The African American Reparations Advisory Committee advises the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors, the Human Rights Commission, and the public on the development of a San Francisco Reparations Plan.
The Plan will highlight ways that City policies have harmed Black lives. It will also include specific actions to address discrimination and inequities in areas such as housing, education, transit access, and food security. The Committee is comprised of 15 appointed members who work across several subcommittees.

Our vision:

The AARAC is a committee that develops recommendations for repairing harm in our Black communities.

Our mission:

American Reparations Advisory Committee

Draft San Francisco Reparations Plan - December 2022

Draft San Francisco Reparations Plan - Published December 2022

The African American Reparations Advisory Committee published its first milestone report.

AA Reparations Advisory Committee - December 2021 Report

AARAC December 2021 Report

On April 12, 2012, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) held a hearing to examine the human rights impact of the War on Drugs. The Commission called on community-based organizations, academics, formerly incarcerated individuals, employment attorneys, youth activists, immigration and civil rights advocates and members of the public to describe how the War on Drugs affects San Franciscans. The purpose of the hearing was to solicit testimony from community members, document community concerns, and explore policies and recommendations on a local level to address the concerns raised. The HRC was joined by more than 100 community members at the hearing. The following record summarizes the testimony provided at the hearing and through written testimony. It includes personal stories of those who have been prosecuted in the War on Drugs, experiences of service providers assisting them, and scholars who study the War on Drugs. As one of the first government agencies in the country to examine the War on Drugs through this lens, the HRC hopes that this hearing will assist policymakers and community members not only in policymaking, but also in bearing witness to the experiences of San Franciscans under these laws. Since the hearing, the HRC has been engaged in dialogue with City departments regarding the concerns raised at the hearing. The HRC has transmitted the findings and recommendations that emerged from the hearing to the various departments in order to solicit their input and feedback as to the effectiveness and feasibility of the community recommendations. Given that the most recent arrest statistics provided at the hearing were from were from 2009, we have also requested that the departments provide us with the most current statistics available. The HRC hopes to publish a subsequent report that will include the information gained from these dialogues and to document evidence-based, best practices employed by City departments to curb and redress the human rights impact of the War on Drugs.

Community Voices Report - The Human Rights Impact of the War on Drugs

A report on Environmental Racism in Bayview/Hunters Point: The City and the Community working together to promote environmental justice.

Environmental Racism A Status Report and Recommendations

Comparative Review and analysis of reports.

African American Quality of Life Report Comparison 2011

Three case studies of fair-chance hiring laws from Seattle, San Francisco, and the District of Columbia.

Fair-Chance Implementation Case Studies For Government Agencies

Fair-Chance Implementation Case Studies for Government Agencies

On March 4, 2014, Mayor Lee signed into law Article 49 of the San Francisco Administrative Code, “The Fair Chance Ordinance” (“FCO”). It went into eect on August 13, 2014, 180 days following the signing. The FCO applies to all affordable housing providers (“housing providers”) in San Francisco, as well as all employers located or doing business in the City that have 20 or more employees. The HRC enforces the FCO’s provisions related to affordable housing, and the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (“OLSE”) enforces its employment provisions. With regard to affordable housing, all housing providers are subject to specific advertising, communication, notice, posting, and record-keeping requirements related to consideration of arrest and/or conviction records as a factor in any negative housing action, including refusal to rent. Blanket exclusions of persons with arrest and/or conviction records are unlawful, and housing providers may only consider a tenant applicant’s arrest and/or conviction record at certain times and within certain limitations. If a housing provider wishes to take a negative housing action based on a person’s arrest and/or conviction record, the housing provider must follow a specific procedure that includes proper notice, a response period, and consideration of additional mitigating evidence. In sum, the FCO provides persons with arrest and/or conviction records the opportunity to be considered for employment and housing on an individual basis, thereby aording them with a “fair chance” to acquire employment and housing, effectively reintegrate into the community, and provide for their families and themselves.

Fair-Chance Ordinance Compliance Report

Analysis of the first year of the Fair Chance Ordinance implementation.

