Reparations and Local Community Action
An Interview with Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza
Mayor Jorge O. Elorza was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Classical High School, the University of Rhode Island, and Harvard Law School. Prior to being elected Mayor, he was a Legal Aid attorney, he served as a Providence Housing Court Judge, and he co-founded the Latino Policy Institute while he served as a professor at Roger Williams University School of Law. As Providence’s 38th Mayor, Jorge O. Elorza has led with integrity, boldness and long-term thinking. Most notably, after working with partners in the public and private sector, Elorza developed a 10-year finance and infrastructure plan that has led to the City’s strongest fiscal position in decades and a data-driven investment of roughly $500 million in school buildings and city infrastructure throughout Providence. Currently, Mayor Elorza lives with his wife, Stephanie, and his son, Omar, in the Silver Lake neighborhood.
James D. Rooney: Many thanks, Mayor Elorza, for your interest in connecting. The Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Social Impact Review has invited me to consider reparations from a municipal perspective. As you know, I have worked in urban policy at the Boston Foundation, CEOs for Cities, and Brown University, and as a former Providence resident I am eager to ask you about the City’s truth-telling, reconciliation and municipal reparations process you announced in July, 2020.
Please start if you could by telling me about this Initiative and what drove it.
Mayor Jorge Elorza: Thank you for reaching out, Jim, as I am happy to discuss this initiative with you.
I started meeting with a group of about 20-25 leaders in the Black community in Providence to discuss the disproportionate impact that the pandemic was having on the Black community. As an outgrowth of those conversations, we created the African-American Ambassador group to help provide more information, resources, and support to the Black community.
From the very beginning, there was an interest in addressing larger systemic issues around racism and anti-Blackness. After George Floyd was murdered, there was even more interest, and the Ambassadors group grew exponentially. I made a commitment to meet with this group every single week; we meet Thursdays at 10 o'clock for an hour and a half. We’ve added subcommittees with staff assigned to each of them as we move the work forward.
The idea is to put the voices of Black leaders at the center of policymaking and, to some extent, decision making in the city, and to make sure that they're building relationships with me and my team. As part of those conversations, a larger discussion arose around how to make the most out of this post-George Floyd moment to bring about some real change.
What became clear was that if we wanted to make the most out of this moment in history, then we had to go to the source, because the wounds of racial injustice run deep. And so our solutions also had to run deep, but there was a recognition that we ourselves don't know our own history. That's where the idea of this truth, reconciliation and reparations process came from.
I put the idea to the group, and it was universally supported and endorsed. Each one of these initiative process phases is as important as the other, but the magic arises when they all come together.
Rooney: This past March you completed the first phase of this process by releasing a major truth telling report on the history of local racism against Black and indigenous people over the past four centuries. The report documents the local slave trade, genocidal treatment of indigenous people, and discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and people of color from Jim Crow to urban renewal. What are your main takeaways from this report, and what surprised you?
Mayor Elorza: In launching the “A Matter of Truth” report, we hired some local researchers who have been phenomenal. They produced a 200-page report to help our community have a better sense of our work on race and treatment of African Americans, Indigenous, and people of color.
What I learned through this process is that, yes, there is a history and legacy of racism that dates back 400 years, but just as importantly, the racism and discrimination of 20 years ago has had perhaps just as much of an impact on our residents’ lives. Our history and legacy is not just a thing of the past, it's something that actively shapes the present.
And there are a number of people, including local leaders, who have either directly benefited from or been adversely affected by many of the policies highlighted in this report. For example, we’ve learned more about discriminatory housing policies. Some of our African-American Ambassadors have said, “I never knew the full history, but my grandparents used to own a house in that neighborhood.” They see themselves and their personal stories inside of this report.
That’s what we set out to accomplish. What surprised me was how real and fresh many of the consequences and wounds of racial injustice still are in our community.
Rooney: It sounds like many are reconciling with their own history and circumstances as they read and reflect upon this report. Please tell me about the second phase of the process, reconciliation.
