Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, is quoted in a Star Tribune article about the city of St. Paul's intent to make reparations to Black descendants of slaves.
At a June 15 council meeting, Williams and other members of the city's reparations advisory group made recommendations as St. Paul considers how to make the reparations a reality.
From the article: Members of a reparations advisory group recommended next steps for St. Paul leaders, including the creation of a permanent city commission that would work on repairing "the damage caused by public and private systemic racism," which has resulted in racial disparities across a slew of metrics.
"This is not a handout to communities of color," Yohuru Williams, one of the advisory group's leaders, said at Wednesday's City Council meeting. "This is restitution for historic injustice that continues to hurt our community socially, economically, politically."
