The Philadelphia Reparations Task Force, the people on it, the legislation behind it, the reports it will draw on, and the data it says it needs. 74 records compiled from public sources in November 2026; every link goes to the original.
Philadelphia City Council created the Reparations Task Force by resolution 230532 on June 22, 2023, unanimously, sponsored by Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Kendra Brooks. Its mandate is to study and develop reparations proposals for Black Philadelphians descended from people enslaved in the United States. It is authorized by Council but is not a City agency and has no City appropriation. It launched in May 2024 with co-chairs Rashaun Williams and Breanna Moore of N'COBRA Philadelphia, and its report plan organizes the work into research areas: History, Education, Health & Wellness, Economic Justice, Law & Policy, Criminal Justice, Urban Planning.
Why it matters here
A city task force is reparations at the scale of policy. The data it needs is the same data an individual needs to understand one address. The needs list below is the Task Force's own, matched to where each dataset lives; most of the Philadelphia items are in this site's catalog.
What the Task Force says it needs
Named data needs from the Task Force's Final Report Structure Plan (May 2024), matched to where that data lives. This is the map of where an analyst, or a volunteer, can plug in.
History
Timeline of slavery, indenture, fugitive-slave enforcement in Philadelphia HSP / PAS papers; Penn & Slavery Project
Military service and G.I. Bill access NARA; VA regional office records; IPUMS 1950–1970; county deed books
Great Migration arrival and treatment Census; Inquirer archives
Education
Graduation and placement rates PA Future Ready Index; SDP Open Data
School openings/closures, facility condition SDP Facilities Condition Assessment
Discipline disparities PA Safe Schools; OCR CRDC
Student loan debt by race Philly Fed CFI; NY Fed CCP
HBCU sustainability (Cheyney, Lincoln) IPEDS
University PILOT and donation data City Revenue; Fels report
Health & Wellness
Life expectancy, excess deaths by tract PDPH Health of the City; CDC USALEEP
Maternal and infant mortality PDPH MMR dashboard; PA DOH
Hospital closures (Hahnemann, St. Joseph's) PA DOH; news record
Black physician representation AAMC; PA licensure
Insurance and medical debt ACS B27001; Urban Institute
Environmental exposure EPA EJScreen; PDPH
Economic Justice
Poverty and descendant-population share ACS; Pew State of the City
Unemployment / underemployment ACS; BLS LAUS
Business ownership, city contracts Census ABS; City OEO reports
Homeownership and land ownership ACS B25003; OPA assessments
Credit health, student debt Philly Fed; Urban Institute credit data
Black-owned banks and credit unions FDIC MDI list; NCUA
Law & Policy
Verification of slavery-profit disclosures City Treasurer filings (Bill 040133-A)
Property and land seizures (Black Bottom, Tangled Titles) Fels report; Philadelphia VIP; Pew tangled-title study
Comparative diaspora case studies Penn Law Reparations Resource Center
Criminal Justice
Sentencing and pretrial detention disparities DAO DATA Lab; PA Sentencing Commission
Stops, searches, arrests, use of force OpenDataPhilly (PPD); ACLU Bailey data
Juvenile detention DHS/JJS; PA JCJC
Exonerations and compensation National Registry of Exonerations
Police and judicial demographics PPD workforce reports; AOPC
Urban Planning
Ownership by neighborhood OPA assessments; ACS
Proximity to services, groceries, health care OpenDataPhilly facilities; USDA Food Access Atlas
Utility access and service response times 311 open data; PWD/PGW
Environmental and toxicity data EPA EJScreen; L&I violations
Redlining, zoning, highway placement Mapping Inequality; PennDOT; City Planning archives
Records
Filter by research area. Records tagged cross-cutting always show.
Created by Council resolution 230532 (unanimous, June 22 2023), sponsored by Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Kendra Brooks. Authorized by Council but not a City agency. Mandate: study and develop reparations proposals for Black Philadelphians descended from people enslaved in the U.S. Five priority research areas: History; Economic Justice; Health & Wellness; Law & Policy; Urban Planning & Sustainable Development. Final Report targeted Dec 2026 / Jan 2027. Graduate writing support sought on a rolling basis through Dec 2026 (contact: Mariya Khandros via the page).
