Town OKs racial reparations fund

AMHERST, Mass. — A Massachusetts town has created a fund to pay reparations to Black residents as communities and institutions across the country look to atone for slavery, discrimination and past wrongs amid the nation’s ongoing racial reckoning.

The Amherst Town Council on Monday voted 12-1 in favor of establishing the fund and requiring a two-thirds vote of the council to authorize any spending from it.

Michele Miller, who co-founded Reparations for Amherst, an advocacy group that pushed for the measure, said that the fund sets the foundation for providing equity in the college town, which is located some 90 miles from Boston.

Miller and other proponents have cited restrictive housing policies that prevented Black families from purchasing homes in desirable parts of town. Black people were also shut out of jobs and educational opportunities at UMass Amherst, one of the state’s largest and most prominent institutions, they said. As a result, the median income for Amherst’s white families is more than two times that of Black families, and more than half its Black population lives below the poverty line.

Amherst is among hundreds of communities and organizations across the country seeking to provide reparations to Black people, from the state of California to cities such as Providence, R.I., religious denominations such as the Episcopal Church and prominent colleges such as Georgetown University in Washington.

Amherst advocates have cited Evanston, Ill., which became the first American city to pay reparations last month, as a model for their efforts.