Establishes "New Jersey Reparations Task Force."

A1665

ASSEMBLY, No. 1665

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman Tucker, Assemblyman Spearman, Assemblywoman
Carter, Assemblyman Sampson, Assemblywoman Haider, Assemblymen Verrelli,
Stanley, Assemblywomen Park, McCoy, Assemblymen Kennedy, Venezia, Assemblywoman
Morales, Assemblyman Schaer, Assemblywoman Collazos-Gill, Assemblymen
Abdelaziz, Stewart, Assemblywomen Brennan, Speight, Assemblymen G.Rodriguez,
Bhalla, Kearney, E.Rodriguez, Onyema and Walker

SYNOPSIS

���� Establishes "New Jersey Reparations Task
Force."

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act
establishing the �New Jersey Reparations Task Force� to
conduct research and develop reparatory proposals and recommendations to
address the generational harms caused by New Jersey�s role in America�s
institution of slavery and its legacy of systemic racial discrimination.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� The Legislature finds
and declares:

���� a.���� Four hundred years ago
this year, enslave Africans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia as captives.

���� b.��� From 1619 to 1865,
approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants, under a practice that
was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned, were enslaved in the United
States and the colonies that became the United States.

���� c.���� The system of slavery
that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral, shameful, and
inhumane deprivation of the life, liberty, humanity, citizenship, and cultural
heritage of Africans and also denied them, among other things, the fruits of
their own labor upon which this country, and its economy, was built.

���� d.��� An overwhelming body of
scholarship, legal and community evidentiary documentation, and the modern day
lived experiences of the descendants of enslaved Africans form the basis for
inquiry into the ongoing effects of the institution of slavery and its legacy
of persistent systemic structures of discrimination on living Black people and
communities in the United States.

���� e.���� Following the abolition
of slavery, state actors at the federal, state, and local level continued to
perpetuate, condone, and profit from practices that continued to brutalize and
systemically disadvantage Black people, including sharecropping, convict leasing,
Jim Crow laws, redlining, unequal education, and disproportionate treatment at
the hands of the criminal justice system.

���� f.���� Contrary to what many
people believe, slavery was not just a Southern institution and took root very
deeply in New Jersey.� In the early 17th Century, the first enslaved African
people arrived in New Netherland, a Dutch settlement established in the Mid-Atlantic,
which included portions of present day New Jersey.� As the demand for labor
increased, the number of enslaved African people imported to New Jersey
increased, with Bergen County becoming the largest slaveholding county in the
Province of New Jersey.� In 1704, the Province of New Jersey introduced the
�Slave Code,� which prohibited enslaved Africans and free Africans from owning
property and made certain actions, like staying out past curfew, illegal for
Black people.� Although New Jersey outlawed the importation of enslaved
Africans in 1786 and enacted a law in 1804 to abolish slavery gradually, the
State Legislature passed �Peace Resolutions� in 1863 denying President
Lincoln�s power to emancipate slaves and later voted against the 13th amendment
to the United States Constitution.

���� g.��� In 1844, New Jersey also
restricted access to the ballot box by denying the vote to people with criminal
convictions the same year it restricted voting to white men, the first Northern
state to do so.

���� h.��� While many Northern
states abolished slavery following the Civil War, New Jersey opposed the
Emancipation Proclamation and was the last Northern state to abolish slavery.�
Following the Civil War, New Jersey refused to ratify the Reconstruction
Amendments.

���� i.���� New Jersey�s deep roots
in American slavery and its vestiges have endured to the present day.� A direct
line can be traced from New Jersey�s role in American slavery to its system
today of voter suppression, racial wealth disparities, mass incarceration,
racial segregation, and crumbling infrastructure in Black communities in New
Jersey, such as the current elevated lead levels in water and homes.

���� j.���� The full effects of the
institution and legacy of slavery on Black people and communities in New Jersey
have not been sufficiently examined, nor have there been remedies for past
injustice and present harm, or sufficient efforts at transformation.� As a result
of historic and continued systemic racial discrimination, Black people in New
Jersey confront some of the worst racial disparities in America, including but
not limited to these areas:

���� (1)�� Access to Democracy: New
Jersey suffers from racialized voter disenfranchisement, denying the vote to
over 100,000 people in prison, on parole, or on probation, according to State
date.� Almost half are Black, though Black people comprise just 15 percent of
the State�s population.� The racism of the criminal justice system is directly
imported into the franchise.