The Task Force's own outline: intro, one chapter per research area (max 25 pp, split into Harms and Repair sections), conclusion, appendix, plus a public Key Findings document. Lists research questions and named data needs per area. Original timeline had a preliminary report Feb 2025 and final report Feb 2026; the Council page now says Dec 2026 / Jan 2027.
Advocacy site referenced by Council as the Task Force's public-facing home. Links the Task Force resolution, the Slavery Disclosure Law (Bill 040133-A), the 2025 Freedmen's Affairs resolution and a Freedmen's Affairs presentation. Contact: info@rep215.com.
Requires City depositories and contractors to disclose historical profits from slavery. The Task Force's Law & Policy agenda asks how it has been enforced. Together with Bill 050615 it is listed as an appendix item for the final report. Disclosures are posted by the City Treasurer (see Dataset).
Introduced Sept 18 2025 by Councilmember Jones; referred to Committee on Public Safety. Authorizes hearings on whether to create an office supporting descendants of emancipated persons. Does not create the office. Committee meetings listed Feb 2026, no recorded action.
Co-sponsorship memo for a statewide program (apology, study commission, opt-in non-cash redress). Coverage by Capital-Star, Philly Mag, Stateline. Pennsylvania has no enacted reparations study commission as of this compilation.
Law & Policy
2024-12Biddle Law Library, Penn Carey Law (with Penn BLSA)
Research guide tracking California AB-3121, Evanston, Asheville and other programs, plus Penn BLSA model legislation. Created 2021, updated Dec 2024. Useful comparator set for the Task Force's Repair sections.
First abolition statute in the U.S., but gradual: children of enslaved mothers served until 28. The Task Force history chapter names the Act, the 1788 amendment and maternally inherited status as core antebellum inquiry topics.
HistoryLaw & Policy
2021U.S. House · Reps. Seth Moulton and James Clyburn
Would extend VA housing and education benefits to surviving Black WWII veterans and their direct descendants. Reintroduced in successive Congresses; not enacted. A federal repair model the Task Force can cite.
Law & PolicyEconomic Justice
People 13
2023Councilmember, 3rd District · Task Force co-sponsor
Lead sponsor of the Task Force resolution; office commissioned the 2022 Fels 'Community Recompense' report on Black Bottom displacement. Describes the goal as a data-driven plan usable by city, state and nation.
Cross-cutting
2023Minority Leader, At-Large (Working Families) · Task Force co-sponsor
Named co-chairs at the May 2024 launch. Moore is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Penn. N'COBRA Philadelphia pressed Council to create the Task Force and to enforce the existing slavery-disclosure law.
Cross-cutting
2024-05Penn Carey Law · founding director, Advocacy for Racial & Civil Justice Clinic
Ayanna Stephens Walker (principal, Workshop School) — education; Kevin Mansa (entrepreneur) — economic justice; Dominique London (planner, artist) — urban planning; Rev. Jackie Newsome, Esq. — law & policy; Richard White (historian, N'COBRA founding member) — Atlantic world history; plus McClellan, Lawrence, and co-chairs Williams and Moore. Members had to be descendants of enslaved Africans in the U.S. and 10-year Philadelphia residents.
Law & Policy: Timothy Welbeck, Esq. (Temple Center for Anti-Racism). Urban Planning: Dr. Mia White (The New School). History: Dr. Ikemba Bomani-Ojore (Medgar Evers), Dr. Menika Dirkson (Morgan State). Health: Dr. Naomi Zewde (UCLA), Dr. Shannon Whittaker (BU), Dr. Marie-Fatima Hyacinthe (Yale SPH). Economic Empowerment: Dr. Marcus Hunter, Dr. Tiffany Younger (Yale), Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard (John Jay/CUNY), Sicong 'Summer' Sun (UCLA Luskin). Criminal Justice: Dr. Cara McClellan (Penn). Education: Dr. Camika Royal (Morgan State). Project manager contact: Mariya Khandros.
