Efforts to address reparations for Black descendants of enslaved people, and those who suffered under Jim Crow laws, in metro Atlanta are kicking into gear as the new year starts.
Established in 2025, the Decatur Reparations Task Force plans to conduct research for a study on the harm done to the city’s Black residents through some of the most racially tense periods in history.
Decatur’s new Mayor Pro Tem Lesa Fronk serves as the city commission representative on the task force. She says the study, referred to as a Harm Report, is the group’s top priority.
“While we were able to outline harms that were committed in and by the city of Decatur in the resolution that was adopted in 2025, further research and documentation needs to be done to document the full extent of what we know. From there, it’s critical to determine who was harmed by these acts,” Fronk said.
The Decatur task force is community-led, featuring local researchers, historians, and some residents connected to impacted Black neighborhoods, such as Beacon Hill.
Fronk says the group wants to complete their Harm Report by the end of the year, holding community meetings with residents closer to the summer.
“I am just amazed by the research that has been uncovered, and I am grateful that I represent a city that is so open to reviewing, looking at, and apologizing for its blemishes and its ugly past,” Fronk added.
Nearby, the city of Atlanta’s Reparations Study Commission is still working out some administrative kinks after being established for just over two years.
“Well, unfortunately, we’re still in a somewhat of a limbo position in the sense that we have not been fully made official by the city of Atlanta at this point,” said Jumoke Ifetayo, vice chair of the Atlanta Reparations Study Commission.
“There’s different processes that each commissioner has to go through, and we haven’t had everyone to go through that.”
According to Ifetayo, some members still need to complete the required paperwork and be sworn in before they can officially move forward. Still, the study commission will also conduct its own study and engage residents through quarterly public forums.
Meanwhile, the Fulton County Reparations Task Force is wrapping up the first of its two studies, which will be available to the public soon.
“So in this report, we have shown we’ve identified the harms. We’ve measured the harms. We can tell you what the cost is of what was lost to Black, what the county profited from, and what is due,” said Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado, chair of the Fulton Reparations Task Force, in late November.
