Our Time

2000 to 2026

This is not the past. It is the record of our own time.

In 2004, a bank began charging us more for our loans because of our race. In 2008, the nation elected its first Black President.

In 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot dead in Sanford, Florida. When his killer walked free, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi created #BlackLivesMatter. In 2015, nine of us were killed at Bible study in Charleston, in the church of Denmark Vesey.

Tap Next to read each record. Every fact in them carries a small [Source] mark. Tap it to see where the fact comes from.

We don't need to raise our voice. The truth, told exactly, is enough.

2001 Proven

Oklahoma Calls for Repair

A commission Oklahoma created itself put repair for the Tulsa massacre in writing, survivors first.

Eighty years after Greenwood burned, the state's own commission said it plainly: pay.

In 1921, a white mob destroyed Greenwood, the Black district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with homes credibly estimated at 1,256. [Source 1]

On 28 February 2001, the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 delivered its final report. Its majority recommended, in this order: direct payment of reparations to survivors; direct payment to their descendants; a scholarship fund; an economic development zone in Greenwood; and a memorial for the reburial of any remains found. [Source 2]

The year before, it had written that "restitution to the historic Greenwood Community, in real and tangible form, would be good public policy." [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Oklahoma Historical Society, 2001), Final report. “homes credibly estimated to have numbered 1,256”
  2. 2.Primary record. Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Oklahoma Historical Society, 2001), Final report, recommendations. “Direct payment of reparations to survivors”
  3. 3.Primary record. Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Oklahoma Historical Society, 2001), Final report, preliminary recommendation. “restitution to the historic Greenwood Community, in real and tangible form, would be good public policy”

2005 Proven

The Senate Apologizes

The chamber that blocked every federal law against lynching finally said it had been wrong.

It took the United States Senate until 2005 to say it.

For generations, the Senate never passed a law against lynching. [Source 1]

On 13 June 2005, it resolved that it "apologizes to the victims of lynching for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation." [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. United States Senate, U.S. Senate Resolution 39 (June 13, 2005) (Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanities, 2005), Resolution, section 1. “apologizes to the victims of lynching for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation”

2005 Proven

Attica, Settled

New York closed the books on the 1971 retaking of its prison with checks to survivors on both sides, and no confession.

Thirty years later, New York paid. It still admitted nothing.

In 2000, the State of New York paid $12 million to the men who had been held at Attica in 1971. [Source 1]

In 2005, it paid $12 million to the hostages and their families. It admitted no wrongdoing. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Attica Uprising Timeline (New York State Archives). “killed by law enforcement firearms”

2005 Proven

Justice, Decades Late

Two of the movement's worst crimes finally reached a courtroom more than thirty-five years after they were committed.

They thought time had buried it. It had not.

In 2000, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry were finally charged with the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, which killed four girls. Both were convicted and sent to prison for life. [Source 1] [Source 2]

In 2005, on the 41st anniversary of the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter. [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. A Byte Out of History: '63 Baptist Church Bombing (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007). “around 10:24 on September 15, 1963”
  2. 2.Reference. 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
  3. 3.Primary record. Mississippi Burning (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Famous Cases).

2005 Proven

Katrina

When the levees broke in New Orleans in 2005, the working people with no means to leave were left in the water, and most of them were Black.

The water came for everyone. It did not come for everyone the same.

On 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. In the words of Congress's own report, "with the overtopping and breaching of the New Orleans levees, the vast majority of the city became submerged." [Source 1]

The storm killed at least 1,833 people. More than 400,000 people in New Orleans were driven from their homes. [Source 2]

The city, the report found, "had grown extremely segregated by both race and income by the time of the storm." [Source 3]

Who was left behind? "Predominantly working-class African-Americans did not evacuate because they did not have the financial resources to do so." [Source 4]

The Lower Ninth Ward, a mostly Black neighborhood, suffered the worst damage. [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. U.S. House of Representatives, A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina (H. Rept. 109-377, 15 February 2006) (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2006), p. 6. “the vast majority of the city became submerged”
  2. 2.News report. Samantha Michaels, Maps: 10 Years After Katrina, New Orleans' Poor Neighborhoods Are Still Largely Abandoned (Mother Jones, 2015).
  3. 3.Primary record. U.S. House of Representatives, A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina (H. Rept. 109-377, 15 February 2006) (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2006), p. 20. “had grown extremely segregated by both race and income by the time of the storm”
  4. 4.Primary record. U.S. House of Representatives, A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina (H. Rept. 109-377, 15 February 2006) (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2006), p. 20. “predominantly working-class African-Americans did not evacuate because they did not have the financial resources to do so”

2008 Proven

Barack Obama

On 4 November 2008, the United States elected its first Black President.

