Anti-racism activists descended on Atlanta on Thursday to urge lawmakers to support their $80 billion reparations package, warning of “serious political consequences” if they don't greenlight the plan.
Anqous Cosby of ReparationsPush and others want House politicians to create the Georgia Equity and Fairness Commission to develop a compensation package for the descendants of slaves.
Republicans oppose the plan, saying it's not fair to single out one group for payments — especially when Georgia's cash-strapped hospitals are closing and the state's overcrowded prisons need more space.
“Georgia could hope for over $80 billion with economic compensation, policies and laws to protect us, and debt relief,” Cosby told .
The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, Georgia's NAACP and the Urban League of Greater Atlanta are pursuing a reparations task force
Anqous Cosby of ReparationsPush says $80 billion is needed to compensate black Georgians
“But it’s not just a check. “It’s about us as a people within the nation becoming independent again and being able to help the United States.”
The bill is sponsored by State Representative Roger Bruce and also supported by the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, the Georgia NAACP and the Urban League of Greater Atlanta.
Opinion poll
Do you support a federal reparations policy aimed at the descendants of slaves?
- Yes, 256 votes
- No 8401 votes
- Not sure, 21 votes
Hubert Bass, an activist with Afrodescendant Nation, warned in a statement of “serious political consequences” if Georgia lawmakers fail to establish the commission.
“The reparations movement no longer plays a role,” Bass added.
African Americans make up nearly a third of Georgia's nearly 11 million residents.
They will play a dominant role in November's election – President Joe Biden is six percentage points behind his rival Donald Trump in the key swing state, according to a Morning Consult poll released on Thursday.
Reparations activists have had mixed results in Georgia, a state with a history of colonial cotton picking and subsequent industrial-scale plantation slavery.
Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta, approved a similar reparations task force last year seeking $2 billion in local payouts.
Hubert Bass, an activist with Afrodescendant Nation, says there will be “serious political consequences” if Georgian lawmakers fail to establish the commission
Fulton County Commissioner Bridget Thorne says taxpayers need more hospitals and prisons
Bridget Thorn, one of the county's conservative commissioners, pushes back against what she calls the agency's “biased research.”
“It's just research that looks at how we need to pay reparations, not whether we need to pay reparations,” she told Fox News.
The area's Wellstar AMC South Hospital closed last year after losing $7 million a month, leaving locals in a “health care desert,” Thorn said.
Another $1.7 billion is needed to overhaul Fulton County's overcrowded and violence-plagued jail, she added.
“I don’t think we can burden our taxpaying citizens any more now.”
Still, Georgia this week finalized a $37.9 billion semi-annual budget with $5.5 billion in new spending.
Reparations activists say it's time for America to pay reparations to its black residents for the injustices of the historic transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow segregation and the inequalities that persist today.
Critics say payouts to select blacks will inevitably fuel the divide between winners and losers and raise questions about why Native Americans and others aren't getting their own handouts.
Activists want Georgian lawmakers to give the green light to a commission to draw up a slavery compensation package
While reparations are popular among Black Americans, the other groups who would pay the tax bill are less interested.
A poll of 6,000 registered California voters last year found that only 23 percent supported cash compensation while 59 percent opposed it.
The reparations movement gained momentum amid the Black Lives Matter protests following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.
Four years later, the programs have largely failed to deliver meaningful results.
Supervisors in San Francisco this week formally apologized to African Americans and their descendants for the city's role in perpetuating racism and discrimination.
Plans for $5 million in lump sum payments and a guaranteed income of nearly $100,000 a year for black residents did not come to fruition.
Likewise, California's black lawmakers this month introduced a legislative package on reparations for black residents that makes no mention of previously promised $1.2 million payouts.