DEFINITIONS

(1) Whereas, Reparations are a form of “transitional justice and reparatory justice,” which by international law is defined by the United Nations as “Adequate, effective and prompt reparation is intended to promote justice by redressing gross violations of international human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law. 

(a) Reparation should be proportional to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered. In accordance with its domestic laws and international legal obligations, a State shall provide reparation to victims for acts or omissions which can be attributed to the State and constitute gross violations of international human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law. In cases where a person, a legal person, or other entity is found liable for reparation to a victim, such party should provide reparation to the victim or compensate the State if the State has already provided reparation to the victim." and;

(2) Whereas, Reparations can take many forms, including: Restitution, which seeks to restore a victim to their original state of sovereignty before the violations occurred; Compensation, which is a financial award for harms; Rehabilitation, which seeks to provide care and services for victims beyond monetary payment; Satisfaction, which includes symbolic reparations such as public apologies and verifying facts; and Guarantee of non-repetition, which assures that this kind of harm shall never be repeated, and;

(3) Whereas, more than 4,000,000 African Americans/US Freedman and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865, inclusive.

(4) Whereas, the institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the United States from 1789 through 1865, inclusive.

(5) Whereas, the slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of African Americans/US Freedman’ life, liberty, citizenship rights, and cultural heritage and denied them the fruits of their own labor.

(6) Whereas, a preponderance of scholarly, legal, and community evidentiary documentation, as well as popular culture markers, constitute the basis for inquiry into the ongoing effects of the institution of slavery and its legacy of persistent systemic structures of discrimination on living African Americans/U.S. Freedman and society in the United States.

(7) Whereas, Following the abolition of slavery, the United States government at the federal, state, and local levels continued to perpetuate, condone, and often profit from practices that continued to brutalize and disadvantage African Americans/ U.S. Freedman, including Chattel Enslavement, Sharecropping, forced labor towards consumer capitalism contributing to climate change, Jim Crow, Black Codes, White Domestic Terrorism in Desegregation Era, genocide, environmental racism, conversion of slave catchers to police, Racial Massacres, Racial property seizures, Medical Experimentation and apartheid, Convict Leasing, Homestead ACT Exclusion, GI Bill Exclusions, New Deal Exclusions, Unethical Foreclosures/Seizures of Property, FHA Mortgage Exclusions, Contract Buying, Redlining, racially discriminatory practices of financial systems, cultural and spiritual erasure, Urban Renewal, War on Drugs, theft of intellectual property, Mass Incarceration, Ongoing police terrorism, Racial Profiling, the Lack of Protection for Ant-Black Hate Crimes, state sponsored terrorism through bombings of Black communities and trafficking of guns and drugs, denied access to education and technology, loss of 40 acres per General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 .

(8) Whereas, As a result of the historic and continued discrimination, African Americans/ U.S. continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(A) Massachusetts inmate population race/ethnicity is 29% Black in comparison to only being a total of 6.8% of Massachusetts population.

(B) An unemployment rate more than twice the current white unemployment rate.

(C) An average of less than one-sixteenth of the wealth of white families, a disparity that has worsened, not improved, over time.

(b) It is the purpose of this chapter to establish a commission that will do all of the following:

(1) Study and develop reparation proposals for African American/US Freedman as a result of:

(A) The institution of slavery, including both the transatlantic and domestic “trade” that existed from 1565 in colonial Florida and from 1619 to 1865, inclusive, within the other colonies that became the United States, and that included the federal and state governments, that constitutionally and statutorily supported the institution of slavery.

(B) The de jure and de facto discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present, including economic, political, educational, and social discrimination.

(C) The lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the discrimination described in paragraphs (5) and (6) of subdivision (a) on living African Americans and on society in California and the United States.

(D) The manner in which instructional resources and technologies are being used to deny the inhumanity of slavery and the crime against humanity committed against people of African descent in California and the United States.

(E) The role of Northern complicity in the Southern-based institution of slavery.

(F) The direct benefits to societal institutions, public and private, including higher education, corporate, religious, and associational.

(2) Recommend and deploy appropriate ways to educate the Massachusetts public of the commission’s findings.

(3) Recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the commission’s findings on the matters described in this section.

SECTION 1. (a) There is hereby established a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States.

(b) The commission shall:

(i) identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865, inclusive. The commission’s documentation and examination shall include the facts related to the: 

(A) capture and procurement of human beings in Africans; 

(B) transport of human beings to the United States and the colonies that became the United States for the purpose of enslavement, including their treatment during transport; 

(C) sale and acquisition of African Americans and freedmen and freedwomen as chattel property in interstate and intrastate commerce; (D) treatment of African Americans and freedmen and freewomen slaves in the colonies and the United States, including the deprivation of their freedom, exploitation of their labor, and destruction of their culture, language, religion and families; (E) extensive denial of humanity, sexual abuse and chattelization of persons; (F) federal and state laws that produced loss of sovereignty and discriminated against formerly enslaved African Americans and freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants who were deemed United States citizens from 1868 to the present; (G) other forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against African Americans and freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants who were deemed United 