���� (2)�� Youth Justice:
Generations of Black kids have experienced racism in the youth justice system.�
Just two years after the Civil War, New Jersey opened Jamesburg, its largest
youth prison for boys.� Today, Black children are 30 times more likely to be
locked up than white children, the highest disparity rate in America, even
though Black and white children commit most offenses at similar rates.� As of
May 1, 2019, just eight white children are incarcerated in New Jersey, compared
to 113 Black children, according to State data.

���� (3)�� Housing and the Racial
Wealth Gap: New Jersey also experienced racially restrictive covenants that
prohibited Black people from buying, leasing, or occupying property based on
race, and redlining, which targeted Black people who were refused housing loans.�
That legacy of systemic housing discrimination spills into today�s vast
discrepancy in New Jersey home ownership rates: 75.8 percent for white
households and 37.8 percent for Black households.� Because home ownership is a
primary driver of wealth, Black and Latino people in New Jersey confront one of
the worst racial wealth gaps in America.� The median net worth for New Jersey�s
white families is $309,000, the highest in the nation.� For New Jersey�s Black
and Latino families, it is incredibly just $5,900 and $7,020, respectively,
according to the Prosperity Now Scorecard.� New Jersey also leads the nation in
home foreclosures, according to ATTOM Data Solutions.

���� (4)�� Racial Segregation: Racial
segregation itself, born from the vestiges of slavery, pervades New Jersey,
which, while one of the most racially diverse states in America, is also among
the most segregated. New Jersey�s racial diversity and racial segregation,
combined with its extreme wealth and punishing poverty, has created in New
Jersey�s public classrooms some of the fiercest segregation by race, ethnicity,
and income in this country. Nearly half of New Jersey�s Black and Latino
students attend schools that are more than 90 percent nonwhite. Almost
two-thirds go to schools that are more than 75 percent nonwhite.

���� k.��� To address these
systemic challenges in New Jersey, the �New Jersey Reparations Task Force� will
research, write, and publish a report that will make the case for State-based
reparations in New Jersey and outline policy recommendations that seek to
repair the harm that has resulted from America�s original sin in the Garden
State.

���� l.���� It is in the interest
of the State and of the people of New Jersey for the government to initiate and
foster methods of improving knowledge and understanding between
African-Americans and other ethnic groups in New Jersey and to adopt and
initiate means to foster communication and dialogue, for the purpose of
achieving truth, transformation, and reparation.

���� m.�� Therefore, it is in the
interest of the State and the people of New Jersey to establish the New Jersey
Reparations Task Force to urge New Jersey to take responsibility for its role
in American slavery and its aftermath, and to set forth comprehensive and
sweeping policy recommendations aimed to develop profound and reparative
financial and other investments in Black communities impacted by New Jersey�s
history of systemic racial discrimination.

���� n.��� The urgency for the
establishment of this task force is compelling.� The elder African-American
population, some of whom are the grandchildren of formerly enslaved Black
people and can bear direct witness to some of the severest forms of racism and
oppression, is advancing in age.� As too many generations of Black people have
already passed without benefit of any remedies for the injustices they endured,
it is important that New Jersey make the establishment of this task force an
imperative.

���� 2.��� There is hereby
established in the Department of State in the Executive Branch of the State
Government a task force to be known as the �New Jersey Reparations Task Force.�

���� a.���� The task force shall
consist of 11 members, at least seven of whom shall be public members, to be
appointed as follows:

���� (1)�� three members shall be
appointed by the Governor, not more than two of whom shall be from the same
political party; and

���� (2)�� eight members shall be
appointed by the Legislative leadership, as follows:

���� (a)�� two members appointed by
the Senate President, not more than one of whom shall be a member of the
Senate;

���� (b)�� two members appointed by
the Minority Leader of the Senate, not more than one of whom shall be a member
of the Senate;

���� (c)�� two members appointed by
the Speaker of the General Assembly, not more than one of whom shall be a
member of the General Assembly; and

���� (d)�� two members appointed by
the Minority Leader of the General Assembly, not more than one of whom shall be
a member of the General Assembly.

