A North Carolina city council voted unanimously to give all its Black residents reparations, but they still have a long way to go

• The city council of Asheville, North Carolina, unanimously voted to provide reparations to Black residents and their descendants during a meeting on Tuesday.
• The resolution plans to provide reparations through helping Black communities with business ownership, housing ownership, and career opportunities.
• It will also work to close racial gaps in healthcare, education, and the criminal justice system.
• City council members told Insider that the resolution is a good first step toward reparations, but they still have a long way to go.

The city council of Asheville, North Carolina, has unanimously voted to provide reparations to Black residents and their descendants.

According to the resolution, viewed by Insider, Asheville officials plan to allocate funds to help reduce racial disparities in minority business ownership, access to affordable housing, and career opportunities. The city will also work to close racial disparity gaps in healthcare, education, and the criminal justice system.

The resolution was approved by city council members in a 7-0 vote on Tuesday.

In the resolution, officials say the reparations are a first step in making amends for the city's role in slavery, segregation, and an urban renewal program that "destroyed multiple, successful black communities."

But city council members told Insider that Asheville still has a long way to go.

Councilwoman Julie Mayfield said that voting for reparations was "an important first step in starting to right hundreds of years of wrongs and to repair the damage done during that time."

"The City is not the only entity that needs to or can act — the resolution calls on the County and private organizations to join us in our apologies and to address racism within their own structures," she told Insider. "The resolution also calls on the state and federal governments to address reparations, as this is a societal debt that needs to be paid at every level. There is much work for us to do, and we are excited to get started."

Keith Young, one of two Black members of Asheville's city council, told Insider that the discussion of reparations will not end with last night's vote.

He said the city plans on taking a step-by-step approach that will identify root causes of racial disparities, find entry points to close gaps, and search for solutions, before taking action.

"We are seeking to embed systemic solutions into a systemic problem. This process begins and is perpetual, repeating this process over and over again," he said. "There is no completion box to check off.

Black residents are disproportionately likely to be searched and arrested by police

According to the local nonprofit news service AVL Watchdog, Asheville was named in 1797 after Samuel Ashe, a former North Carolina governor and slave-owner. As of 1860, about 15% of Western North Carolina was enslaved, according to AVL Watchdog, and the city's tourism industry was largely based on slave labor.

Today, Black residents make up just 11.7% of Asheville's population of 92,870 people, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Arrest data from AVL Watchdog found that Black people in the city are three times more likely to be searched by police than white people during traffic stops, and that they're disproportionately charged in a number of crimes, including marijuana possession, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported in June.

According to the AVL Watchdog data, Black people make up 33 to 40% of lower-level crime charges, despite only making up 11.7% of the population.

Veronica Edwards, an Asheville-based Black business owner who runs the accounting firm Balanced Virtually, told Insider that she believes the reparations are "necessary to close the gap" in racial disparities in the city.

She said that recent gentrification has made racial disparities worse in the city — causing displacement of minority communities and an increase in racial profiling.

"As a double minority, small business owner, and a resident of Asheville for the last four years I feel these reparations are necessary to close the gap we currently have seen grown to its highest heights," she said. "The reparations are well overdue to reverse the inevitable, total displacement of minorities, if no action is taken. I am excited and encouraged that Asheville is leading the charge."

Councilman Young told Insider that the city council's reparation plan is an ongoing project.

"This work does not end and will be adaptive, no matter what governing body holds office or who runs our city," he said.

Mayor Esther Manheimer celebrated the unanimous vote for reparations in a statement to Insider.

"The City of Asheville is one of the many institutions throughout our nation grappling with addressing historical and continued structural racism," she said. "The resolution unanimously adopted by the council acknowledges this and expresses support for the concept of reparations."

"It's clear to me that federal reparations legislation would be the most impactful," he added. "However, this is a conversation that is happening among diverse groups of people in cities and towns throughout the United States, and through our resolution, the City of Asheville has joined in this conversation."

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