On May 23, 2023, a group of Black leaders in Kansas City convened for the first meeting of the Mayor's Commission on Reparations.
Mayor Quinton Lucas called it a "historic moment for Kansas City," and he tasked the group with studying the impact of systemic racism on the Black community and making recommendations on how the city could repair harms. The original deadline was 18 months.
But two years since that first meeting, much of the work has yet to begin.
At the outset, the commission had no funding. That changed in early 2024, when the group received approximately $350,000 of the $510,000 it requested to offset costs of research needs, according to Terri Barnes, the commission's chair.
Now that funding is allocated, the group is working to contract with researchers who will study local impacts of racism in Kansas City. Their results will help the commission make recommendations to the city.
However, that request is currently under legal review by the city out of an abundance of caution that it doesn't conflict with President Trump's executive orders barring work on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Barnes is confident that the money will get approved soon. And she says the delays have had an upside: a chance to speak with reparations commissions in other cities.
"The delay, for me has been valuable in understanding what other cities are doing, what challenges they're coming up against, different approaches that we can take to the work," Barnes told KCUR's Up To Date.
- Terri Barnes, chair of the Mayor's Commission on Reparations
- Dr. Linwood Tauheed, economics subcommittee head, Mayor's Commission on Reparations