���� At a minimum, four of the
public members of the task force shall be appointed from persons recommended by
organizations concerned with the issues of civil rights; human rights; racial,
social and economic justice and equality; reparations; and other issues
concerning the African-American community, including the New Jersey State
Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, the Rutgers University Inclusion
Project, and Salvation and Social Justice.

���� b.��� The members shall serve
until the task force submits its final report to the Governor and the
Legislature.� This report shall be made publicly available.� Any vacancy in the
membership of the task force shall be filled in the same manner as the original
appointment was made.

���� 3.��� a.���� The �New Jersey
Reparations Task Force� shall organize as soon as practicable after the
appointment of a majority of its members and shall select a chair and a vice
chair among its members and a secretary who need not be a member of the task
force.� The presence of six members of the task force shall constitute a
quorum.� The task force may conduct business without a quorum, but may only
vote on recommendations when a quorum is present.� The task force may incur
traveling and other miscellaneous expenses as it may deem necessary, within the
limits of funds made available to it for its purposes.� Members of the task
force shall serve without compensation, but may be reimbursed for expenses
actually incurred in the performance of their duties.

���� b.��� (1)���� The task force
shall hold at least six public meetings in different parts of the State,
including Camden, Paterson, Newark, New Brunswick, Atlantic City, and Trenton,
at such times and places as the task force shall determine, but no later than
six months after enactment. The task force shall invite to testify the mayor of
the city or municipality in which the meeting is held, and at least two members
of the Board of Chosen Freeholders and two members of the Human Relations
Committee of the county in which the city or municipality is located.� The task
force shall invite to testify persons who are leaders in African-American
organizations or communities, or have training or a verifiable interest in the
history of slavery in America, New Jersey history and political science,
African-American history, African-Caribbean history, labor history, penal
history and law enforcement, economics, education, health, housing, human
services, law, psychology, religion, or sociology.� All issues raised by those
testifying at the meetings shall be recorded and included, together with the
task force�s responses, if any, in the task force�s report to the Governor and
the Legislature.

���� (2)�� The Governor shall call
the first meeting of the task force to occur on or before the first day of the
third month after enactment.

���� c.���� The task force shall
invite public comment, including testimony at its meetings, on the issues the
task force is required to address as part of its responsibilities, in a manner
that encourages public participation.

���� d.��� The Department of State
shall publicize the task force�s mission and procedures on the department�s
website.

���� e.���� The task force shall be
entitled to avail itself of the assistance and services of the staff of the
Department of State, and of the employees of any other State department, board,
bureau, commission, or agency, as it may require and as may be available to it
for its purposes.

���� f.���� The task force may
avail itself of the assistance of members of the public for submissions of any
information or research with regard to the duties of the task force set forth
by section 4 of this act.

���� 4.��� It shall be the duty of
the �New Jersey Reparations Task Force� to study and develop reparations
proposals for Black people in this State.

���� a.���� In performing this
duty, the commission shall:

���� (1)�� Identify, compile, and
synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution
of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies that became
the United States from 1619 through 1865.� The task force�s documentation and
examination shall include the facts related to:

���� (a)�� the capture and
procurement of Africans;

���� (b)�� the transport of
Africans to the United States and the colonies that became the United States
for the purpose of enslavement, including their treatment during transport;

���� (c)�� the sale and acquisition
of Africans as chattel property in interstate and intrastate commerce;

���� (d)�� the treatment of African
slaves in the colonies and the United States, including the deprivation of
their freedom, exploitation of their labor, and destruction of their culture,
language, religion, and families;

���� (e)�� the extensive denial of
humanity, sexual abuse, and chattellization of persons;

���� (f)�� the role of the federal
and state governments of� the United States in supporting the institution of
slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions, including the extent to
which the governments prevented, opposed, or restricted efforts of formerly enslaved
Africans and their descendants to repatriate to their homeland;

���� (g)�� the federal and state
laws that discriminated against formerly enslaved Africans and their
descendants who were deemed United States citizens from 1868 to the present;

���� (h)�� other forms of systemic
racial discrimination in the public and private sectors against enslaved
African people and their descendants who were deemed United States citizens
from 1868 to the present, including redlining, Jim Crow segregation,
restrictive covenants, mass incarceration, voter suppression, educational
funding discrepancies, and predatory financial practices; and

���� (i)��� the lingering negative
effects of the institution of slavery and the matters described in this section
on living African-Americans and on society in the United States.

