The Philadelphia City Council released new details about the city’s reparations task force Friday, calling on Black residents to apply to join the effort.
The task force will “study and develop reparations proposals and programs for Black Philadelphians whose ancestors endured chattel slavery and Jim Crow in the United States,” according to the office of councilmember Jamie Gauthier, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Gauthier co-authored the legislation that led to the creation of the task force, which is set to launch in February.
The task force will consist of 10 volunteer members, including leaders of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. The remaining eight seats will include the roles of economic justice coordinator and health and wellness coordinator.
In order to qualify for the task force, board members must have lived in Philadelphia for at least 10 years and be “descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States, the descendants of Black, Negro, or Colored Americans since 1865, and/or the descendants of Freedmen emancipated from slavery,” according to Gauthier’s office.
“For generations after the Civil War,
