CHARLESTON, S.C. — In the city that was once America's slave trade capital, the prospect of reparations for American descendants of slavery hit its first roadblock in Charleston this week.
While reparations can take multiple forms, ranging from direct cash payments to public investments and scholarships in marginalized communities, the mere mention of the word in a city report ignited a polarizing debate Tuesday among Charleston City Council members.
It also exposed the difficulties that lie ahead in pursuing such a concept, even in a historic Southern city that in recent years has made tackling its racist past a priority.
Included among some 125 recommendations in a report on equity, inclusion and racial conciliation are a number of items that Councilman William Gregorie said were written in the spirit of reparations.
Gregorie cited examples like a proposal for initial funding for a loan fund that would help minority-owned businesses.
"If something is damaged, then it needs repair. It's that simple," said Gregorie, who is Black, when asked about his thoughts on reparations. "Charleston — and this state — must lead this fight. We have to lead the fight because we led in the oppression of a people."
But to even toy with the thought of reparations is groundbreaking in Charleston, the port city where scholars estimate more than 40% of enslaved people were brought into the United States.
Only one other city in the Southeast, Asheville, N.C., is known to have approved reparations as a way of working toward racial equity and atonement for the sins for slavery and the denial of basic liberties to Black residents.
The road to reparations could be doubly hard in Charleston, as evidenced by a meeting Tuesday night, when comments among residents and city leaders spiraled into tension and division over a report that set out to transform Charleston's government into one that is "actively anti-racist."
It had taken more than a year to get to this moment when Amber Johnson stood before city council members with the draft report.
But before she could deliver her presentation, citizens like West Ashley resident Brett Barry slammed the effort.
Barry, who is white and a board member of the American Heritage Association, said it had brought "divisiveness in the name of unity."
He zeroed in on the idea in the report to raise $100 million for reparations. He called the proposal "wealth redistribution based on skin color" and concluded the report was "an extremist agenda thinly veiled under the banner of racial progress."
Johnson, a Black woman and the city's first-ever manager of diversity, racial reconciliation and tolerance, offered council members another definition when she got her chance to speak nearly an hour later.
"It is important to remember that financial compensation or the payment of money is not the only form of reparations," Johnson stressed. "Other types include restoring civil and political rights, erasing unfair criminal convictions, physical rehabilitation and granting access to land, health care or education."
Yet, when it came time for City Council members to take a vote to formally receive the report from the Special Commission on Equity, Inclusion and Racial Conciliation, it failed with a 7-6 vote.
Charleston, which in 2018 apologized for its role in slavery and in 2020 removed a statue of former vice president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun from its downtown square, could not agree on a mere procedural vote to receive the findings of a year-long report on how to become an "actively anti-racist government."
The discussion leading up to 7-6 symbolic vote exposed the arduous work still ahead for the city as Charleston enters the next chapter in its public reckoning with race.
Gregorie introduced the motion for council to receive the report and distribute it to the appropriate city committees. Mayor John Tecklenburg had said it was not a vote to approve every single recommendation the commission made.
"But we commit to looking and considering each and every one of those recommendations, some of which are not even within our purview," Tecklenburg said.
Councilman Harry Griffin said that the line-by-line consideration concerned him, especially when it came to the idea of raising $100 million for reparations.
"How on earth are we going to pay for that, Mr. Mayor?" Griffin asked. "Why are we going to support critical race theory? Why are we going to support the 1619 Project? Why are we going to tell people that we're going to accept a livable, whatever the terminology is, a livable working wage of $16.41 when we can't even pay our employees $15 an hour?"
When George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in the spring of 2020, Charleston's mayor responded to the community's cries for social and racial justice by creating a Special Commission on Equity, Inclusion and Racial Conciliation.
It was tasked with reviewing the city's policies and forming a plan with recommendations on how the city can better address issues of diversity and opportunity.
Councilman Jason Sakran, who is white and co-chaired the special group alongside Gregorie, said he was often questioned about the merits of reparations, especially by white people.
"There are other white council members and folks in the community that are Caucasian that have said to me, 'I'm not a slave owner. My grandfather wasn't a slave owner. Slavery existed a long time ago. Why are we focusing on this now?' And I'll tell them that this not to punish the offender. It's to restore the offended," Sakran said in an interview.
At the meeting, he urged everyone to read the report.
"Before you pass judgment on terms you do not understand, read it," Sakran said.
But Councilman Ross Appel, who had previously raised concerns about the inclusion of the word "reparations" in the report, cited the vitriolic public comment period Tuesday night on face masks as proof for how divided the city is right now.
He voted against receiving the report, stating that the public would not understand the difference between accepting a report and receiving a report.
Gregorie disagreed. During the meeting, he blamed Griffin, a fellow councilman, for "talking things that are not true" when it came to explaining what they were voting on that night.
"The commission's report are just recommendations for discussion, and you're acting as though they have been adopted. You're the one now pushing false information, Councilman Griffin, for the record," Gregorie said, slapping his hand down on the table in anger.
In an interview Thursday morning about the vote, Gregorie said he was disappointed. He also said he was surprised by Appel's vote against receiving the report.
"It showed me the path forward is going to be just as we suspected. It's not going to be easy, but we're going to continue to forge forward," he said.
Appel, in an interview Thursday, said his decision had come down to both the confusion he had about what the vote was for and the signals the vote might send to the community at-large.
"Charleston is a progressive city, but we're not San Francisco. But the ray of hope is that we can still make incredible progress on these issues, but we have to do it in a way that works for us," Appel said.
In 2018, after the city voted 7-5 to apologize for its role in slavery, Gregorie had raised his fists in the air in a public display of triumph.
But on Thursday morning, he said he was flabbergasted by what had happened this week.
If council couldn't agree on a simple procedural vote, he said, how could they be expected to have the courage to take on challenging topics surrounding race, including finding creative, out-of-the-box ideas for reparations?
"They're just afraid of that word," he said. "But I think it was just an excuse for them doing what they already wanted to do."
Despite the vote, the mayor confirmed the report will be distributed to the appropriate committees for further review.