���� (2)�� Recommend appropriate
ways to educate the New Jersey public of the task force�s findings.

���� (3)�� Recommend appropriate
remedies in consideration of the task force�s findings on the matters described
in this section.

���� b.��� In making
recommendations, the task force shall address among other issues:

���� (1)�� how the recommendations
comport with international standards of remedy for wrongs and injuries caused
by the State, that include full reparations and special measures, as understood
by various relevant international protocols, laws, and findings;

���� (2)�� how the State of New
Jersey will offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of New Jersey for
the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity
on African slaves and their descendants;

���� (3)�� how New Jersey laws and
policies that continue to disproportionately and negatively affect
African-Americans as a group and how those that perpetuate the lingering
effects, both material and psychosocial, can be eliminated;

���� (4)�� how the injuries
resulting from matters described in this section can be reversed and provide
appropriate policies, programs, projects, and recommendations for the purpose
of reversing the injuries;

���� (5)�� how, in consideration of
the task force�s findings, any form of compensation to the descendants of
enslaved Africans is calculated;

���� (6)�� what form of
compensation should be awarded, through what instrumentalities, and who should
be eligible for such compensation; and

���� (7)�� how, in consideration of
the task force�s findings, any other forms of rehabilitation or restitution to
African descendants is warranted and what the form and scope of those measures
should take.

���� 5.��� The �New Jersey
Reparations Task Force� shall issue an interim report of its progress to the
Governor and the Legislature no later than 12 months following the initial
meeting, and shall submit its final report and recommendations to the Governor
and the Legislature no later than 24 months following the initial meeting.� The
interim and the final report shall be submitted to the Legislature in
accordance with the provisions of section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1).�
The task force shall expire upon issuance of its final report.

���� 6.��� This act shall take
effect immediately, and shall expire upon the task force�s issuance of its
final report and recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature.

STATEMENT

���� This bill establishes the �New
Jersey Reparations Task Force� to study and develop reparations proposals for
African-Americans in this State.

���� The task force would consist
of 11 members, comprised of four legislators and seven public members.� Three
members would be appointed by the Governor and eight members would be appointed
by the Legislative leadership.� At a minimum, four of the public members would
be appointed from persons recommended by organizations concerned with the
issues of civil rights, human rights, racial, social and economic justice and
equality, reparations and other issues concerning the African-American
community.� The members of the task force will appoint a chair and a vice chair
of the task force.� The members of the task force would not be compensated but
may be reimbursed for expenses actually incurred in the performance of their
duties.

���� This bill, among other things,
requires the task force to:

���� (1)�� examine the institution
of slavery within the State of New Jersey;

���� (2)�� examine the extent to
which the State of New Jersey and the federal government prevented, opposed, or
restricted efforts of former enslaved persons and their descendants who are
considered United States� citizens to economically thrive upon the ending of
slavery;

���� (3)�� examine the lingering
negative effects of slavery on living African-Americans and on society in New
Jersey and the United States;

���� (4)�� research methods and
materials for facilitating education, community dialogue, symbolic
acknowledgement, and other formal actions leading toward transformation,
reparations remedies, a sense of justice, and economic justice among the descendants
of enslaved African people in this State;

���� (5)�� make recommendations for
what remedies should be awarded, through what instrumentalities, and to whom
those remedies should be awarded; and

���� (6)�� address how said
recommendations comport with national and international standards of remedy for
wrongs and injuries caused by the State.

���� The task force will hold at
least six public meetings in different parts of the State, including Camden,
Paterson, Newark, New Brunswick, Atlantic City, and Trenton.� The Governor will
call the first meeting of the task force to occur on or before the first day of
the third month after enactment.

���� The task force will issue an
interim report of its progress to the Governor and the Legislature no later
than 12 months following the initial meeting.� The task force will submit its
final report and recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature no later
than 24 months following the initial meeting.� The task force will expire upon
issuance of its final report.