New York City taxpayers are set to fund a six-figure reparations initiative, despite the state’s long history as a free state and its central role in ending slavery.
The NYC Commission on Racial Equity plans to distribute more than $200,000 to selected community groups to help develop recommendations tied to slavery reparations.
The funding will go toward what the commission describes as community organizing, truth testimony collection, and collaboration with researchers conducting a citywide reparations study.
The initiative comes more than 160 years after the Civil War and nearly two centuries after New York formally abolished slavery in 1827.
CORE Chair and Executive Director Linda Tigani celebrated the program as a milestone, calling it a major step forward in the push for reparations in New York City.
She said community organizations must be included and resourced to ensure the reparations effort reflects lived experiences and local input.
According to CORE documents, the commission intends to award grants to as many as 13 nonprofits, community groups, or minority and women-owned businesses.
Each organization could receive up to $17,500, totaling roughly $227,500 in taxpayer funding.
However, a separate CORE press release suggested grants could reach $20,000 each, pushing the total cost as high as $260,000.
The commission declined to explain the discrepancy or respond to questions seeking clarification on the final amount.
Beginning as early as next month, the selected groups will explore how communities harmed by racism and historical injustice define healing, truth, and reconciliation.
The scope includes descendants and survivors of chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws, and what the commission calls the broader legacy of slavery.
Critics argue the plan ignores New York’s historical record as a free state and its role in fighting to abolish slavery nationwide.
More than 50,000 New Yorkers died during the Civil War, the highest toll of any state, fighting to end slavery, according to the New York Post.
Republican city leaders blasted the plan as a taxpayer-funded giveaway to activist groups with little accountability.
NYC Council Minority Leader David Carr said the commission itself was already an insult to residents with no connection to slavery.
He warned that the program is becoming a boondoggle that benefits special interest groups rather than taxpayers.
Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola questioned how eligibility would even be determined for reparations-related work.
She pointed out that slavery was abolished in New York nearly two centuries ago and asked whether genealogical testing would be required.
Ariola also mocked the idea of tracing ancestry back hundreds of years, calling the plan political theater and a waste of public funds.
The commission was created after a 2022 citywide referendum pushed by a racial justice panel appointed under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
CORE operates independently from city government with a $4.8 million budget overseen by 15 commissioners.
Those commissioners are appointed by the mayor, City Council, comptroller, and public advocate for staggered three-year terms.
Mayor Mamdani, sworn in earlier this month, has openly backed the reparations movement.
He has argued that New York City played a role in the slave trade and must now reconcile that history.
For critics, the new grants represent yet another example of ideological spending detached from historical reality and taxpayer priorities.