Mayor Elorza: Much of the truth telling report was done by a small group of researchers. The task of the reconciliation phase is to take this information and engage a much broader audience.
We've raised some dollars for the reconciliation phase -- we put out an RFP and had a successful bid from a consortium of organizations and Roger Williams University. They're going to be leading our city through this work. It's a recognition on our part that, in order to do this right, you need to put resources behind it. That's what we've done.
When I think about the importance of this work, I think our country has never truly and directly addressed the issue of race.
It's so interesting, because it goes to our very founding -- it was the divisive issue during the Constitutional Convention. About 40 years later, it was the divisive issue with the Missouri Compromise. Fewer than 40 years later, again, it was the divisive issue with the Nebraska-Kansas Act that led to the election of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
And then we went into a very dark period when slavery was outlawed but discrimination was rife, and the conditions of the Black community were negligibly better if that.
Which brings us to the civil rights era, which you might say was the one moment when we were forced as a country to confront race directly. There was some progress made, but it was minimal compared to what was actually needed, and we know that's the case, because look at the results and see where we are. We have to try a different approach.
As you look at other countries that have gone through truth and reconciliation processes, you see that as you bring people into the conversation it serves to unite them. Perhaps it's cathartic, perhaps it's therapeutic, whatever it is,confronting racism directly actually helps us make real progress. That’s what we hope to show in our local communities -- that, once replicated, it can be done at higher levels of government and at different institutions as well.
We also hope to disabuse people of the idea that racism is an inherently divisive topic -- it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, I believe that every one of us as human beings, we have some kind of a moral instinct. Whenever we're confronted with patent injustice, we want to be part of the solution. That’s what other societies and countries have found as they go through these processes, and I believe that's what we're going to find here as well.
Rooney: You’re a founding member of the national MORE Coalition -- Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity. How do you envision this group informing and influencing the national debate?
Mayor Elorza: I have repeatedly said, and I will continue to say, that no city alone has the ability or capacity to right all the wrongs of the past. However, what we are seeing is that cities are leading the way, not only here in Providence but also throughout the country, in tackling the issue of racial injustice and anti-Blackness directly.
I hope that other institutions and levels of government will be inspired and encouraged to follow suit. By being one of the first cities that jumped into this work, I can tell you in no uncertain terms that we have inspired other cities to undertake this work as well.
There's a recognition that for this work to be done, it can't be done by only Black mayors or only non-Black Mayors -- you really need a diverse coalition of leaders who are pushing this work and represent all of us. I think that we've accomplished that with the MORE Coalition, and I certainly hope more cities jump into this work.
Rooney: When you announced this process you indicated having an open mind about reparations and what form they might take. Reparations are commonly understood as compensation for harms suffered, but the United Nations defines other types as well, including restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. The truth telling report provides some satisfaction, but what can the City do to make restitution and/or offer rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition, if at all?
Mayor Elorza: I think that's where the process that we have adopted becomes most helpful. I believe that the only way you can appropriately determine the shape that reparations should take is by putting those decisions in the hands of people who have been affected. That’s why this has been a community driven and led process. We will likely form a committee in the coming six months or so, which will be tasked with putting forward a set of recommendations.
It then falls back on us as city leaders to find a way to make good on those recommendations. We may be in a position where we can't make good on all of them. But we owe the community a response to what they put forward and what they think is just. It also helps to inform current and future city leaders as they advocate for future budgets and deal with other institutions and levels of government.
From the moment that we launched this, during our press conference, I must have mentioned five times that the question of what shape reparations will take will be determined through this process. The first question I received was by a reporter who asked how we would determine who received reparations. There is a rush to jump to the last step in the process, without going through each of the predicate steps. Each step is a sequence of phases, just as important as the other, and we have to go through the process.
I did bring to the African American Ambassador group the idea of perhaps launching the reparations process sooner rather than later, because we have this incredible potential opportunity of the American rescue plan dollars. So I posed whether we should accelerate the reparations part, even though we haven't substantially begun the reconciliation phase.