Cross-cutting
2026Temple University · founding director, Center for Anti-Racism
Announced (Aug 2019 memo) a state-level reparations bill: opt-in program for Pennsylvanians of African descent, formal General Assembly apology, a study commission to quantify financial impact, and non-cash redress (tax and other benefits). Rabb himself put the odds of a vote near zero. No enacted statute resulted.
Primary source and interviewee for the Fels recompense report; longtime voice for Black Bottom displacement claims against Penn/West Philadelphia Corporation urban renewal.
Urban PlanningHistory
Report / Paper 10
2020-01Office of the City Controller (Rebecca Rhynhart)
75% of 2019 homicides occurred in areas graded C or D on the 1937 HOLC map. Overlays Census disadvantage indicators on redlining grades. Data: homicides 2006–2019, residential sale prices, HOLC map, Health of the City 2019. Direct precedent for the redlining join analysis.
Criminal JusticeUrban PlanningEconomic Justice
2019-11Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia · Larry Santucci
Builds a new spatial dataset of racial covenants in Philadelphia deeds 1919–1932 and maps them against 1920 Black population. Companion interactive map published by the Fed.
Urban PlanningEconomic Justice
2022-08Fels Institute of Government, Penn · Ashley Scott
Prepared for Councilmember Gauthier. Documents 4,496–10,000+ residents displaced from the Black Bottom (1965–2000) by Penn/West Philadelphia Corporation urban renewal; proposes a two-part program (direct payments + community investment) with eligibility and a Linnentown-style loss calculation. Notes Penn's PILOT history ($1.93M/yr, 1995–2000).
Black defendants charged at higher rates in 7 of 8 most common categories; incarceration more likely for Black and Latinx defendants in aggravated assault and burglary after controlling for priors and firearm charges. Backed by the DAO public data dashboard.
Student-led archival project documenting Penn trustees' and faculty's ties to slavery, slaveholder funding, and medical-school use of Black bodies. Collected abstracts plus individual preliminary reports (Doolittle, Kersh, Krancer, Gladney, Eckhard). Penn issued an institutional statement in response.
Annual indicators report with breakdowns by race on poverty, income, employment, homeownership, health and education. The standard citywide baseline the Task Force chapters will cite.
Economic JusticeCross-cutting
2023-03Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia · Community Development
Fed research on the Black–white homeownership gap in Philadelphia and its drivers; the Fed has reported Black homeownership declining in the city (Axios, Dec 2021).
Citywide health indicators by race and neighborhood (life expectancy, chronic disease, maternal and infant outcomes). Cited by the Controller's structural racism report; PDPH publishes updated editions.
Argues for a philanthropic funding role; relevant because the Task Force has no City appropriation and the Green Street Monthly Meeting pledged $500K over a decade.
Economic Justice
Dataset 10
2024University of Richmond DSL · cloud mirror on source.coop
Polygons with grade (A–D), city, state, label and area descriptions for all HOLC cities. GeoParquet: https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-mappinginequality/mappinginequality.parquet (filter city='Philadelphia', state='PA'). Original site: dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining.
Interactive map of thousands of deeds with racially restrictive language, with 1920 Black population overlay. Underlying data by request to the Consumer Finance Institute.
Parcel-level assessed values, sale prices, owner type and characteristics, with history. Basis for land-value and home-equity analyses by HOLC grade or neighborhood.
300+ datasets: crime incidents, police complaints, shootings, L&I violations, vacant land, tax delinquency, school data, 311, health. The city's open-data plan is documented at cityofphiladelphia.github.io/slash-data.
Arrests, charges, case outcomes, bail, sentencing and time-to-disposition by race and offense type, updated regularly. Source for the DAO Racial Injustice Report.
Criminal Justice
2023–2025City of Philadelphia · City Treasurer's Office
Annual disclosures filed by City depositories under Bill 040133-A: JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, BNY Mellon, TD, Santander, Citizens, Fulton, US Bank, United Bank of Philadelphia (2023, 2024, 2025 PDFs). Also a FY19–FY21 Slavery Affidavit Disclosure memo. The Task Force asks for verification of these.
Tables by race for poverty, median household income, homeownership, unemployment, educational attainment. Good for the chapter-level 'present-day disparity' tables.