Fair Chance Ordinance First Year Report

3rd Grade STAR Test Proficiency Levels 2012

2012 3rd Grade STAR Test Proficiency Levels

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission continues to work tirelessly in providing leadership and advocacy in promoting basic human rights for all of San Francisco’s diverse and multicultural communities. Our mission is to identify those underserved communities and fortify their quality of life by advocating for city services and programs that address historical and social barriers that preclude specific communities from flourishing and being self-sustaining. The African-American community in San Francisco continues to experience an alarming decrease in population and as this “out migration” persists the collateral consequences have resulted in a community that continues to feel marginalize and disenfranchised. Recent census data reports that the African-American population in San Francisco is steadily decreasing with the fear that that current number is at less than four (4) percent. For more than two (2) decades, there have been a variety of reports generated by the City that have examined this phenomenon but yet there still remains a large chasm that continues to swallow whole the socio-economic viability of this community.

African American Community Empowerment Initiative Update - Progress Report

African American Community Empowerment Initiative Progress Report

A Human Relations Report for San Francisco - Report to Mayor Christopher

Report by the Interim Committee on Human Relations 1964

This document is the product of the initial deliberations of the seventeen member National African American Reparations Commission.Convened by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) derives its inspiration from and is modeled after the CARICOM Reparations Commission which, is mobilizing/organizing to demand compensation from the former European colonialists for Native genocide and African enslavement. This demand is being made with the unanimous support/blessing of the nations of the Caribbean. The bold move by the CARICOM nations to form such a Commission has captured the imagination of people of African descent throughout the Pan African world and is providing a major spark to the global Reparations Movement.

Preliminary Reparations Program - National African American Reparations Commission

In 2006, the HRC Demographics Report was published to provide a starting point to examine, by San Francisco legislative districts, broad categories of economic, health and social issues that impact the quality of life of the population of San Francisco and subsequent access to human rights. Educational achievement was included as one measure of access to human rights, with high school graduation rates one of the specific indicators of educational achievement. The glaring disparity of high school graduation rates among African American and Hispanic populations across each supervisorial district prompted the Commission’s Issues Advisory Committee to carry out a more in depth analysis. This analytical effort included working with Hydra Mendoza, the Mayor’s Education Advisor and Tony Smith, San Francisco Unified School District (“SFUSD”) Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, Innovation and Social Justice. The SFUSD was already working diligently to address this very issue and was seeking the opportunity to gain the broader public’s understanding that successful educational experiences for all San Francisco students was, in fact, a human rights issue, in need of community-wide attention and engagement.

The SFUSD Strategic Plan and Right for All Students in the District to Experience Success

The Unfinished Agenda - The Economic Status of African Americans in San Francisco 1964-1990

Violence in our City, Research and Recommendations to Empower our Community

The Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors create, without delay, a permanent Hunters Point Shipyard Cleanup Oversight Committee, made up of representatives from City departments with pertinent expertise. This committee should proactively look out for the City’s best interests in the cleanup. It should perform general due diligence, and communicate the City’s concerns to the Navy and regulators ahead of major decision-making about the cleanup.

Buried Problems and a Buried Process:  The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in a Time of Change

Buried Problems and a Buried Process: The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in a Time of Climate Change June 14, 2022

A New HR 40 - On January 3, 2017, at the opening of the 115th Congress of the United States, Cong. John Conyers introduced a revised HR 40 bill. The previous version was first introduced in 1989 and was historically referred to as the “Reparations Study Bill.” The new HR 40 is now being referred to as the “Reparations Remedy Bill”.

HR 40 Primer - Seize the Time!

Public Education Report  - Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC BerkeleyWhat roles and responsibilities should local jurisdictions and Bay Area residents have in righting past wrongs? How can we transform our institutions of local governance, zoning ordinances, housing markets, systems of property rights, connection to land, and relationships to our neighbors in order to fully realize racial equity and belonging? What systems must be established to prevent the tactics of racial exclusion and dispossession of the region’s past from being implemented again?The rampant displacement seen today in the San Francisco Bay Area is built upon a history of exclusion and dispossession, centered on race, and driven by the logic of capitalism. This history established massive inequities in who owned land, who had access to financing, and who held political power, all of which determined—and still remain at the root of deciding— who can call the Bay Area home

Roots, Race, Place - A History of Racially Exclusionary Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area

Ordinance amending the Administrative Code to establish the African American Reparations Advisory Committee to advise the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor, the Human Rights Commission, and the public regarding the development, adoption, and implementation of a San Francisco Reparations Plan that determines the scope and eligibility for a citywide reparations program, examines current structural discrimination within San Francisco, and proposes institutional reforms to guard against the need for future redress.

About African American Reparations Advisory Committee

Our vision:

Our mission:

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