FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Thursday night marked the first time the Fulton County Reparations Task Force met in person to discuss giving money to descendants of slaves.
“Reparations means to repair,” Vice Chair Marcus Coleman with Fulton County Reparations Task Force said during the meeting. “There’s not one certain avenue of repair if we’re talking about holistically.
“All of the atrocities that our ancestors were faced with, as their heirs, it’s our duty to recover every single avenue of repair.”
Thursday night’s crowd at the Fulton County Government Center was small. Coleman said there’s a reason for that: “We live in a geographical location, where for whatever reason, for folks that look like you and I, reparations seem like a pipe dream.”
He said the task force has been meeting over the last two years virtually, to talk about reparations.
Dr. Daniel Black, a professor of African American Studies at Clark Atlanta University, said the debate over reparations has been decades in the making.
“The truth of the matter is, people have been talking about reparations since we got off the slave ship,” Dr. Black said. “Reparations is really this idea that we should get what we worked for. The truth of the matter is 40 acres and a mule would not be sufficient to pay black people for what black people have given in this country.”
Channel 2′s Larry Spruill asked Coleman what would reparations in Fulton County look like.
“It would be naïve and foolish of me to discuss such a controversial line item, but obviously eligibility is on the list,” Coleman explained. “You know what’s funny, when it’s time to present any type of recommendation, the seats will be full and the criticism will be high. So, we encourage folks to come out before that date hits.”
Going forward, Channel 2 reports the task force will meet on the first and third Thursday of each month. They will meet in person on the first Thursday of each month at the Fulton County Government Center, and virtually on the third Thursday.
They’re asking for the public’s input.
They’re hoping to have a proposal to the full Board of Commissioners by October 2024.
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