There was strong pushback from the group, as they wanted to make sure that we didn't get too far out ahead of ourselves. We want to avoid the perception and perhaps the reality that we moved too fast and didn't bring the community along through each step. Some other cities have been criticized for this, and we certainly don't want to commit that mistake.
Rooney: Speaking of what other cities are doing, do you have a take on the choice some cities appear to be making between community-wide investments, such as Asheville investing in areas with disparities, vs. Evanston making more direct investments to individuals to support homeownership?
Mayor Elorza: I think there's room for both. I'm certainly open to both.
The question for me is who makes that decision. I think those decisions need to be debated and discussed and ultimately recommended by the community, by folks affected.
I’ve been open in reminding folks that we don't have the resources and capacity to right all the wrongs of the past. Not everyone who should be supported or compensated through reparations is going to receive it, so there's a certain level of unfairness acknowledged.
Whatever is put forward, there’s going to be pushback, but at the very least the community that has claims needs to be part of the decision-making process. Those voices have a certain level of agency over how these funds, resources or investments are made. That goes a long way to making people feel as though they've been treated more fairly, even though we acknowledge that there's a certain level of unfairness inherent in the process.
Rooney: Allow me to ask you a couple of questions, mindful of your credentials as a Harvard Law School alumnus as well as Mayor. You no doubt consider these issues, in part, through a legal lens.
What, if any, is the potential risk to a government, like the City of Providence, in recognizing past wrongs, that it will essentially open itself up to extensive litigation by aggrieved parties, be they existing residents, descendants of past residents, et al.?
Mayor Elorza: The main concern I’ve had is how race-conscious a policy the City is allowed to adopt. The truth telling report establishes that there have been discriminatory actions taken by the same city, the same state actor, and that it is adopting a race conscious policy in turn, so I think that's helpful with a legal framework in mind. But we would hate to go down this road, only to have it overturned or enjoined by a court.
In terms of the truth telling report and exposing the city to liability because of wrongs in the past, I can say that that has not been part of the discussion, and I believe it hasn't been part of the consideration either. If there are harms that the City is legally liable for, the last thing that I would want to do, and last thing that I would ever do, is to bury that information so that it prevents us from making some kind of progress toward racial justice.
Rooney: Allow me to ask another legally-related question. Another fundamental reparations principle of the United Nations is that all aggrieved parties have equal access to remedy. Would you be open to making reparations to former residents who may live outside of the city and/or their descendants? How do you think about potential aggrieved parties from a practical and legal standpoint?
Mayor Elorza: I think it comes back to what we're trying to do here. We don't have the capacity here in Providence, nor does any city, to right all the wrongs of the past. But we do want to move a conversation forward that will hopefully inspire and encourage other institutions and other levels of government to jump in.
Look, just a couple of years ago, just saying the word reparations in respectable political society would get you kicked out. It’s been a third rail issue that no one wants to discuss, but we want to bring the reparations conversation into the mainstream.
And we want it to be part of the ongoing, present-day urgent narrative, and I believe we've already done that. The next step is showing other levels of government how it can work and, frankly, also working through some of the tricky logistical and process aspects, so if and when others jump into this work they have more of a glide path.
We understand it's never going to be easy, but to accomplish our collective goals, we need the federal government to step in, we need state government to step in, we need large institutions like universities and foundations to jump into this work -- that’s the goal of this project. Along the way, we certainly aim to do some good and support people who have been affected by this in our communities.
Rooney: Building on your point about institutions and universities, the Brown University student body voted overwhelmingly this past spring to call on the university to make reparations to descendants of slaves affiliated with Brown and its founders, building on a report 15 years ago about the school’s connection to the slave trade. What advice would you give to local institutions being called upon to make reparations?
Mayor Elorza: I'd start by encouraging every institution to know their own history and legacy around racial discrimination and injustice, and if they played a role directly or indirectly, I would encourage them to be part of the solution.
