Boston activist demands $15 billion in reparations for black Americans

The monetary demands made by Rev. Kevin Peterson, founder of the Boston Peoples Reparations Commission, are over three times the Massachusetts capital's annual budget.

During a press conference on Saturday, Peterson claimed that "the wealth of this city was built on slavery," and as a result, the government was "responsible to pay back the wealth they extracted free of charge from other human beings who died at some point in the labor for this city."

"We demand from Mayor Wu full monetary compensation for wages and lost lives through slavery and anti-Black institutional oppression," Peterson said. "Today we call on a full and robust reparations process."

According to NBC10, Peterson said that black residents should receive a "specific initial monetary payout" of $5 billion. After that, $5 billion in investments would be made in new financial institutions and to address crime and the racial education gap.

"It’s not enough to talk about the vagaries of healthcare, housing and public education reform for Blacks in Boston as part of a reparations bill," Peterson said in a statement. "The reality is that labor and lives were stolen from Blacks in Boston. Money is owed. A debt must be paid in dollars."

"The reparations effort in Boston will not be domesticated into simple historical studies and meaningless rhetoric about equity and diversity in some future time," he added. "We call on the Task Force to fully commit to writing checks that will compensate Black Bostonians and fiscally support the creation of new institutions in our community."

In 2022, Boston created a Reparations Task Force to look into what should be done to address demands such as those made by Peterson. Mayor Michelle Wu recently revealed that she had moved forward with the plan, establishing teams that will aid in the process.