An update from the Mayor’s Committee on Reparations Commission, including news from KCRC, and a talk given by The Black Tax author.
Mayor’s Committee on Reparations Commission
Tuesday, August 27th at 3pm
The Mayor’s Committee on Reparations Commission is headed by chair Terri Barnes, and also includes commissioners Will Bowles, Dr. Bridget Jones, Kelli Hearn, Danise Hartsfield, Dr. Linwood Tauheed, and Cornell Ellis. Commissioners Aija Morris, Kenneth Ford, and Madison Lyman were absent from this meeting.
Chair Barnes began August’s meeting by planning a strategic retreat for the commission. Barnes stated the purpose of the strategic retreat would be to allow the commission to better plan the work of their subcommittees in the coming years. Barnes and Commissioner Ellis also stated the need to plan a team building retreat to allow the commissioners to get to know one another better. After hammering out a date for their retreats, the commission heard reports from their subcommittees.
The Mayor’s Committee on Reparations Commission is structured such that each commissioner also serves on a smaller subcommittee, which allows them to take a more focused look at impact areas based on different factors. These include the Healthcare subcommittee, the Education subcommittee, the Housing subcommittee, and the Economic Development subcommittee. The first committee to report was the Healthcare subcommittee, chaired by Dr. Jones.
Dr. Jones reported that the subcommittee was unable to officially meet in August, due to other commissioners being absent. The current main goal of the Healthcare subcommittee is to find a meeting space for their listening sessions. Currently, Commissioner Hartsfield is in talks with the KC Health Department, Swope Health, and Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, trying to find a big enough community space to host events. The commission did not disclose who they were planning to book for their listening session, but Chair Barnes thought “he’d bring a crowd”.
Following the Healthcare subcommittee, Commissioner Ellis gave a report on his work with the Education subcommittee, which he chairs. Ellis reported on his committee’s recent meeting, at which they began writing the committee’s initial harm statement… Ellis further stated “The last couple times we’ve spoken, I’ve thought a lot about African Centered Education (ACE) as being our North Star; and the experience of ACE in the Kansas City community as being an important anecdote for the oppressive policies and measures, or the lack of support around Kansas City Public Schools.” According to a paper titled “African Centered Schooling: Facilitating Holistic Excellence for Black ChildrenBlack Children” (cited below), African Centered Education is a theory of educational practice which expressly centers the experiences and needs of Black children. ACE necessitates that all educators fully understand the struggles, perspectives, and history of the Black community. African centered education also includes the teaching and sometimes adoption of practices originating from African cultural groups. Commissioner Ellis continued his report by proposing another listening session in October, at Paseo High School. This session would host Dr. Kevin Bullard, a Kansas City based expert in ACE. Ellis reminded the commission of the previous success of listening sessions with Dr. Bullard, and finished his report with further discussion of the harm report.
The commission then heard an update from Justice Gatson, an advisor to the commission. Gatson has been in Washington D.C., acting as an advocate for reproductive rights and reparations with her organization Reale Justice Network. Gatson also reported that her organization has joined a larger collective of Black lead organizations called Movement for Black Lives.
Janay Reliford, chair of the KC Reparations Coalition (KCRC), also reported to the commission on the recent activity of the organization. KCRC held their public meeting this past Monday evening, which was “phenomenal” according to Janay. The meeting included guest speaker Andrew W. Kahrl, author of the newly published book The Black Tax. Kahrl spoke to KCRC about how “all across the country, African Americans have been robbed of local taxes. From our neighborhoods, to our school districts, from the county to the city”, said Reliford, “It was pretty heartbreaking”. Janay further explained to the commission, “historically, tax assessors have had the autonomy to tax how they want to tax. And historically African Americans have been taxed at much higher rates than caucasians”. Commissioner Ellis, who also attended the meeting, chimed in, saying, “He used three words, overtaxed, under served, and dispossessed. Not only are we being overtaxed $100 dollars on average, those dollars are being directly funded into white neighborhoods, and not being funded into the neighborhoods that they’re actually coming from”. A full record of KCRC’s meeting and Kahrl’s talk can be found on ZOOM.
