Repair and Restoration

What we are asking

We ask the Kansas City, Missouri City Council to adopt and fully fund the recommendations of the Mayor's Commission on Reparations when its final report is presented in February 2027 — including direct remedies for Kansas Citians descended from the people enslaved in the United States.

What this signature means. We, the undersigned voters, support reparations for Foundational Black Americans — Freedmen — Black descendants of the enslaved in America. In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "we're coming to get our check and Dr. King's promissory note," at all levels of government. We ask the Kansas City Council to act on this petition as its share of that promise.

Why this matters

In January 2023, the Kansas City Council voted 10-1 to apologize for the city's part in slavery and segregation, to declare its intent to make amends, and to create the Mayor's Commission on Reparations (Ordinance 220966). The ordinance itself records large gaps between Black and non-Black Kansas Citians in wealth, health, homeownership, criminal justice and education. (Sources: City of Kansas City, kcmo.gov/programs-initiatives/reparations; KSHB 41, January 12, 2023.)

This history is local. In 1860, 3,944 people were held in slavery in Jackson County, 17% of the county's population. (Source: Wornall/Majors House Museums, Jackson County Enslavement Record Database, wornallmajors.org.)

The Commission is completing a 16-month study of five areas: housing, economic development, health, education and criminal justice. Its final report is due in February 2027. (Sources: KSHB 41, September 11, 2025; Beacon: Kansas City, July 14, 2026; Flatland, March 29, 2026.) A study changes lives when it is funded. Our signatures ask the Council to turn the Commission's findings into homes, businesses, health and opportunity for the families this history shaped.