San Francisco has proposed to give the dwindling number of Black adults still living in the “City by the Bay” a $5 million payout, but the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, which is part of the nation’s largest civil rights organization, thinks it’s a bad idea and Supervisor Shamann Walton, who is leading reparations efforts, said the board has received racist threats.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a Reparations Draft Document, which includes 111 recommendations San Francisco African American Reparations Committee has put forward. The committee will make final recommendations in June.

The board’s actions include a lump sum payment of $5 million to each eligible person, supplementing the incomes of lower-income African American households to reflect what is known as the Area Median Income.

In addition, creating a public bank framework to ensure that unbanked people have fair options and expanded access to credit, bank loans, financial aid, and other tools for leveraging financial power.

The board supervisors approved all 111 of the recommendations, but board officials did not commit to any one of them. 

Nonetheless, the individual $5 million award was a non-starter for the NAACP.

Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, called on the Board of Supervisors to reject a one-time payment of $5 million in reparations to eligible Blacks.

“We strongly believe that creating and funding programs that can improve the lives of those who have been impacted by racism and discrimination is the best path forward toward equality and justice,” Brown commented on Twitter. Some Whites argue that since California was not a slave-holding state they should not have to pay reparations.

San Francisco was like the “Deep South.”

Black children, even in San Francisco, were not allowed to be taught in public schools but their parents were forced to pay taxes to support the educational system. 

San Francisco consisted of a little over 720,000 people in 1990 and 10.9% of the population was Black. In 2021, with an estimated population of 815,201, SF’s population was 5.7% Black.

The Black population is the only racial group in the city that has consistently declined in every census count since 1970. 

In James Baldwin’s 1963 documentary, “Take This Hammer,” Baldwin comes to San Francisco to interview the city’s Black residents.

Driving through neighborhoods like the Fillmore, he remarks that redevelopment is the “removal of Negroes” and that despite San Francisco’s progressive image, it was no different from Birmingham, Alabama.

In his $2 trillion plan to improve America’s infrastructure, President Biden is promising to address the racism ingrained in historical transportation and urban planning. 

Biden’s plan includes $20 billion for a program that would “reconnect neighborhoods cut off by historic investments,” according to the White House.

The plan also looks to target “40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities.”