The Alameda County Reparations Commission’s draft action plan, recently completed after more than two years of work, will appear before the county’s Board of Supervisors next week.
The board’s approval of the plan Tuesday would represent a formal acceptance of the commission’s recommendations, though additional board action and funding decisions would be required before many of the plan’s proposals could be implemented.
The plan is organized around repairing harms experienced by Black residents in Alameda County, addressing historic issues of inequality in housing, education, economic opportunity, environmental investment, criminal justice and health outcomes.
Some of the plan’s most notable recommendations include direct compensation for victims of previous property displacement, scholarships and educational grants for Black students, special grants and low-interest loans for Black-owned Businesses and the establishment of a healthcare initiative that would directly fund health services for Black residents.
The commission also recommends establishing a permanent Alameda County Office of Reparations and a county reparations fund, to oversee and fund the implementation of the plan’s other recommendations.
The plan is the culmination of a 2.5-year long process of research and reflection, highlighted by 18 community listening sessions and two community feedback sessions, which allowed the commission to gather input from residents in each of the county’s five districts and a variety of other community groups and organizations.
Years of discussions
In March 2023, the Board of Supervisors voted to create an Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations to guide the reparations process from the county’s legislative side, and the 15-member Reparations Commission to study the historical struggle of the county’s Black residents.
The Reparations Commission was initially scheduled to create an action plan by July 2024, but the deadline was eventually extended to 2026. The Board of Supervisors stated that additional time was needed to “effectively address the complexities surrounding reparations policy.”
With the 170-page action plan report completed, the Reparations Commission has framed the initiative as part of a broader movement in the county, California and the United States, to provide reparations for marginalized communities.
In June 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved a resolution formally acknowledging and apologizing for the county’s role in the displacement of Black residents in Russell City, a community located off the Hayward shoreline. Russell City was seized and destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s thanks in part to actions by former members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Following up on this apology, Alameda County launched the Russell City Redress Fund in 2025 alongside the Hayward City Council, authorizing money to be set aside from several supervisors’ discretionary budgets to fund direct payments to victims of the community’s destruction.
The report also cites the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided reparations to Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II, and the more recent state Assembly Bill 3121, which created California’s Reparations task force to study the legacy of slavery in the state, as other recent reparative efforts that the action plan seeks to follow.
The Board of Supervisors will vote to approve the Reparations Commission’s action plan Tuesday.
