Detroit reparations meeting continues to discuss progress

(CBS DETROIT) – February is Black History Month and part of conversations about Black History have included discussions around reparations.

The City of Detroit Reparations Task Force is tasked to develop recommendations for housing and economic development programs that address historical discrimination against the Black community in Detroit.

“Anything that the city had its hand in, that that caused destruction and was detrimental to our communities, that’s what we’re going after,” said Cidney Calloway, Co-chair for the Reparations Task Force.

Calloway said there is a long history of racial issues that lead to poverty for Detroiters which is why she and others believe there is a deeply rooted basis for reparations.

“It goes all the way through the Jim Crow era, that goes through our great migration era because that’s when 375 came in and that’s when, you know, Jeffries freeway came in,” said Calloway. “So everything that demolished our neighborhoods, everything that caused that wealth gap to expand and deepen, that’s what we’re working on.”

But Calloway also said the need for reparations goes even deeper than that.

“We are also looking for a contemporary lens on what reparations is because there are a lot of things that happened in the last 5,10, 20, 15 years that may not be included in that initial reparations idea,” she said.

The Reparations Task Force is a 13-member body. It is hearing from the community in meetings and continuing their research to decide what exactly reparations would be like for Detroiters if it is one day realized.

“Now we’re focusing on affordable housing and economic development. But that does not mean that we’re not trying to give land back,” said Calloway. “That doesn’t mean we’re not trying to present more opportunities and more programming for self-sustaining self-development. So reparations is everything that we think of, everything that we believe that we deserve.”