Two hundred and nineteen years after the first President took office, the nation chose one of us.

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on 4 August 1961, to Barack H. Obama Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham. [Source 1]

On 4 November 2008, he became the first African American elected President of the United States. He won 365 electoral votes to Senator John McCain's 173. [Source 1] [Source 2]

That night, in Grant Park in Chicago, he said: "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America." [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Barack Obama Presidential Library, President Barack Obama (National Archives and Records Administration, 2017), Biography. “On November 4, 2008, Obama became the first African-American to be elected President.”
  2. 2.Primary record. National Archives, 2008 Electoral College Results (National Archives and Records Administration, 2008), 2008 results.
  3. 3.Primary record. Barack Obama, President-elect Obama's Grant Park speech, prepared text (Chicago Sun-Times, 2008), Prepared text. “It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election”

2009 Proven

The Rockefeller Drug Laws

For thirty-six years, sentences tied to the weight of the drugs filled the state's cells with Black and Latino people, until the reform of 2009.

New York wrote the drug war into law, and sent our sons to prison by the thousands.

In 1973, New York State passed the Rockefeller Drug Laws, named for its governor, Nelson Rockefeller. Their main feature was mandatory prison sentences, set mostly by the amount of drugs. [Source 1]

For more than thirty years, they stayed nearly unchanged. [Source 1]

Under them, New York sent nearly a quarter of a million people to prison for drug offenses. [Source 1]

Of the people in its prisons for drugs, more than 90 percent were Black or Latino. [Source 1]

On 24 April 2009, the state reformed them. Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry said the laws "were ineffective, unfair and failed to keep communities around the state safe." Speaker Sheldon Silver said: "Moving forward, we significantly increase judicial discretion." [Source 2] [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Socheatta Meng, Testimony on the Rockefeller Drug Laws before the New York City Council (New York Civil Liberties Union, 2009).
  2. 2.Primary record. New York State Assembly, Press release: the Assembly passes the reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws (24 April 2009), remarks of Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry (New York State Assembly, 2009), Press release, 24 April 2009. “were ineffective, unfair and failed to keep communities around the state safe”
  3. 3.Primary record. New York State Assembly, Press release: the Assembly passes the reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws (24 April 2009), remarks of Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry (New York State Assembly, 2009), Press release, 24 April 2009. “Moving forward, we significantly increase judicial discretion.”

2010 Proven

The Fair Sentencing Act

In 2010, Congress cut the gap between crack and powder cocaine from 100 to 1 down to 18 to 1.

They narrowed the gap. They did not close it.

On 3 August 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act cut the gap: not to equal, but to 18 to 1. Twenty-four years of our lives, behind that number. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Report to the Congress: Impact of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (United States Sentencing Commission, 2015).

2012 Proven

North Carolina Counts the Cost

A state task force put a price on what North Carolina's eugenics program had taken from the living.

The state cut off our children before they were born. In 2012 it began to count the cost.

From 1929 through 1974, North Carolina's Eugenics Board had nearly 7,600 people sterilized. [Source 1]

In 2012, the state's own task force recommended paying each living victim $50,000. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Final Report to the Governor of the State of North Carolina, Governor's Task Force to Determine the Method of Compensation for Victims of North Carolina's Eugenics Board (North Carolina Department of Administration, Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims, 2012).

2012 Proven

The Banks Steered Us

Wells Fargo charged Black and Hispanic borrowers more for their home loans because of their race, and steered thousands into subprime loans.

In the 1830s, a bank held us as collateral. In our own time, a bank charged us more because of our color.

From 2004 to 2009, according to the U.S. Justice Department, Wells Fargo charged about 30,000 Black and Hispanic borrowers higher fees and interest rates because of their race or national origin. [Source 1]

From 2004 to 2008, it steered about 4,000 Black and Hispanic borrowers into subprime mortgages, when they qualified for better ones. [Source 1]

"An applicant's creditworthiness, and not the color of his or her skin, should determine what loans a borrower qualifies for," said the Deputy Attorney General. [Source 1]

On 12 July 2012, Wells Fargo settled for more than $175 million. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Wells Fargo Resulting in More Than $175 Million in Relief for Homeowners to Resolve Fair Lending Claims (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, 2012). “An applicant's creditworthiness, and not the color of his or her skin, should determine what loans a borrower qualifies for”

2012 Proven

The Prisons Fill

Forty years after the prisons began to swell, more than two million people sat behind bars in the United States, and Black Americans far more than any other group.

The numbers tell it. The nation built prisons, and filled them with us.

