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VOA VIEW -- Is the opinion of "Voice of Americans", which is a private entity not affiliated in any way with the United States government or any of its agencies. The opinions expressed here, in whatever medium or format, are not necessarily the opinions of the ownership or advertisers of this web site - 0415.

     New York’s state reparations commission convened its final public hearing Saturday in Harlem, where residents called on officials to make direct cash payments to Black Americans as the only path to what one attendee described as “true justice.” A stupid idea.

     According to a commission announcement, the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies held the hearing — themed “From Extraction to Repair: Closing the Racial Wealth Gap” — at the National Urban League Conference Center at 117 West 125th Street in Manhattan.   Testimony gathered through the series of hearings will be reviewed alongside research and data as the commission compiles its findings for a formal report to the governor and the Legislature. New York officials have twice extended the deadline for that report — originally due last summer, then pushed to 2027, and now to 2029, nearly four years beyond its original target — citing the shifting political climate and the scope of the work involved.

    The commission was established after Ms. Hochul signed legislation in December 2023 creating a community commission to study the state’s history of slavery and how to repair its lasting impacts on descendants of enslaved New Yorkers. The panel was tasked with examining potential remedies, including monetary reparations, housing policy changes and criminal justice reform.  At Saturday’s hearing, commissioner Seanelle Hawkins opened by welcoming attendees and framing the session’s purpose.  “Certainly grateful that you all came up here today to enjoy and participate and lend your voice to this public hearing,” Ms. Hawkins said, according to Fox News Digital. “Our theme today is truth before repair.”

     The question of who would be eligible for any eventual payments emerged as a central point of debate. Several speakers identified themselves as members of “The United States Freedmen Project,” a group of self-described “foundational Black Americans” who argue that reparations eligibility should be tied to lineage from enslaved people — not extended to all immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean. The organization describes itself on its website as a nonpartisan group seeking to fulfill the abandoned missions of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company.