Commissioner Dr. Linwood Tauheed then joined the meeting to give his report on the Economics subcommittee, which is also currently working on its harm statement. Dr. Tauheed additionally asked other commissioners to join the Economic Development subcommittee, as several commissioners on the committee had resigned.
During public testimony, KC resident Stacy Webb came forward to further discuss Andrew Kahrl’s talk about tax injustice in the Black community. Webb reminded the commission that although many of the injustices done to the Black community are obvious to them, the specifics are often too confusing for the average person to fully understand. Webb believes “many white folks are oblivious to it”, and hopes the commission will have a plan to educate the community. Janay responded to Webb, saying “I agree with you, but let me say this: Most lay-people, who are white, or even Black and other ethnic groups may be ignorant. But the powers that be, they know. They know exactly what has been done and what continues to be done.” Commissioner Ellis also responded to Webb, saying “I think about insurance law. A lot of these tax laws, insurance laws, early policies and procedures, were written around Black bodies, and the possession of actual Black people. We were the first sources of wealth for the country”. Ellis went on, “It’s not a mystery to me why these things are lesser known, or differently understood in different communities.” After public comment, Chair Terri Barnes wished everyone well and adjourned the meeting.
Durden, T. R. (2007). African Centered Schooling: Facilitating Holistic Excellence for Black Children. The Negro Educational Review, 58(1-2), pp. 23-34. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=cyfsfacpub
What would Reparations mean in Kansas City?
Kansas City’s City Council voted to create the Mayor’s Committee on Reparations Commission in January of 2023 with Ordinance 220966. Commission appointments were officially announced in May of 2023, when the commission was given its initial term length of 18 months. According to the City’s website, the purpose of the commission is to “study and develop reparations proposals for the City’s review”. Although they are moving closer to their term end, the Commission stated their intent to ask for an extension at their monthly meeting on August 27th, 2024.
Currently, the Commission’s strategy for developing their proposal is to break into subcommittees and further develop recommendations based on the impact area of each subcommittee. By splitting into more specific areas of focus, the City will be able to more specifically program exactly where reparations money is going. This will also give the City the ability to track how and if reparations are having the expected benefit.
What could Reparations look like? The easiest way to imagine reparations’ potential in Kansas City is to look to other U.S. cities that have actually implemented reparations. The city of Evanston, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago) became the first city to address its history of slavery and other discriminatory practices when it implemented reparations in 2019. Since then, Evanston has expanded its program to include monetary support for restoring historic housing occupied by Black residents of the city.
To benefit from Evanston’s reparations, one must be a Black resident of Evanston and prove they lived within the city between 1919 and 1969, or are a direct descendant of someone who did. That period of time is when Evanston implemented explicitly discriminatory housing practices which made it difficult or even impossible for many Black residents to find adequate housing. In KC, the City could implement a similar strategy of only allowing applications for residents who meet certain qualifications. The City could also invest in projects which specifically serve Black neighborhoods. As of now, neither the Mayor’s Reparations Commission, nor the City, have decided what Reparations means for KC exactly.
This means KC residents have the opportunity to shape the future of reparations right now! By attending the Commission’s bi-monthly meetings, the plan for reparations can be molded into its best version for Kansas City. The Mayor’s Committee on Reparations Commission meetings are usually held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month, on the 10th floor of City Hall, or via Zoom. Stay up to date with the City Clerk’s website for calendar changes and links to join the virtual meeting.
Note: Many of the boards and committees that are normally covered in this space did not meet this week. Like many other workplaces, late summer is a popular time for staff, elected officials and appointed board members to take time off. Regular City Council meetings will return the week of September 9th-13th, see the Clerk’s Calendar for specifics.
Grayson Johnston is the author of This Week at City Hall, and an Urban Planning and Design Student at UMKC. He moved to Kansas City two years ago and has loved it ever since. Grayson became interested in community and neighborhoods while still in high school, when he discovered the field of Urban Planning. As he learned about the theory of walkability, transit, and strong communities, Grayson became committed to going to planning school and starting a career growing his community.
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