Philadelphia City Council considers Office of Freedmen Affairs to guide possible reparations efforts

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

Philadelphia’s City Council is considering establishing a committee that could result in reparations for residents who are descendants of slavery in the United States.

On Wednesday, Public Safety Committee members discussed the creation of the“Office of Freedmen Affairs,” which would be tasked with guiding reparations efforts and identifying those who qualify as true descendants of enslaved people brought to America.

What are reparations?

Reparations is the idea that compensation, whether financial, material or symbolic, be given to people harmed by past injustices such as slavery, discrimination and systemic oppression, to acknowledge the damage and help repair lasting effects. Councilmember Curtis Jones said reparations could come in many forms.

“I don’t think it’s logical that we would do 40 acres and a mule, but there are common sense things that we can do, like scholarships, tax relief, that can be directed towards the impacted people,” he said.

Who would qualify?

Who would qualify for reparations was a major discussion during the over-three-hour-long debate. Witnesses were mostly from the Philadelphia Reparations Coalition for American Freedom.

They delved into the Constitution’s 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, arguing that since enslaved people were freed, they were still discriminated against in everything from housing to educational opportunities.

Robert E. Williams said his great-grandmother was on one of the final slave ships to come to the United States, and that now is the time to help the descendants of those brought here in bondage.

“There’s been a lot of really bright people before us. We can’t answer that we’re going to fix it today, because they were fighting the fights that they had to fight. We’re the only ethnic group in this country — as a class of people — that have laws written against us since slavery ended,” Williams said.  “This is a way to start … addressing those things.”

Williams said Philadelphia is the only city in the U.S. with a law, established in 2004, that forces insurance companies to come clean about any historical ties to slavery — including whether they sold policies on enslaved people or made money from slavery — and requires those companies to explain any financial reparations. A similar rule was later passed for banks that manage the city’s money.

Cara McClellan, of the Philadelphia Reparations Task Force, believes the city needs to move forward with the Office of Freedmen Affairs. She said it’s more than a theoretical conversation.

“It has to be a very practical conversation about how to implement the remedies that are required for the harms that are being documented,” McClellan said. “We can build on history. We can also build on what we know is being implemented in other states and at the local level.”

Proponents of the office say Philadelphia could join the likes of California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom approved an office in 2025. That came five years after forming a task force in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis to study the legacy of slavery in California and how the state could implement reparations policies. No money was attached to the California office for reparations.

Councilman Curtis Jones ended the hearing vowing, “We don’t intend to just sit on this information. We intend to take this report [and] give it to the members of the Committee of the Whole to introduce legislation to create the freedmen’s bill.”

The Committee of the Whole includes all members of City Council and meets as a group to review major legislation. Right now, the city has no formal plans or dedicated funding for reparations.