After nearly three years of research and community engagement, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a sweeping set of reparations recommendations Tuesday aimed at confronting the county’s history of racial inequity.
While reparations are often associated with direct cash payments, the Alameda County Reparations Commission’s plan takes a different approach. The 43 phased recommendations task the board with implementing policies designed to create lasting institutional change rather than issuing individual checks.
The commission is now calling on county leaders to put the recommendations into action. Initial steps include creating a permanent committee and launching an equity assessment.
The plan’s immediate priorities focus heavily on housing and economic justice, including closing the wealth gap through support for Black-owned businesses, offering down payment assistance, and addressing the ongoing impacts of redlining and displacement. It also calls for targeted investments in Black youth and mental health.
Long-term goals include restitution for wrongful convictions, broader criminal justice reform and expanding access to education.
“Our expectation is the opportunities that exist for you are the same for everybody else—the ability to buy a home, to get the job, to get the training, to get healthcare,” said Debra Gore, chair of the Alameda County Reparations Commission.
Gore emphasized the importance of local government taking accountability.
“It’s shifting the way that it looks at the harms it does and the repairs to make,” Gore said. “That shift is overdue. It has to be done at the county level.”
Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who spearheaded the commission with support from Supervisor Elisa Márquez, said the plan provides a critical foundation for future legislation.
“These collective efforts produce research, recommendations and a framework for repair that will inform county policy and contribute to ongoing efforts to remedy systemic inequities and improve outcomes,” Miley said.
The recommendations were shaped by data and community listening sessions, including forums hosted by the Black Cultural Zone. Supporters said the plan needed to be rooted in resident input and driven by those with lived experiences of racial inequity.
Carolyn Johnson, CEO of the Black Cultural Zone, said officially adopting the recommendations is a crucial step toward accountability.
“When you do this, no one can forget, you can’t wipe it away, you can’t hide it,” Johnson said. “It is on the record, and the efforts that we all believe are necessary are on the record, and I believe that’s the most important thing.”
Although the adopted plan currently has no set price tag, advocates at Tuesday’s meeting stressed that true healing will require a tangible, well-funded commitment from the county, declaring that the time for study has concluded and the era of active repair has begun.