AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — A New England college town is among hundreds of communities nationwide weighing how to provide reparations to Black residents for slavery and systemic racism. The town council in Amherst, Massachusetts, recently passed a resolution committing the town to the effort amid the country’s latest and ongoing racial reckoning. Edwin Driver was the first Black professor at the University of Massachusetts. Now 96, he says reparations should compensate him for years of being underpaid. Kathleen Anderson, a former president of Amherst’s NAACP chapter, says reparations should address public school disparities. Amilcar Shabazz, a UMass professor, said it should recognize local Black contributions. Other locations look to use marijuana tax revenues to fund similar efforts.