In 1972, 161 of every 100,000 people in the United States were held in its prisons and jails. [Source 1]

By 2007, the rate had reached 767 of every 100,000. [Source 1]

At the end of 2012, by the government's own count, 2,228,400 people were held in the nation's prisons and jails. [Source 2]

In 2010, Black Americans were imprisoned at 4.6 times the rate of white Americans. [Source 1]

Of Black men born in the late 1970s who dropped out of school, 68 percent had served time in a state or federal prison. For white dropouts, it was about 28 percent. [Source 1]

Remember the 13th Amendment's exception: "except as a punishment for crime." It never went away.

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. National Research Council, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences, Chapter 2, Rising Incarceration Rates (The National Academies Press, 2014), Chapter 2.
  2. 2.Primary record. Lauren E. Glaze and Erinn J. Herberman, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Correctional Populations in the United States, 2012 (NCJ 243936) (United States Department of Justice, 2013), Report, highlights. “2,228,400”

2013 Proven

Shelby County

In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted a key part of the Voting Rights Act.

They marched in Selma for it. Five justices took the heart out of it.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 named the places that had used tests such as literacy tests to keep people from voting, and where registration or turnout was below half. They included nine mostly Southern states. [Source 1]

Before those places could change their election laws, they had to get approval from the federal government. Congress renewed this rule several times, in 2006 for 25 more years. [Source 1]

On 25 June 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to strike down the formula that named those places. The majority said the old practices had been "almost completely eradicated." [Source 1] Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, "Our country has changed." [Source 2]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the four who dissented: "Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet." [Source 3]

Without the formula, the approval rule could no longer be enforced. [Source 1]

The ruling has since opened the way to voter ID laws and the closing of polling places that limit the vote for some groups. [Source 4]

Sources

  1. 1.Reference. Shelby County v. Holder (Encyclopaedia Britannica). “almost completely eradicated”
  2. 2.Primary record. Supreme Court of the United States, Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013): opinion of the Court and dissent (FindLaw, 2013), Opinion of the Court. “Our country has changed”
  3. 3.Primary record. Supreme Court of the United States, Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013): opinion of the Court and dissent (FindLaw, 2013), Ginsburg, J., dissenting. “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”
  4. 4.Scholarly. Shelby County v. Holder (2013) (Teaching Legal History, University of Nebraska–Lincoln).

2013 Proven

Trayvon Martin

A Black teenager was shot dead in Sanford, Florida, in 2012. His killer's acquittal gave a movement its name.

He was a child, and his killer walked free.

On 26 February 2012, Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager, was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman. [Source 1]

Florida prosecuted Zimmerman for second-degree murder. On 13 July 2013, a jury found him not guilty. [Source 1]

From that verdict came a movement. Alicia Garza wrote: "I created #BlackLivesMatter with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, two of my sisters, as a call to action for Black people." [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Office of Public Affairs, Federal Officials Close Investigation into Death of Trayvon Martin (U.S. Department of Justice, 2015), Press release, 24 February 2015. “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a violation of these statutes”
  2. 2.Primary record. Alicia Garza, A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement (Proudflesh: New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics and Consciousness, 2014), Article. “I created #BlackLivesMatter with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, two of my sisters, as a call to action for Black people”

2014 Proven

The Central Park Five

Five teenagers were convicted in 1990 of a rape in Central Park that they did not commit. In 2002 the real attacker confessed and their convictions were thrown out. In 2014 the city paid.

Five boys, and thirteen years before the truth came out.

In 1989, after a woman was attacked in Central Park, five Black and Latino teenagers, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise, were taken to trial on false and coerced confessions. [Source 1]

In 1990 all five were convicted, though they said they were innocent. Most served about five years. Korey Wise, tried as an adult, served more than eleven. [Source 1]

In 2002, Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and rapist, told the authorities that "he, alone, committed the rape." The court found that "Reyes' DNA matched the DNA taken from the sock that had been found at the Central Park crime scene." [Source 2] [Source 3]

On 19 December 2002, the court ruled that the motion to throw out their convictions "must be granted." [Source 4] [Source 1]

In 2014, New York City agreed to pay them about $40 million. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. A Long Time Coming: "Central Park Five" Agree to $40 Million Settlement with NYC (Innocence Project, 2014).
  2. 2.Primary record. Supreme Court of the State of New York, People v. Wise, 752 N.Y.S.2d 837 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., 19 December 2002) (Midpage, 2002), Decision. “he, alone, committed the rape”
  3. 3.Primary record. Supreme Court of the State of New York, People v. Wise, 752 N.Y.S.2d 837 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., 19 December 2002) (Midpage, 2002), Decision. “Reyes' DNA matched the DNA taken from the sock that had been found at the Central Park crime scene.”
  4. 4.Primary record. Supreme Court of the State of New York, People v. Wise, 752 N.Y.S.2d 837 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., 19 December 2002) (Midpage, 2002), Decision, 19 December 2002. “must be granted”

2015 Proven

Ferguson

In 2015, the Justice Department found that the police of Ferguson, Missouri, stopped, ticketed and arrested Black residents far beyond their share of the town.

