A county commission in Dallas on Tuesday unanimously, and apparently unwittingly, passed a resolution that called for slavery reparations for African Americans.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the resolution was proposed by John Wiley Price, the only black member of the Dallas County Commissioners Court. Entitled the “Juneteenth Resolution,” it passed unanimously.
After the meeting, several commissioners admitted they hadn’t read the document, nor had they received a copy of it, before voting on it, the newspaper reported.
The only Republican commissioner, Mike Cantrell, later changed his vote to an abstention because he “had not received a copy of the resolution,” he told Dallas Morning News.
The resolution was nonbinding and made no arrangements for payments of reparations, but it represents the county’s official position. No other commissioners had changed their votes and so the resolution remained.
Price told Dallas News he was inspired to write the resolution after he read an article making the case for reparations in The Atlantic.
“We are the only people who haven’t been compensated,” he said, noting other ethnic groups, such as American Indians and Japanese-Americans, have been repaid for past wrongdoings.
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