KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced 13 appointments Monday to the city’s new Commission on Reparations.
Lucas and 10 other U.S. mayors, including St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, pledged to form a commission “to study and develop” proposals to pay reparations for slavery to Black residents in their cities nearly two years ago. The group, Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity, has since grown to 13 mayors.
RELATED | Lucas explains commitment to MORE reparations pilot project
The KCMO City Council approved an ordinance in January to form the Mayor’s Commission on Reparations.
The ordinance, which required the commission’s formation within 90 days, passed 10-1. Heather Hall was the lone dissenting vote.
Lucas tapped Terri Barnes, president of the Nia Project, to chair the commission.
“Building a better community for all requires our City to address past wrongs, ongoing patterns of discrimination, and tools by which we may create equal opportunity for all Kansas Citians,” Lucas said. “I thank the members of the Mayor’s Commission on Reparations for engaging in the important review and work essential in providing a template for City Council, Kansas City businesses, and our entire community for how we can support long-term equitable growth for all parts of Greater Kansas City.”
Other commission members include:
- Kansas City Black United Front advocate Will Bowles;
- Seigfreid Bingham partner Fritz Riesmeyer;
- Brothers Liberating Our Communities Founder Cornell Ellis;
- Descendent Freedman Alliance Executive Director Kenneth Ford;
- Communities Creating Opportunities Executive Director Danise Hartsfield;
- LISC Greater Kansas City Program Officer Kelli Hearn;
- UMKC Professor of Pediatrics Dr. Bridgette Jones;
- Dionne King of DMK Consults;
- Lincoln Prep student Madison Lyman;
- Greenline Initiative CEO and Co-Founder Ajia Morris;
- “KC Defender” founder Ryan Sorrell;
- UMKC Associate Professor of Economics Linwood Tauheed.
Kansas City Reparations Coalition members Mickey Dean and Ester Holzendorf are ex-officio members of the Mayor’s Commission on Reparations.
—
