The town of Amherst, Massachusetts is considering how and when to spend revenue on reparations for slavery. Two years ago, the college town established a reparations fund that will grow to $2 million over a decade as cannabis sales taxes come in, and then sustainably spend up to $100,000 a year to atone for how the town benefitted from slavery.
BOSTON — A Massachusetts college town that established one of the nation’s first reparation funds for Black residents is considering spending the proceeds of the $2 million endowment on youth programs, affordable housing and grants for businesses.The council Monday night will consider a report from the town’s African Heritage Reparation Assembly on how those funds should be spent.
“The recommendations we’ve made will begin to make this space one that is more inviting, welcoming and hospitable for people of African descent,” said Amilcar Shabazz, a professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, who has written a book on reparations and is a member of the assembly.
The 160-page report also found that Amherst College benefited from wealth generated through slavery and that Black residents into the 20th century were excluded from hotels, restaurants, barbershops and Amherst College fraternities. It cites restrictive housing policies preventing Black families from purchasing homes in desirable parts of town and other structural racism that shut them out of jobs and educational opportunities.
Along with spending funds on programs, the Amherst report is calling for special state legislation that would allow the town to provide direct cash payments to eligible Black residents who have experienced racism. The report didn’t say how many residents would be eligible or how large those payments would be.
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