Albany, New York - The New York State reparations commission is due to meet for the first time in Albany next week.

The nine members of the body will convene on July 30 as they prepare to embark on a historic effort to track New York's legacy of enslavement and racial discrimination and craft a blueprint to address ongoing harms.

Enslavement was legal in New York until 1827. Since that time, state and local governments, educational and financial institutions, and other entities have continued to profit off the exploitation of Black people, within the Empire State and beyond.

As part of their study, the New York commissioners are expected to address ongoing injustices in wealth, housing, education, employment, and mass incarceration. A report released last year by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found that white households have a median net wealth of $276,900 as compared to just $18,870 for Black households – a wider gap than in the US as a whole.

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The appointed members of the New York State reparations commission include:

• Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies;
  
  
• Timothy R. Hogues, commissioner for the Department of Civil Service and president of the Civil Service Commission;
  
  
• Linda Brown-Robinson, immediate past president of the Syracuse Onondaga NAACP;
  
  
• Darrick Hamilton, Ph.D., Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy at The New School;
  
  
• Linda Tarrant-Reid, author, historian, freelance journalist, photographer, and community activist;
  
  
• Seanelle Hawkins, president and CEO of the Urban League of Rochester;
  
  
• Dr. Ron Daniels, founder and president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century;
  
  
• Lurie Daniel Favors, Esq., executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College; and
  
  
• Rev. Dr. Deborah D. Jenkins, founding pastor of Faith @ Work Christian Church, Co-op City.

The commissioners will not be paid for their work but may have travel expenses compensated. The state budget for the year allocated $5 million for the endeavor.

The commission is expected to deliver its final report and policy recommendations to the state legislature by the end of 2025.