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Eleven U.S. mayors from cities across the country will investigate paying reparations for slavery to small groups of Black residents in their cities. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is among them.
The effort comes as Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the United States, has become a federal holiday.
The project, dubbed Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity, also includes elected officials from Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Rhode Island and more.
Garcetti described the project as an effort in which “each of us does something, makes more of a commitment to justice, more of a commitment to wealth building, more of a commitment to a country that faces its past.”
The group of mayors said their goal was to set an example for the federal government on how a nationwide program could work.
There is currently a bill that would form a commission to develop reparations proposals in the United States. It was introduced to Congress in 1989, but has yet to be passed.
Last year, California became the first state to create its own reparations commission. That group held its first meeting earlier this month.
