A reparations fund. Now about the money.

Good morning! I’m your host, Otis R. Taylor Jr.

San Francisco launched a reparations fund. What it doesn’t have is money in it. Nice headline, though.

This week, we head to Bayview-Hunters Point to ask what residents can expect once the announcement has come and gone. Elsewhere, families are fighting to keep their land, lawyers are preparing to defend reparations and Houston is preserving historic bricks laid by formerly enslaved Black residents. A Black church stands again where an institution put a parking lot.

There’s work happening. We’re tracking what is delivered.

Season One presenting sponsor

Liberation Ventures, which funds and strengthens the movement for Black reparations, is the presenting sponsor of our debut season. Click the logo above to tap into more information.

Well, as of right now, nobody.

Here’s what a reparations announcement looks like without the money: In December, San Francisco supervisors voted to create a reparations fund. Mayor Daniel Lurie signed the ordinance. The headlines blared. But nearly 10 months later, the fund is still waiting for the money. Apparently, that part comes later.

A fund isn’t funding. Announcements aren’t outcomes. In Episode Two, Bailey Zitko heads to Bayview-Hunters Point, where residents with deep roots in the neighborhood have heard promises before.

Read, watch and listen in Episode Two.

Here’s the weekly roundup of developments in reparations and repair. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe.)

Philadelphia puts Black Bottom back on the map. Philadelphia renamed a block of Market Street Walt Palmer-Black Bottom Way, honoring a predominantly Black neighborhood demolished during urban renewal to accommodate the University of Pennsylvania’s expansion. Naturally, thousands of Black residents were displaced. Why it matters: The connection to Paula Sibulo’s Russell City reporting in Episode One is hard to miss: government helped dismantle a community and former residents and descendants pressed for restitution. Alameda County established a redress program, but questions remain about eligibility and compensation. Philadelphia has restored Black Bottom’s name to the streetscape. What will the institutions that benefited from its destruction give back? Read The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Newsom vetoes a tax protection for reparations. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill which would have exempted qualifying reparations benefits from California personal income taxes for the 2028–2032 tax years. He cited uncertainty about the fiscal impact and said the exclusion belonged in the budget process. Why it matters: The veto belongs in the accounting of Newsom’s reparations record as his governorship winds down. Rejecting the exemption does not, by itself, establish how any particular future payment would be taxed. Read the legislative record tracked by CalMatters.

Colonial Williamsburg restores a Black church it helped erase. The reconstructed African Baptist Meeting House was dedicated Oct. 9 through a partnership involving First Baptist Church’s descendant community, the Let Freedom Ring Foundation and Colonial Williamsburg. The congregation traces its founding to 1776, when enslaved and free Black people gathered for worship despite restrictions on Black gatherings. Colonial Williamsburg demolished its later church building in 1957 and the site became a parking lot. Why it matters: A building has been restored by an institution whose own decisions contributed to its erasure. That is a tangible outcome, though reconstruction does not settle the full accounting of what was lost. Read the Associated Press.

Ninety-five heirs fight to preserve their family’s land. After emancipation, Robert Tatum bought 300 acres in East Texas. His descendants now share the remaining 80 acres among 95 heirs. The Houston Chronicle follows Jacque Tatum’s years of work identifying relatives and organizing the family to protect the property. The East Texas Heirs’ Property Initiative is helping families resolve ownership questions, obtain legal assistance and generate income without selling their land. Why it matters: Racial wealth repair includes protecting what Black families already own. Read the Houston Chronicle.

Freedmen’s Town marks a homecoming for its historic bricks. Houston’s Freedmen’s Town Conservancy scheduled an Oct. 12 homecoming for historic bricks from the neighborhood built by formerly enslaved Black residents. The event is part of Rebirth in Action, a multiyear preservation initiative with the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Why it matters: The bricks hold evidence of the community Black Houstonians built after emancipation. Their preservation raises a question for cities whose redevelopment has threatened to erase Black history: Who pays to restore what was damaged or removed? Read the conservancy’s announcement.

The UN takes up reparatory justice. An Oct. 8 UN human rights dialogue in Geneva focused on advancing reparatory justice for the legacies of enslavement, the trade in enslaved Africans and colonialism. Its program listed UN human rights chief Volker Türk as keynote speaker, alongside representatives of governments, experts and civil society organizations. Why it matters: International discussions are examining how to turn the case for repair into action. See the UN’s event record and recording.

Buffalo Soldiers’ history faces a development threat. Conservation organizations have sued the federal government over a plan to blast cliff walls and pave a road through Utah’s Gate Canyon for oil trucks. According to Reuters, the lawsuit alleges the project would destroy cliffs containing at least 47 historic sites, including inscriptions left by Black Buffalo Soldiers and European pioneers. It also alleges potential damage to nearby Nine Mile Canyon, known for its Indigenous rock art. Why it matters: The inscriptions are physical evidence of Black contributions to the American West. Once destroyed, they cannot be recreated. The lawsuit puts the government’s responsibility to protect history alongside its decisions about economic development. Read Reuters.

Reparations lawyers organize to defend the work. Howard University law professor Justin Hansford and attorney Esther Maddox argue in Nonprofit Quarterly that reparations programs must be prepared to withstand constitutional challenges. Hansford’s Charles Ogletree Reparative Bar Association is helping build a network of attorneys to defend reparative policies. Their argument is that remedies tied to documented government wrongdoing have a legal foundation distinct from general racial preferences, a position being contested in court. Why it matters: A government can approve a program, fund it and begin delivering benefits while a lawsuit threatens its survival. The people owed repair need a remedy that lasts. Meet some folks preparing to defend repair. Read “Let Reparations Ring”.

Newly found records reopen questions about compensation in Lakeland. Settlement records once believed lost have been located for Lakeland, a historically Black Maryland community disrupted by urban renewal, according to a Reparations.now recap of a research discussion. The records reportedly show that displaced families received appraised values for their homes. Gov. Wes Moore vetoed legislation creating a state reparations commission in May 2025, but lawmakers overrode him in December and the work of documenting harm and pursuing repair continues. Why it matters: A record of payment is not proof that the harm doesn’t require repaired. Were the appraisals fair? What did families receive and what wealth might they have built had they been able to stay? Those questions require examining the underlying records. Read Reparations.now and the commission’s legislative history.

Cowboy hats. Horses. Generations showing up together. Oakland’s Black Cowboy Parade and Festival celebrates a legacy and the people carrying it forward. Take a look through our photos from the gathering at DeFremery Park.

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When a city creates a reparations fund, should it commit public money or rely on private donors?

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How this newsletter is made: Humans write, edit and make every editorial decision in The Repair. We use large language models, including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, as research tools. Using our methodology for tracking reparations and repair, these tools help us find, organize and synthesize source material. Every source is verified, and every link, fact and word undergoes two rounds of human editing before publication. Read our AI policy.