Health of the City editions, Community Health Assessment, vital statistics, and the opioid and maternal mortality dashboards. Life expectancy by Census tract is published.
Health & Wellness
Organization 8
ongoingNational Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America — Philadelphia chapter
Advocacy group that lobbied Council for the Task Force (Jan 2023) and whose co-chairs lead it. Holds the two reserved Task Force seats under the resolution.
Research guide and model legislation from Penn's Black Law Students Association. Covers wealth gap, education, health, housing, criminal justice and global reparations literature.
Committed $500,000 over ten years to reparations-related efforts; Quaker meetings in the region (incl. Abington's Benjamin Lay lecture series) are active on the topic.
Economic Justice
2024School District of Philadelphia, West Philadelphia
Pittsburgh City Council held hearings after calls for reparations following the Gender Equity Commission's 2019 'Pittsburgh's Inequality Across Gender and Race' report; Council later passed racial-equity bills. The other PA city with an organized reparations effort.
Federal urban renewal (Housing Acts of 1949 and 1959 §112) let Penn, Drexel and the West Philadelphia Corporation clear a Black neighborhood for the University City Science Center. Named in the Task Force Law & Policy agenda alongside Tangled Titles as a property-seizure case.
Dermatological and pharmaceutical testing on mostly Black incarcerated men by a Penn dermatologist; named explicitly in the Task Force Health & Wellness research questions. Penn apologized in 2021.
PAS papers (1775–) at HSP document manumissions, kidnappings of free Black Philadelphians, and 1838 disenfranchisement. Primary-source base for the History chapter's antebellum section.
First sociological survey of a Black urban community in the U.S., commissioned by Penn. Baseline for any longitudinal comparison of Black Philadelphia's economic position.
The statute's text did not exclude by race, but Congress (shaped by Rep. John Rankin of Mississippi, chair of the House Veterans' Committee) delegated administration to state and local authorities, including VA offices, state employment services and local draft and welfare boards. The Task Force History agenda asks directly how Black military service translated into G.I. Bill access.
HistoryEconomic Justice
1944Demos · 'How the GI Bill Left Out African Americans'
The VA did not lend; it guaranteed loans made by private banks, which applied redlining rules and FHA underwriting that disfavored Black applicants and Black neighborhoods. Approval power sat with loan officers, so denials rarely stated race.
Economic JusticeUrban Planning
1947History.com · 'How the GI Bill's Promise Was Denied to a Million Black WWII Veterans'
White veterans used VA-guaranteed mortgages to buy in new developments such as Levittown, NY; restrictive covenants and developer policy excluded Black veterans from the places where equity appreciated most. Roughly 1.2 million Black Americans served in WWII.
Urban PlanningEconomic Justice
1947Multiple (Demos, History.com, Vets Ed Success)
Mississippi, 1947: of 3,200+ VA-backed home loans, 2 went to Black veterans. New York and northern New Jersey: of the first 67,000 GI Bill mortgages, fewer than 100 went to non-white families. Comparable Pennsylvania counts are a research gap worth filling from VA regional office records and county deed books.
Delays, extra paperwork and stalling by bank and VA officials substituted for explicit racial denial. Education benefits were similarly constrained: segregated colleges were full, and Black veterans were steered to vocational training.
Homeownership was the main engine of postwar middle-class wealth; exclusion of Black veterans from guaranteed mortgages and appreciating suburbs compounded into today's gap. For Philadelphia, the testable version: compare 1950–1970 homeownership and home-value trajectories for Black vs. white veteran households (Census 1950/1960/1970 PUMS via IPUMS) and for HOLC D-graded vs. A/B-graded tracts.
Levitt & Sons refused to sell to Black buyers in Levittown, PA, the largest planned community of the GI Bill era in the state. When William and Daisy Myers bought a resale in Aug 1957, weeks of mob harassment followed until state police and a court injunction intervened. The clearest Pennsylvania case of GI Bill-era suburban exclusion; a PHMC historical marker commemorates it.
Reported series on racism in Philadelphia medicine, policing, schools, real estate and the Inquirer itself. Secondary-source trove for the Harms sections.