Appointees to study slavery reparations in N.Y. to be named by month’s end

State legislative leaders are expected to name the nine people who will study reparations for descendants of enslaved people and consequences of New York’s impacts on the slave trade before Black History Month ends, lawmakers said Monday. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Couisins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will each appoint three members to the state Community Commission on Reparations Remedies — a task force created under a new law the governor signed in December to study potential slavery reparation. The commission was the topic of a workshop held Saturday in Albany as part of the 53rd annual Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus weekend, and tense conversations about who should be eligible for reparations in New York show the work won’t be easy. “Black communities are at a disadvantage,” said Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who also chairs the BPHA caucus. “We are a victim of systematic racism and we need to break those systems down and then give us restorative justice or whatever that looks like. We demand that now.” Several lawmakers had hoped legislative leaders would be ready to announce the commissioners during caucus weekend, but said they expect appointments to be announced before the...