This program is the second of two that focus on local reparations initiatives. To learn more about the first, which explores reparations in New York City, click here.

In 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul established the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies, tasked with examining the legacy of slavery, subsequent discrimination against people of African descent, and the impact these forces continue to have in the present day.

The nine-member commission, made up of scholars, legal experts, and community leaders, is spending the  year researching the impact of slavery and systemic racism on Black communities in New York. Their goal is to issue a report with recommendations for reparations and policies to address inequities in areas like housing, education, healthcare, and economic opportunity.

Join us for a conversation with two of the nine commissioners, Darrick Hamilton, economist and scholar in racial equity and Lurie Daniel Favors, civil rights attorney and advocate for racial justice, along with State Senator James Sanders, a key advocate for this legislation. The panel, the second in our Just Conversations series on reparations, will discuss the commission’s work, its policy implications, and the potential for meaningful change in New York’s reparations efforts. Aria Florent, CEO of Liberation Ventures, moderates.

About Just Conversations

Just Conversations is a series co-presented by the Center for Brooklyn History and Brooklyn Org that brings into dialogue issues facing our borough, city, and society and gives voice to the change makers who move us towards a more equitable future.

Participants

Lurie Daniel Favors, Esq. is Executive Director at the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. She is an author, activist and attorney with a long-standing commitment to racial and social justice. Ms. Daniel Favors earned her J.D. from New York University, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern public interest scholar. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BA in African and African American Studies, with a Minor in Spanish Language. She hosts the Lurie Daniel Favors Show on Sirius XM’s Urban View Network, a national, daily talk show that tackles issues of race, gender, culture, politics and the law. Ms. Daniel Favors is a contributing author to The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement and she authored Afro State of Mind: Memories of a Nappy Headed Black Girl, which uses a natural hair journey as a metaphor for understanding the Black experience in the west.

She began her legal career as an attorney in the New York offices of Proskauer Rose LLP and Manatt Phelps and Phillips, LLP. She also served as a federal court law clerk in the chambers of the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She later founded Daniel Favors Law PLLC, a law firm that focused on economic and racial justice.

Before completing law school, Ms. Daniel Favors co-founded Sankofa Community Empowerment, Inc., a non-profit organization designed to educate and empower communities of African descent. She later co-founded Breaking the Cycle Consulting Services LLC, which specializes in creating comprehensive professional development for educators, youth education programs and family engagement workshops designed to address the crisis in urban education through the use of culturally responsive teaching.

Darrick Hamilton, Ph.D. is a university professor, Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, and founding director of the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School. Considered one of the nation’s foremost public intellectuals, Professor Hamilton redefines how an economy should work, identifies powerful opportunities for investment in human capacity, and propells collaboration alongside field leaders to advance the realization of economic inclusion, social equity and civic engagement for all people in the US and across the globe.

One of the pioneers of identity group stratification, he has been profiled in the New York Times , Mother Jones, Bloomberg’s Business Week and the Wall Street Journal. He has developed and collaborated on transformative policy proposals that have shifted billions of dollars into the hands of people, inspiring legislative proposals at the federal, state, and local levels including baby bonds, guaranteed income, and a federal job guarantee.

Professor Hamilton was named a Freedom Scholar by the Marguerite Casey Foundation. He advises national and global leaders on economic  policy, including the Joint Economic Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. Born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, he is a graduate of Oberlin College and received a PhD in Economics from the University of North Carolina.

New York State Senator James Sanders Jr. was elected to the State Senate in 2012 and is currently in his 6th term. A devoted public servant, community advocate, Marine Veteran, and family man, Senator Sanders currently represents the neighborhoods of Breezy Point, Jacob Riis Park, Roxbury, Neponsit, Belle Harbor, Rockaway Park, Rockaway Beach, Broad Channel, Howard Beach, Arverne, Far Rockaway, Wave Crest, Edgemere, Bays Water, Rosedale, South Ozone Park, Jamaica,  Springfield Gardens, and Rochdale.

Born in Hammel Houses, a public housing development in the Rockaways, Senator Sanders is a product of Southeast Queens. After graduating from Far Rockaway High School, Senator Sanders went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree in history with a specialization in African-American studies from Brooklyn College in 1984. Prior to his time as an elected official, Senator Sanders served Queens School Board District 27 for 10 years, 7 of which he spent as the President of the board. He was the first African-American to hold this position.

In 2001 he was elected to the New York City Council. During his twelve years as a Councilmember, he became the first African-American to be voted Chairman of the Economic Development Committee which allowed him to commission studies that allowed for policies of affirmative action and enhanced opportunities for women and minority owned businesses throughout the city.

In the New York State Senate, Sanders has risen to become the Chairman of the Committee on Banks and heads the Senate Task Force on Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE). In addition Senator Sanders is a member of the Committees for Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business; Insurance, Labor, Procurement and Contracts; Racing, Gaming and Wagering; and Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs.

Among his actions in the State Senate are the 2022 NY Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA) which works to safeguard homeowners from abusive or unlawful litigation tactics concerning foreclosures; Carlos’ Law which increases the penalties for criminal corporate liability for the death or injury of an employee up to $500,000, and the fight for transit equity.

Aria Florant is Co-Founder and CEO of Liberation Ventures (LV), a field catalyst and intermediary building the power to win federal, comprehensive reparations for Black Americans. Prior to LV, Aria has been a strategist, researcher, management consultant, organizer, teacher, and nonprofit practitioner. She is committed to taking courageous, honest action on racial repair in America, and all of her work drives toward a singular mission: building a world where all people’s whole selves belong.