States citizens from 1868 to the present, including, but not limited to, redlining, educational funding discrepancies and predatory financial practices; and (H) lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the matters described in this section on living African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United and on society as a whole in the United States;

(ii) recommend appropriate ways to educate the public of the commission’s findings;

(iii) recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the commission’s findings on the matters described in this section. In making recommendations, the commission shall address, among other issues: 

(A) how the recommendations comport with international standards of remedy for wrongs and injuries caused by the state, that include full reparations and special measures, as understood by various relevant international protocols, laws and findings; (B) how the commonwealth will offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of the commonwealth for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African Americans and freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants; (C) how laws and policies of the commonwealth that continue to disproportionately and negatively affect African Americans and freedmen and freedwomen as a group and perpetuate the lingering material and psychosocial effects of slavery can be eliminated; (D) how the injuries resulting from matters described in this section can be reversed and how to provide appropriate policies, programs, projects, and recommendations for the purpose of reversing the injuries; (E) how, in consideration of the commission’s findings, any form of compensation to African Americans, with a special consideration for African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States, is calculated; (F) what form of compensation should be awarded, through what instrumentalities, and who should be eligible for such compensation; and (G) how, in consideration of the commission’s findings, any other forms of rehabilitation or restitution to African Americans and freedmen and freewomen descendants are warranted and what form and scope those measures should take; and

(iv) seek the assistance of agencies of the commonwealth to develop and evaluate processes and applications for reparations; requiring the Governor to include in the annual budget bill such sums as necessary to carry out the Act.

(c) The commission shall submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the clerks of the senate and house of representatives not later than 2 years after the date of the first meeting of the commission.

SECTION 2. (a) The commission shall consist of: 9 members appointed by the governor with recommendations from Senate President to provide to the Governor to choose from, 1 of whom shall be from the field of academia that has expertise in reparatory justice and sovereignty, 1 of whom shall be in the field of academia with expertise in genealogy, 2 of whom shall be from major civil society and reparations organizations that have historically championed the cause of reparatory justice and 5 of whom shall have a respected track record in grassroots organizing;  2 members appointed by the senate president and 2  member appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives; 1 member appointed by the attorney general’s, who shall work within the civil rights division of the office of the attorney general. Not more than 4 members shall be members of the legislature. Members shall be drawn from diverse backgrounds to represent the interests of communities of color throughout the commonwealth and shall have experience working to implement 

restorative justice reform and, to the extent possible, represent geographically diverse areas of the commonwealth. The commission shall elect a chair and vice chair from among its members.

(b) A vacancy in the Commission shall not affect the powers of the commission and shall be filled in the same manner that the original appointment was made.

(c) The governor shall call the first meeting of the commission to occur not later than 90 days after the enactment of this bill.

(d) Five members of the commission shall constitute a quorum.

(e) For attendance at meetings, a legislative member of the commission shall be entitled to per diem compensation and reimbursement of expenses for not more than 10 meetings, subject to appropriation.

(j) Non-legislative members of the commission shall be entitled to per diem compensation and reimbursement of expenses for not more than 10 meetings, compensation for research and labor, subject to appropriation.

SECTION 3. (a) For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act, the commission may: 

(i) hold hearings and sit and act at any time and location in the commonwealth; (ii) request the attendance and testimony of witnesses; 

(iii) request the production of books, records, correspondence, memoranda, papers and documents; (iv) Research methods and materials for facilitating education, community dialogue, symbolic acknowledgment and other formal actions leading toward repair and a sense of justice among the people of the commonwealth; 

(v) make recommendations for appropriate ways to educate the public about the findings and recommendations in the commission’s report; (vi) consider such other matters relating to the institution and legacies of slavery in the commonwealth as the members of the commission may deem appropriate; (vii) provide lineage based research and tools to residents of the commonwealth who are descendants of chattel slavery within the United States; and (viii) seek an order from a Superior Court compelling testimony or compliance with a subpoena.

(b) Any subcommittee or member of the commission may, if authorized by the commission, take any action that the commission may take pursuant to this section.

(c) The commission may acquire directly from the head of any state agency available information that the commission considers useful in the discharge of its duties. All state agencies shall cooperate with the commission with respect to such information and shall furnish all information requested by the commission to the extent permitted by law. The commission shall keep confidential any information received from a state agency that is confidential or not considered a public record under section 7 of chapter 4 of the General Laws and chapter 66 of the General Laws. 

SECTION 4. (a) The commission may appoint and fix the compensation of such personnel as the commission considers appropriate.

(a) The Commission may procure supplies, services and property by contract in accordance with applicable laws and rules.

(b) The Commission may enter into contracts for the purposes of conducting research or surveys, preparing reports and performing other activities necessary for the discharge of the duties of the commission with state departments, agencies and other instrumentalities, federal departments, agencies and other instrumentalities and private entities.

SECTION 5. Any reparation actions undertaken pursuant to this act shall be in addition to any reparation actions taken at the federal or local level.