By New Yorkers for Reparations
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
NEW YORK, NY — Last night, New Yorkers for Reparations, a 100+ member multi-racial grassroots coalition, successfully hosted “Making Equality Real For Black New Yorkers: A Mayoral Forum on Reparations, Healing and Building Prosperity” at the Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York. The event convened Mayoral candidates to discuss their positions on reparations and plans to advance economic healing and racial prosperity for Black New Yorkers.
State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Michael Blake were among the candidates who participated in the live forum, with NYC Comptroller Brad Lander delivering video remarks, and Zohran Mamdani contributing a written statement. All candidates addressed constituents directly on their commitment to healing historical harms and building a more equal and prosperous future by making reparations a reality.
NYC COMPTROLLER BRAD LANDER (full video here)
- “I’ll implement a better deal for Black New Yorkers, and I’ll implement the recommendations of the Reparations Commission when they are available. I will be your partner and let’s be clear here; closing the racial wealth gap is not just a better deal for Black New Yorkers, it’s a better deal for all New Yorkers. As Heather McGee shows in her book, The Sum of Us, when we end that drain pool politics, when we close the racial wealth gap, when we open up access to home ownership and opportunity, we make our neighborhoods safer, we make our economy more thriving, we drive those pension fund returns, we create good jobs, we make our economy and our city more flourishing for everyone. That’s why the fight for reparations is both a fight for Justice and a fight for the thriving future of New York City.”
STATE SENATOR ZELLNOR MYRIE (see video remarks here):
- “I was really proud to support this [Reparations commission legislation] as a state legislator to ensure that we not only set up the task force but that we allocated some resources for us to get what’s needed. This year’s budget the deadline for that first report has been extended but also with a $3M allocation so that they can do the work that I think is necessary. I am someone that would not be who I am today if not for Black New Yorkers, if not for Black New Yorkers standing up for me, fighting for me. These are my teachers, my neighbors, my family, my community leaders, and we as a city have to ensure that we are correcting the wrongs of the past. I have put out a Black Agenda that says we’ve got to provide and put the money where our mouth is to ensure our young entrepreneurs, our people trying to get houses for the first time, our young people in need of serious mental health, that they would have direct access to that and the city would play a pivotal role in providing that.”
ZOHRAN MAMDANI:
- “As Mayor, I will ensure that my administration meaningfully advances equality for Black New Yorkers, in our steadfast commitment to freedom and dignity for all people. New York City participated actively in the slave trade and furthered its legacy through racist institutions, policies and laws; the City should reconcile and repair this legacy of slavery, stolen wealth, and discrimination. I was proud to support the new Reparations Commission to report Wall Street’s complicity with the slave trade and make recommendations for Reparations. As Mayor, I will work with our state partners to move those recommendations forward, while championing the below commitments per the Get Free pledge I have proudly signed:
- Using every tool at my disposal to block, delay, and reject all MAGA regime attacks on our fundamental freedoms and civil rights,
- Ensuring every New Yorker is free to learn the truth, be our true selves, and speak truth to power,
- Championing policies that create real equality by rectifying historical discrimination and repairing ongoing inequalities,
- Implementing the Commission on Racial Equity to move NYC towards a future of healing, freedom, and prosperity for all.
- As Mayor, I will lead with my core belief that our liberation is bound together; redressing slavery’s harms—past to present—is necessary to achieving freedom and equality for Black New Yorkers, and for us all. I look forward to #MakingEqualityReal with you.”
MICHAEL BLAKE (see video remarks here)
- “We have to address economic injustice at the forefront. We have to make sure that people have and can keep more money in their pockets and transform the game in that way, because it is simply too expensive to live in New York City because of historical injustices that have happened. I believe we should end credit scores from being used in rent and home ownership applications. I think it’s a discriminatory and racist practice that’s hurt us over and over again. I believe we need to expand income thresholds on housing applications because right now, you effectively have to be rich or poor enough to get access to a home in New York City. I believe every student should have civics, financial literacy and mental health before they graduate. I believe we should have 1,000 mental health professionals out in our subways, our buses and our communities because cops are not trained to address mental health, mental health professionals are trained to address mental health. We have to reimagine what’s happening in our communities in terms of skills and making sure that our young people and communities of color get access to technology skills that they don’t have right now, but also the jobs from paid internships and all of this to say that we can have better. As the only person in this race who has been a part of a team that has defeated Donald Trump when I was Vice Chair of the DNC, as the only person in this race who has White house, state house and local experience, you don’t have to go back to a name of Cuomo, you can go to a name that actually can help you.”
The forum coincided with the release of new polling data, conducted in partnership with Liberation Ventures, showing stronger-than-expected support for reparations among New York voters—potentially making it a decisive issue in the upcoming mayoral race. It also comes amid growing momentum for reparations initiatives locally and federally:
- The NYS Reparations Commission recently received an extension in the Governor’s newly approved budget until January 2026
- A May 13 Congressional briefing was held on Capitol Hill with Senator Booker and Representative Pressley around the reintroduction of HR-40
- Representative Summer Lee held a press conference on May 15 reintroducing the Reparations Now Resolution, continuing work previously championed by former Congresswoman Cori Bush
- On Saturday, May 17 organizers from around the country will convene for the National Reparations Rally in DC
New York continues to lead nationally in legislative action on Black Reparations. In 2023, Governor Hochul signed legislation creating the New York Commission on Reparations Remedies, which has been hosting public hearings across the state, most recently in the Bronx and Long Island. The NYC Council has also recently passed legislation launching a formal reparations process in the city.
“The poverty, state-sanctioned violence, disenfranchisement, and criminalization experienced by Black communities across our city and state today are not new—they are the product of centuries of systemic oppression rooted in enslavement, segregation, and white supremacy. This legacy is not behind us; it shapes the present through modern manifestations of past harms,” said New Yorkers for Reparations. “While discriminatory practices like redlining may no longer be legal by name, they continue through disinvestment, gentrification, and environmental displacement perpetrated by wealthy corporations and the politicians they pay for. Contrary to prevailing narratives about reparations being politically unpopular, our latest polling shows that New Yorkers across race, age, and geography strongly support these efforts—making it a potentially decisive factor in the voting booth. The candidates who recognize this reality and commit to meaningful action will be the ones who truly understand what New York needs to heal, thrive and move forward.”
About New Yorkers for Reparations:
New Yorkers for Reparations is a 100+ member grassroots coalition growing the movement for Black reparations in New York and working to ensure that the recommendations that come out of the New York State Community Reparations Commission turn into policy. Learn More: https://www.ny4reparations.org/
