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Date: 2/7/2023
NORTHAMPTON — The City Council introduced a resolution to create a commission that investigates racialized harms perpetrated against Black residents and workers over the course of Northampton’s history. In six pages, the resolution explains the troubled history of racism throughout the city’s history as well as Northampton’s general lack of diversity within its municipal offices.
“Even with this history of community activism and municipal efforts, racism, racial discrimination and systemic racism continue to exist in Northampton and its institutions, causing ongoing harm to Black people and limiting the city from achieving its goals for all of its residents,” part of the resolution reads.
Aside from detailing the troubled systemic racism and slavery from years past, the resolution also highlights the lack of diversity within major positions in Northampton, which is an issue still felt today.
According to the six-page document, Northampton Public Schools only have nine Black professional staff members out of a total of 424 and four Black support staff members out of 273. The city also only hired its first Black superintendent in 2022, when Jannell Pearson-Campbell was hired as the interim.
Meanwhile, the city has never featured a Black mayor and only three Black people have ever been elected to the City Council. Two out of those three — Councilors Garrick Perry and Jamila Gore — were recently elected in 2021.
The resolution also indicates that there has never been a Black person appointed as chief or head of municipal departments, while the most recent census data shows that only 6.5 percent of Northampton’s population is Black or multi-racial of Black descent.
“[The] Northampton City Council apologizes for its role in these past harms and commits itself to continuing to reform city ordinances and policies within its purview that perpetuate historic and present racial injustices and to consider all future legislation and policies through a lens of racial equity,” reads the resolution.
A Northampton Reparations Committee formed in 2021 after two of its founding members, Western New England University professor Sarah Weinberger and author/former teacher Tom Weiner, wanted to launch an effort that could bring people together around the question of how to address the systematic harms found throughout Northampton’s history and current reality.
Over the past year, the committee, which consists of seven members altogether, researched and studied the history of Northampton, Massachusetts, as well as the general history of systematic racism throughout the United States.
A petition was eventually started by this committee calling on the mayor and City Council to establish a reparations commission that will eventually make recommendations for reparative actions in Northampton as a response to issues apparent in housing, employment, policing, schools, healthcare and transportation.
The committee also called upon the mayor and City Council to issue a formal apology to past and present Black residents of Northampton for “historic harm that has occurred and the current harm that continues to occur.”
Additionally, the committee would like the mayor and City Council to fund the commission’s research and publish its findings.
“I felt the need to do this, along with Sarah Weinberger because of total injustice in America over the last 400 years,” said Tom Weiner, a co-founder of the committee. “There are injustices that have happened historically and continue to happen in our communities that are not being apologized for or stopped.”
Essentially all of the City Council was on board for this resolution, with Council President Jim Nash calling it “an extremely thoughtful piece of legislation” and the “best piece of legislation” he has seen during his seven years on City Council.
“It has an open heart to it and strikes the tone that we need in order to have this discussion,” said Nash. “It shows us a way forward.”
As a result of these past and present harms, the resolution asks that a joint mayoral-City Council commission is created to study racialized harms perpetuated against Black residents, students and workers.
The resolution, which was introduced by Gore, Perry, and Councilor Marissa Elkins, also asks that the commission consider what initiatives should be funded and implemented by the city to support redress and fair treatment for Black people who live, work, and learn in this community and examine ways to restore and grow and nourish Black community and culture in Northampton for future generations. The document asks that at least 50 percent of the commission feature Black participants.
Perry said when he initially came to Western Mass. 25 years ago from the Washington D.C. area, he remembers his grandmother expressing fear since he was going to “the whitest place she can ever imagined.”
“Representation matters,” Perry said. “As one of only three Black people to have ever served on Northampton City Council, I feel honored to have the chance to bring this forward.”
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, meanwhile, called the resolution “remarkable” and said she is very happy to work with the Council on this going forward.
The resolution will appear again on the Feb. 16 agenda, and the hope is to pass it this month since it is Black History Month.