monday. 鈥淏ut that equation isn鈥檛 formalized.鈥
The commission is poised to recommend several other policies to compensate for damage done to Black communities by city policy over the decades, including programs offering scholarships to Black children, housing to Black families and grants to Black-owned businesses. Several of the ideas would build on recent city initiatives sparked by Jones鈥 push to spend much of the city鈥檚 federal pandemic aid in heavily Black north 50度灰视频.
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But the lack of immediate details on cash payments stuck out at the commission's final public meeting Monday night.
鈥淭his commission has taken 18 months to get to this point,鈥 said King Ausar, who鈥檚 followed its work. 鈥淎nd now you鈥檙e talking about another commission to get together and do some more talking.鈥
Getting reparations in cash, unfiltered by bureaucracy, has been the focus of reparations debates in other cities and states as well as Congress for years now.
Jones raised the issue in the executive order that formed the commission in November 2022 when she called out the U.S. government鈥檚 reparations to Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, an exercise that included sending $20,000 checks to surviving detainees in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The people who attended the 50度灰视频 commission鈥檚 meetings over the past year and a half have repeatedly hammered on the need for direct payments on a large scale.
More than once, a speaker rose near the end of a long meeting filled with discussions of local history and reminded commissioners that many people were just waiting for their checks.
With its mayoral mandate expiring this week, commissioners proposed a way forward: the creation of a new Reparations Commission to do the math on how much people should get, and then to oversee the payments and other new programs.
But some in the audience Monday night were restless.
鈥淒oes it take this amount of time for any other peoples that are in need to get their just due?鈥 asked Ausar. 鈥淎nd if not, why is it taking so long for us?鈥
The question drew the most applause of any line uttered Monday night.
Reed, the commission chair and a leading political activist in the region, said the answer was that the commission didn鈥檛 have the financial expertise to weigh all of the factors that could affect the size of a payment.
The commission is calling for reparations not just for people who can trace their lineage back to slavery, but any Black residents disproportionately impacted by systemic racism in 50度灰视频. Measuring the extent of the impact of city policy on each eligible person 鈥 and the corresponding size of the payment 鈥斅爄s complicated, Reed said.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want to draw a number out of the air,鈥 she said.
Commissioners also noted some uncertainty about where the money for payments and programs would come from. The city has yet to spend a significant portion of its $500 million federal pandemic aid haul, and hasn鈥檛 touched its $250 million share of the NFL Rams relocation settlement.
But none of the money has been set aside for reparations, and the volunteer commission has no power to make spending decisions.
鈥淲e are wrestling with the fact that there absolutely must be cash payments,鈥 Reed said, 鈥渁nd also that we鈥檙e not sure where that will come from because we can鈥檛 guarantee that that will happen.鈥
Will Ross, a commissioner and a professor at Washington University鈥檚 medical school, echoed experts who say federal action will likely be needed to cover the cost.
But Reed urged attendees to organize and put pressure on local officials to adopt the report鈥檚 recommendations and advance the larger mission.
鈥淲e need folks demanding that this gets as much consideration as much as blanket phrases like 鈥榚conomic development of downtown,鈥欌 she said.
The mayor, the city comptroller and half of the city鈥檚 aldermen are up for re-election in the spring, Reed noted.
鈥淒ecision-makers have to answer your questions to earn your vote,鈥 she said.