Washington DC - Washington DC Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie has announced he has reintroduced legislation to create a local reparations task force.

The Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force Establishment Act of 2023 was reintroduced to coincide with Reparations Awareness Day, an occasion officially recognized by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser on February 25.

"This legislation seeks to acknowledge and address centuries of government-sanctioned policies and private practices that exploited Black people as chattel property, violently robbed Black communities of generational wealth, and baked anti-Black racism into the core of our institutions and society," McDuffie said in a letter to DC Council Secretary Nyasha Smith.

The letter cites the Black-white wealth gap in DC as an example of the disparities that remain to be solved, with the average white household reportedly having a net worth 81 times greater than the average Black household.

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If enacted, the bill would create a nine-member task force to study and develop proposals to address the ongoing impacts of chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and present-day policies. The body would include at least one member of academia, at least two members of reparations advocacy organizations, and no more than four members of the city council.

The task force's first meeting should take place no later than June 1, 2024.

The bill would also compel the Commissioner of the Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking to establish a database of records related to slaveholding and create a Reparations Foundation Fund to pay reparations in accordance with the task force's proposals.

"If ever we are to achieve racial equity in this country, it will require an official recognition of the role of government-sanctioned slavery, segregation, and racism that denied wealth-building opportunities to Black people," McDuffie wrote.

"We must be intentional in our efforts so that Black people might finally be compensated for their ancestors’ labor and for the continuing effects of policies and systems designed to suppress their potential to build wealth."