Decatur City Commission approves funding request for Beacon Hill for reparations research

Decatur, GA — The Decatur City Commission approved a funding request from the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights to continue their reparations work. The city commission, at its March 4 regular meeting, directed the city manager to develop a contract for services with Beacon Hill in the amount of $25,000. The city has a goal in its 2020 strategic plan to establish a reparations task force, and the plan notes a “community-directed task force should document the city’s role in these injustices and address reparations,” City Manager Andrea Arnold said. Once the contract for services is developed, the city can being dispersing the funds, Arnold said. Beacon Hill is working to lay the groundwork for the task force to be established, but is not acting as the task force, Beacon Hill Co-Chair Phil Cuffey told Decaturish. Beacon Hill began doing reparations research in 2022 and now needs additional resources from the city. The first steps for the group have been to understand the history of the Beacon Hill community. The Beacon Hill community was the area of Decatur where freed slaves began to settle. The square mile area was the site of a thriving African-American community of homes,...