It falls on every society to do what we can to form a more perfect union. We’re only on this Earth for a certain period of time, and we all have a responsibility to move that high ideal forward. I encourage everyone, while you can, to do something to make right some of the wrongs of the past.
I hope that the approach we've taken here in the City is something that encourages others to take that step. It’s a significant one, and I do believe that the more individuals choose to take this on, it'll have a ripple effect and inspire and encourage others to do the same.
Rooney: You mentioned when you announced the process last year that there was interest in actively eliminating state and local laws and policies that continue to disproportionately and negatively affect Black, Indigenous, and people of color. I’m curious if specific laws and policies -- like removing the word Plantation from City documents, which you did -- are being identified for reform at this stage?
Mayor Elorza: That’s work that always goes forward, and one issue I’m very excited about is driver's license restoration.
We've done a lot of research into interactions between the police and the community, and it turns out that the number one reason for arrests is driving without a driver's license. When you dig deeper, it turns out that the number one reason for not having a driver's license is an inability to pay court costs.
And so, the light bulb goes off -- we should figure out a way to help people. Essentially we're continually penalizing people for being poor. You only get arrested again and fall deeper into a hole, making it less likely that you're ever going to dig yourself out of it.
That's the kind of policy that we're always on the lookout for -- I think it’s a good and smart policy, regardless of the racial dynamics of who's disproportionately impacted, but of course, lo and behold, it’s people of color and the Black community in our city that are disproportionately impacted by it. Those are the kinds of policies that we are always on the lookout to help fix, and I'm really excited about doing that work.
Rooney: Of course, those without driver's licenses are also going to be the ones first disallowed to vote in some parts of the country, which morphs into my final question, amidst our heightened national culture wars. To your earlier point about making reparations mainstream, how do you market this idea to mainstream America?
Mayor Elorza: There are going to be voices that are just against it because they're against it, and there are going to be folks on the other extreme that will be against it because it doesn't go far enough. What I believe in most is the concept of interest convergence by Professor Derrick Bell.
He makes the point that the gains that the Black community has made have come in those moments where there's been a convergence of interest between theirs and those of broader white society. He expresses it as simply a truism that for these policies to pass they need broad public support, and as a minority, you need support from the majority, and the majority has to see this as aligning with their own interests.
I would remind folks that we've made very little progress when it comes to racial injustice, and by a lot of measures it's only gotten worse. If the images on TV of cities literally on fire this past year doesn't scare you, unless there are real solutions that get to the source, and unless those solutions are put forward, what you have is a tinderbox that can go off at any moment. I would hope that, even if it's simply self-interest, that folks see measures like this aligned with what is best for them, independent of their own personal sense of justice and injustice and wanting to do what's right.
There are so many levels at which there is interest convergence. We want the same thing, and I think the more dialogue and discussion that we have around this, the more we can see we are inextricably intertwined and one community. The Black community doing better does not mean that you're going to be doing any worse if you’re in another community -- in fact, it's going to mean that we all live in a healthier society.
Rooney: The Sum of Us! Mayor, I can't thank you enough -- it’s been very informative and a real pleasure. It’s fascinating work that you're doing with real potential for local as well as national impact. I look forward to our paths crossing again at a WaterFire or May Breakfast.
Mayor Elorza: That sounds good! Good to see you, Jim, and thanks to Harvard and you for bringing more attention to this work.
About the Author:
James Davitt Rooney is Principal of Rooney Associates LLC, a Boston-based strategy and public affairs consultancy. He has advanced regional competitiveness and quality of life by spearheading innovative cross-sector partnerships, including as Senior Fellow and Director of Public Affairs at the Boston Foundation and in similar trailblazing roles at Brown University and CEOs for Cities. Rooney's association with Harvard includes having co-founded and co-led the HBS Alumni Angels of London, consulting to Public Affairs, and earning an MPA at Harvard Kennedy School; he also holds a BA from Brown; and appears frequently as a guest commentator in the media.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.