Asked the City Manager to direct the appropriate City staff to determine the feasibility of establishing a pilot reparations program that would take a to-be-determined percentage of revenue from local cannabis sales and distribute these monies to local Black-owned businesses and to economic empowerment applicants

ON THE TABLE ITEM #3 (below is the Order As It Stood On June 28, 2021 and below that are the suggested revisions)

WHEREAS: For generations, cities across the country have grappled with how to adequately redress the historic injustices carried out against people of color throughout our country’s history, and the negative impacts that continue to ripple across our society due to the harmful, shameful institution of slavery; and

WHEREAS: Our country’s original sin was set in motion in 1619 when the first individuals were forcibly taken from Africa and forced into slave labor in Point Comfort, Virginia, and this unconscionable practice would be allowed to fester and grow for more than two centuries before President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (and even then, slavery was not fully abolished across the country until the Civil War formally ended in 1865); and

WHEREAS: As noted by the Evanston, IL City Council in 2002, “…uncompensated

slave labor was the primary [labor] source throughout the colonies…for clearing and cultivating land, planting and harvesting crops, and providing artisanal products” and that “…35 million African Americans currently in the United States are direct descendants of slaves brought to the New World beginning 400 years ago;” and

WHEREAS: In 2019, the Evanston City Council laid the groundwork for a first-of-its- kind initiative designed to provide reparations to the descendants of those who were enslaved in this country, utilizing tax revenues from the burgeoning marijuana industry in Illinois to fund payments of $25,000 to 16 eligible Black residents to be put towards homeownership and generational equity-building; and

WHEREAS: As the national debate over the concept of reparations continues to be held, pilot programs like the one being piloted in Evanston, IL may point the way toward a viable means of beginning to address the unconscionable wrongs perpetrated by this country centuries ago, and which continue to negatively impact millions of people today; and

WHEREAS: As the Evanston Model is not the only model worthy of consideration, the City of Cambridge could emulate that program’s spirit with an initiative that takes some of the revenues from local cannabis sales and distributes these funds among, and to lift up, economic empowerment applicants and non-cannabis Black-owned businesses, with the hope that this could be expanded if found to be successful; now therefore be it

That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the appropriate City staff to determine the feasibility of establishing a pilot reparations program that would take a to-be-determined percentage of revenue from local cannabis sales and distribute these monies to local Black-owned businesses and to economic empowerment applicants, with a targeted launch date of July 2022; and be it further

That the City Manager be and hereby is also requested to direct the appropriate City staff to determine the feasibility of establishing reparations programs with funding from other appropriate sources for possible future implementation to redress policies, including those enforced in Cambridge, that prohibited descendants of enslaved people from acquiring wealth, thereby contributing to the unconscionable median net worth of $8 for Boston area American born Blacks compared to $247,000 for white families; and be it further

That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council on any progress made toward this endeavor by October 4, 2021.

PROPOSED REVISIONS for September 13, 2021 -

Proposed changes in Red

WHEREAS: For generations, cities across the country have grappled with how to adequately redress the historic injustices carried out against Black and Brown people throughout our country’s history, and the negative impacts that continue to ripple across our society due to the harmful, shameful institution of slavery; and

WHEREAS: Our country’s original sin was set in motion in 1619 when the first individuals were forcibly taken from Africa and forced into slave labor in Point Comfort, Virginia, and this unconscionable practice would be allowed to fester and grow for more than two centuries before President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (and even then, slavery was not fully abolished across the country until the Civil War formally ended in 1865); and

WHEREAS: As noted by the Evanston, IL City Council in 2002, “…uncompensated slave labor was the primary [labor] source throughout the colonies…for clearing and cultivating land, planting and harvesting crops, and providing artisanal products” and that “…35 million African Americans currently in the United States are direct descendants of slaves brought to the New World beginning 400 years ago;” and

WHEREAS: In 2019, the Evanston City Council laid the groundwork for a first- of-its-kind initiative designed to provide reparations to the descendants of those who were enslaved in this country, utilizing tax revenues from the burgeoning marijuana industry in Illinois to fund grants of $25,000 to 16 eligible Black residents to be put towards homeownership and generational equity-building; and

WHEREAS: As the national debate over the concept of reparations continues to be held, programs like the one being piloted in Evanston, IL may point the way toward a viable means of municipalities beginning to address the unconscionable wrongs perpetrated by this country centuries ago, and which continue to negatively impact millions of people today, with the understanding that the federal government must ultimately play a much larger role in addressing these wrongs; and

WHEREAS: As the Evanston Model is not the only model worthy of consideration, the City of Cambridge could emulate that program’s spirit with an initiative that takes some of the revenues from local cannabis sales and distributes these funds among, and to lift up, local Black-owned businesses, with the hope that this could be expanded if found to be successful and with the understanding that there may be additional, concurrent reparations programs piloted in our city; now therefore be it

ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the appropriate City staff to determine the feasibility of establishing a pilot reparations program that would take a to-be-determined percentage of revenue from local cannabis sales and distribute these monies to local Black-owned businesses and to economic empowerment applicants, with a targeted launch date of July 2022; and be it further