California and New York Now Lead the Nation in Reparations and Racial Justice
New York and California have taken steps to address their roles in the country's original sin, and provided an opportunity for people to acknowledge the whole nation's complicity in it.

The move toward confronting our racist past took a progressive step last week when New York became the second state in the country to establish a reparations and racial justice commission.
Last Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul authorized a commission to explore the possibility of reparations for the stateās role in discriminating against African Americans.
This follows a June report from a task force in California that includes more than 115 recommendations for how the state should approach compensating those whom slavery and other āhistorical atrocitiesā harmed. Those recommendations include the state issuing a formal apology to descendants of enslaved people, and reforming health care, housing, education, and criminal justice policies.
The lead sponsor of New Yorkās bill, Sen. James Sanders, stated:
This is a day that will be etched in the annals of our stateās history. Today, we plant a seed of hope, not just for the City of New York and New York State, but for the nation. The bill number S1163A is a testament to the power of persistence, of unwavering voices demanding justice. Let this be a beacon, a call to action for every corner of this country to confront their own histories, to acknowledge the injustices that bind us, and to work together towards a future where reparations are not just a word, but a lived reality for all.Ā
He continued:
The reparations commission it establishes is a vessel for truth, a platform for voices silenced for too long. Their findings will not be easy, but they will be necessary. They will guide us towards reparations not just for the past, but for the future, building a legacy of equity where every child, regardless of their heritage, can dream without the shackles of historical injustice. I believe that reparations are essential to achieving true racial justice in our country. We must acknowledge and address the harms of the past in order to create a more just and equitable future for all.
The commission will examine slaveryās legacy and lingering negative effects in the state, and submit a report similar to Californiaās with recommendations for appropriate actions to rectify structural inequities to the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leaders of the senate and the assembly, and the governor no later than one year after the date of the of the commissionās first meeting.
Gov. Hochul explained:
Today, we are continuing our efforts to right the wrongs of the past by acknowledging the painful legacy of slavery in New York. We have a moral obligation to reckon with all parts of our shared history as New Yorkers, and this commission marks a critical step forward in these efforts.
She added:
In New York, we like to think weāre on the right side of this. Slavery was a product of the South, the Confederacy. What is hard to embrace is the fact that our state also flourished from that slavery. Itās not a beautiful story, but indeed it is the truth.
Gov. Hochul is correct.
For too long we have perpetuated the myth that slavery was that terrible thing those racists in the Confederacy did that the āwhite knightsā in the north eradicated.Ā
This is wrong on two counts.
First, slavery was not āeradicatedā. Read the 13th Amendment for the exception pertaining to those punished for crimes for which they have been āduly convictedā. The amazing documentary, 13th, about it is available on Netflix and YouTube. (Click below.)
While there were more chattel slaves in the south per capita, slavery was the engine driving the American economy. There were slaves in the north too, even New York, which had the highest concentration of enslaved people in the north in the antebellum United States.Ā
In 1626, the Dutch West India Company shipped its first imprisoned Africans to what was then New Amsterdam. Its first slave auction took place in 1655. New York Cityās slave market operated from 1711 to 1762 at the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets.
The New York Colonial Assembly passed the āAct for Preventing the Conspiracy of Slavesā in 1708 that mandated a death sentence on any slave who murdered or attempted to murder his or her master.
A slave uprising in NYC in 1712 led to the passage of āan act for preventing, suppressing and punishing the conspiracy and insurrection of Negroes and other slaves.ā
About 90 miles away, Ulster County, the location of New Yorkās first capitol, Kingston, had 2,914 slaves in 1790. The same year, Albany County, housing the current capitol of Albany, there were 3,722.Ā
While New York abolished slavery in 1827, the country as a whole still relied on the economic system predicated on chattel slavery.
New York and California have taken steps to address their roles in the countryās original sin, and provided an opportunity for people to acknowledge the whole nationās complicity in it.