City Hall
An African American woman in a burgundy jacket and blue pants is standing in an office space with several posters on the wall behind her. She holds a cream-colored booklet with the words "DRAFT San Francisco Reparations Plan" written across the top.

New Reparations Ideas Include Senior Housing, Legal Assistance and a ‘Black Card’ for Local Discounts

07.10.2023
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Just over a week after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted affirmative action in college admissions, San Francisco took a major step in the other direction by advancing a plan to repair historical harms by the government against Black people.

After dozens of meetings over two years, the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee  released its final recommendations to the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed on Friday. » Read more

From the Newsroom
Eight historical booklets are spread out on top of several black and white photos of Black Americans in San Francisco protesting for civil rights in the 1960s. The pamphlet at the center of the table is titled "What We Want" and has a black-and-white photo of it's author Stokely Carmichael, who later changed his name to Kwame Ture. To its right is a lime green and white pamphlet called "America's Racist Laws" by Herbert Aptheker. Other pamphlet titles include "Behind the Lynching of Emmet Louis Till," ""Complete Equality: Democracy and the Negroes," and "Will the Negro Get Jobs Now?".

Reporter’s Notebook: Where to Learn More About Black History and Reparations in San Francisco  

06.15.2023
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For a journalist covering reparations for Black people in San Francisco, June is big. The city’s highly anticipated reparations plan is scheduled to be released at the end of the month. And we are just a few days from Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when a group of enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas learned that the Union had won the Civil War, and that they were free — 2 1/2 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. » Read more

Social Justice
A woman with a long black ponytail reaches up to straighten the frame of one of many black and white photographs displayed in a closely spaced array on a wall in an art gallery.

SF Reparations Plan Nears Submission, but Funding Not Yet Secure

05.26.2023
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This article is adapted from an episode of our podcast “Civic.” Click the audio player below to hear the full story. 

After 2½ years of meetings, community discussions, historical deep dives and policy generation, a panel tasked with proposing how San Francisco might atone for decades of discrimination against Black residents is ready to ask the city to step up and support equity rhetoric with action. » Read more

Homepage Featured
An aerial black and white photo displays an empty dirty lot surrounded by chain link fences. Two cars are parked next to the sidewalk in front of the lot. Behind the cars, a group of three people stand around a small table.

Without Dropping Cash Reparations Idea, SF Investigates New Housing Reforms

03.10.2023
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Ideas for reparations in San Francisco go far beyond a proposed $5 million payment to each qualifying Black resident — the option that captured national media attention and inspired a handwringing frenzy. The Board of Supervisors will review and discuss dozens of policy recommendations when it meets March 14 to weigh in on the city’s draft reparations plan. » Read more

City Hall
In this split image, the left side shows a black and white photo of Victorian Era buildings with neon signs installed in the mid-20th century advertising a jazz club, restaurant and other businesses. On the right side is a color photo showing a modern beige bank building with a flat facade and a blue awning.

Housing Program to Redress Urban Renewal Could Get Boost From SF Reparations Plan

02.28.2023
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Majeid Crawford’s great uncle “Cowboy” was a jazz musician who played on Fillmore Street during its heyday in the 1940s and ’50s, prompting Crawford’s father, Leslie, a saxophone player, to follow in his uncle’s footsteps. But when Leslie Crawford returned to the Fillmore after serving in the army, the “Harlem of the West” and its many jazz clubs had been razed under urban renewal, a controversial initiative to reshape core neighborhoods that San Francisco’s Planning Department later acknowledged was part of a plan to reduce the city’s Black population. » Read more