File #: Res 0744-2007    Version: * Name: NYS commission to quantify the debt owed to people of African descent, permit certain claims and make an appropriation therefor.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Governmental Operations
On agenda: 3/14/2007
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the State Legislature to enact legislation establishing a New York State commission to quantify the debt owed to people of African descent, permit certain claims and make an appropriation therefor.
Sponsors: Helen D. Foster, Inez E. Dickens, Annabel Palma, James Sanders, Jr., Larry B. Seabrook, John C. Liu
Council Member Sponsors: 6

Res. No. 744

 

Resolution calling upon the State Legislature to enact legislation establishing a New York State commission to quantify the debt owed to people of African descent, permit certain claims and make an appropriation therefor.

 

By Council Members Foster, Dickens, Palma, Sanders Jr., Seabrook and Liu

                     Whereas, Slavery was practiced in New York State for nearly two centuries; and

                     Whereas, New York’s government not only legalized the enslavement of Africans and their descendants but also enacted “slave codes,” taxes on the sale of enslaved persons and fines payable to the local government or poor house administrators for “slave code” violations; and

                     Whereas, New York’s colonial and subsequent State and local governments and businesses sanctioned and profited from the inhumane and immoral trade in men, women, and children of African ancestry; and

                     Whereas, Tremendous, unjust profits were made from expropriated wages, forced labor, and second class citizenship of enslaved Africans; and

                     Whereas, Slavery’s legacy of poverty, illiteracy, segregation and discrimination has never been adequately addressed; and

                     Whereas, Financial reparations for crimes against humanity and for State-sponsored discrimination have become a remedy for victims of such crimes, Native Americans, Jewish holocaust victims, Japanese Americans interned during World War II, and Rosewood, Florida riot victims and their descendants all being recent examples of this standard; and

                     Whereas, Legislative remedies can provide a mechanism for research and deliberations on how to compensate communities, especially children and families of African descent, for the collective wrongs suffered as a result of state-sanctioned slavery and discrimination; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council calls upon the State Legislature to enact legislation establishing a New York State commission to quantify the debt owed to people of African descent, permit certain claims and make an appropriation therefor.

 

BRS

LS # 2365

2/6/07