Fulton County task force delivers 636‑page harm report; commissioners accept findings and vote to extend work

The Fulton County Reparations Task Force on Wednesday presented a 636‑page Harm Report tracing how county institutions, private enterprises and public policy built and sustained wealth through slavery, convict leasing, taxation and land dispossession.

Task force chair Karshek Sims Alvarado said the findings document how local tax records, court files and other archival documents show county benefit from slavery-era policies and their economic legacy. "Using Fulton County's own tax digest, court files and other archival documents, this report reveals how county government, state institutions, private enterprises, and individual residents built and sustained wealth through slavery, racialized taxation, convict labor, land dispossession, segregation, and the denial of public services," the chair said as she summarized the study.

The report includes quantitative analyses the task force said show the county collected substantial revenue from ad valorem taxation on enslaved people and that lost wages and dispossession compounded into generational wealth gaps. Presenters cited specific examples, including a detailed case study on Bagley Park, asserting parcels taken for public works shifted wealth away from Black families.

Commissioners pressed the panel on timing and next steps. The task force said the Harm Report contains findings only; a separate Repair Report with recommendations and feasibility analyses will follow and could take 12–24 months, depending on funding and reappointments. The board agreed to allow the group to continue work remotely and to accept the findings. A motion to permit the task force to use telecommunication means and to accept the harm report passed 5–1 with one abstention.

Separately the commission approved two extensions for the task force’s next phase. First, the board voted to extend the task force for 12 months for the repair work (motion recorded as passing with 4 yeas and 1 abstention in the meeting record). Later the body approved a separate resolution to extend work up to 24 months to allow the repair analysis and community engagement to proceed; that motion was recorded as passing with 4 yeas, 1 nay and 1 abstention in the public record.

Task force members told the commissioners they plan to publish the full report publicly in December and said their next steps include convening listening sessions and producing costed repair options for board review. Commissioners asked the panel to come back quickly with an estimate of the funding needed for the repair phase so the board could consider appropriations during upcoming budget deliberations.

What’s next: Task force leaders said the Repair Report will be drafted after community engagement and will include feasibility and costing; commissioners asked staff and the task force to return with a budget request and a timeline in time for the FY2026 budget process.