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The Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday established a standing committee on reparations that will work to address racial disparities experienced by the county’s Black residents.
The vote followed the Alameda County Reparations Commission’s presentation of its draft action plan, highlighting racial inequities faced by Black residents.
The commission worked on its draft action plan for more than two years, using the $500,000 budget at its disposal to conduct community listening sessions and surveys involving more than 400 Alameda County residents, a majority of whom were Black.
In March 2023, the Board of Supervisors voted to create an Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations to guide the reparations process from the county’s legislative side, and a 15-member Reparations Commission to study the historical struggle of the county’s Black residents.
The Reparations Commission was initially scheduled to create an action plan by July 2024, but the deadline was eventually extended to 2026. The Board of Supervisors stated that additional time was needed to “effectively address the complexities surrounding reparations policy.”
In their presentation to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, members of the commission highlighted sobering findings from their report; 83% of the respondents experienced systemic harm in the county, 66% were subjected to biased or unnecessary police stops, and 60% faced housing policy barriers to homeownership and creation of wealth.
“The County’s own disaggregated data shows black residents overindexed for harm, not historically, but right now,” said Debra Gore, the Chair of the Reparations Commission. “The injury is not historic, it’s current. We’re just now measuring it.”
Broadly, Gore’s commission identified inequalities in accessing housing and property, disparities in economic opportunity, and the physical and mental health of Black residents as short-term priorities.
Other major issues highlighted in the action plan include improving access to and the quality of education for Black community members, public safety, and political disenfranchisement.
To address these inequalities, Gore urged the Board of Supervisors to institute a standing committee on reparations to implement its recommendations as outlined in its report.
“This is not a debate about whether slavery happened 160 years ago. It did,” said Gore. “The question in front of this Board of Supervisors is simpler and harder to dodge: do we still believe in the Constitution, or do we just believe in the parts that are convenient?”
The Supervisors then voted unanimously to receive the Commission’s recommendations and approved the institution of a standing committee.
Earlier, the Supervisors issued proclamations commending all 15 members of the Commission, thanking them for their service to Alameda County.
District 4 Supervisor Nate Miley, who, along with District 2 Supervisor Elisa Marquez, sat on the Reparations Commission, was visibly emotional as he congratulated the commissioners.
“The Reparations Commission spent quite a bit of time, energy, and knowledge pulling together this action plan,” Miley said. “The reason I’m so proud of these people is that they did such a great job!”
In June 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved a resolution formally acknowledging and apologizing for the county’s role in the displacement of Black residents in Russell City, a community located off the Hayward shoreline. Russell City was seized and destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s, thanks in part to actions by former members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Following up on this apology, Alameda County launched the Russell City Redress Fund in 2025 alongside the Hayward City Council, authorizing money to be set aside from several supervisors’ discretionary budgets to fund direct payments to victims of the community’s destruction.
— Story by By Tanay Gokhale, Bay City News
