Fulton County reparations task force delivers 650‑page harm report; commissioners vote to extend work

The Fulton County Reparations Task Force on Wednesday presented a 650‑page Harm Report to the Board of Commissioners, documenting how slavery, racialized taxation, convict labor and land dispossession produced long‑term economic and social harms in the county.

Task force chair Dr. Karshek Sims Alvarado told commissioners, "The name of the report is called the Fulton County Reparations Task Force Harm Report," and said the team had used county tax digests, court files and archival material to compile its findings. The report, she said, calculates historical revenue tied to the taxation of enslaved people and traces a sequence of policies and practices that produced persistent racial disparities.

The presentation highlighted quantitative findings, including tax records from the 1850s that the presenters said were used to model the scale of county revenue tied to enslavement and a calculation the task force described as demonstrating how stolen wages compounded over time. Presenters also reviewed convict leasing and county chain‑gang history, citing that 86% of incarcerated people with recorded race were Black and that sentences were substantially longer for Black inmates. Several descendants and historical witnesses gave testimony about families whose land was taken, including a presenter who described Bagley Park land losses and argued the county had profited from dispossession.

Commissioners debated next steps. The board voted to allow the task force to use remote meeting options for its remaining work (vote recorded as 5 ayes, 1 abstention) and approved a motion extending the task force’s work for 12 months (4 yeas, 1 abstention). A separate motion to extend up to 24 months also passed (4 yeas, 1 nay, 1 abstention), with members saying the additional time would give the group resources to prepare a "repair" report with concrete, feasible recommendations.

Chairman Rob Pitts and several commissioners thanked the task force for months of research. Commissioners emphasized that the board had received only the "findings" portion of the work and that the task force’s next phase should develop realistic, costed recommendations for repair. Task force members said they would publish the full Harm Report and then begin community input and a repair‑planning phase, and they urged the board to provide staff support and funding to complete that work.

What comes next: The task force said it would make the Harm Report public, convene community input sessions and prepare a separate Repair Report — a step that commissioners said would require additional time and funding, to be considered in the county’s upcoming budget process.