SF open to reparations plan that could pay Black residents $5M each

San Francisco legislators have shown broad support for a draft plan to provide reparations to the city’s Black community, but they have not yet decided the fate of the most ambitious recommendation: $5 million lump-sum payments to an unknown number of eligible recipients.

After a lengthy hearing Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted the wide-ranging draft reparations plan crafted by a committee tasked with proposing steps the city can take to remedy harms that Black residents endured over generations because of systemic racism and the legacy of slavery. 

San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton led a lengthy discussion on the city's draft reparations plan during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. Walton began the meeting by describing how Black community members engaged in reparations work are often on the receiving end of ugly, racist backlash and threats of violence, some of which, it turns out, has come from San Francisco residents.