The federal government counted. The numbers say what we already knew.

On 4 March 2015, the U.S. Justice Department reported on the police of Ferguson, Missouri. It studied the department's own records from 2012 to 2014. [Source 1]

Black people made up 67 percent of the people of Ferguson. Yet "African Americans account for 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests made by FPD officers." [Source 1]

The report found why: "Ferguson's law enforcement practices are shaped by the City's focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs." [Source 2]

The town was paying its bills out of our pockets.

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department (4 March 2015) (United States Department of Justice, 2015), Report, summary. “African Americans account for 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests made by FPD officers”
  2. 2.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department (4 March 2015) (United States Department of Justice, 2015), Report, summary. “Ferguson's law enforcement practices are shaped by the City's focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs.”

2015 Proven

Burge's Torture Ring

From 1972 to 1991, Chicago police under Jon Burge tortured at least 100 people, nearly all Black men, with electric shocks, choking and mock executions. In 2015, Chicago became the first city to pay reparations for police torture.

They used electricity and fire on men in their custody. Then something happened that had never happened before.

From 1972 to 1991, Chicago police officers under Commander Jon Burge tortured at least 100 people. Nearly all of them were Black men. [Source 1]

They gave them electric shocks to the genitals and other parts of the body, choked them, staged mock executions and beat them, often while shouting racist insults. [Source 1]

One of them was Andrew Wilson, arrested in February 1982. A federal appeals court wrote that he was "electrically shocked, and forced against a hot radiator throughout the day," and that "such abuse was in fact common in Area 2." [Source 2] [Source 3]

On 6 May 2015, the Chicago City Council passed a reparations ordinance for the survivors. [Source 1]

It set up a $5.5 million fund for the living survivors, an official apology, counseling, free city college or job training, a memorial, and lessons on the torture in Chicago's public schools. [Source 1]

That is what repair can look like: money, an apology, care, and the truth taught to the children.

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Chicago City Council Passes Landmark Police Torture Reparations Ordinance (Amnesty International USA, 2015).
  2. 2.Primary record. United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Wilson v. City of Chicago, 6 F.3d 1233 (7th Cir., 8 December 1993) (Midpage, 1993), Opinion. “electrically shocked, and forced against a hot radiator throughout the day”
  3. 3.Primary record. United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Wilson v. City of Chicago, 6 F.3d 1233 (7th Cir., 8 December 1993) (Midpage, 1993), Opinion. “such abuse was in fact common in Area 2”

2016 Proven

Freddie Gray

A young man went into the back of a Baltimore police van alive in April 2015. Six officers were charged, and not one was convicted.

He went in the van whole. He came out with a fatal injury to his spine.

In April 2015, Baltimore police arrested Freddie Gray, twenty-five years old, and carried him away in a police van. [Source 1]

In their custody he suffered a fatal spinal injury. He died on 19 April. [Source 1]

His death set off several days of protests. Six police officers were charged, with crimes from assault to murder. [Source 1]

In September 2015, Baltimore approved a $6.4 million settlement with his family. [Source 1]

Three of the officers were acquitted by a judge. One trial ended with a hung jury. On 27 July 2016, the charges against every officer still facing trial were dropped. [Source 2]

Two weeks later, on 10 August 2016, the Justice Department reported on the Baltimore police. It did not judge Freddie Gray's arrest itself. It found the department engaged in "making unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrests," and that Black residents "accounted for 82 percent of all BPD vehicle stops, compared to only 60 percent of the driving age population in the City." [Source 3] [Source 4] [Source 5]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Baltimore approves $6.4 million settlement with family of Freddie Gray (PBS NewsHour, 2015).
  2. 2.News report. CBS Baltimore, Charges Dropped Against All Remaining Officers In Freddie Gray Case (CBS News, 2016), Report, 27 July 2016. “Charges have been dropped against all the officers who still faced trial”
  3. 3.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department (10 August 2016) (United States Department of Justice, 2016), Report, footnote 1. “The investigation did not examine the actions of officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest on April 12, 2015.”
  4. 4.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department (10 August 2016) (United States Department of Justice, 2016), Report, summary. “making unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrests”
  5. 5.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department (10 August 2016) (United States Department of Justice, 2016), Report. “accounted for 82 percent of all BPD vehicle stops, compared to only 60 percent of the driving age population in the City”

2017 Proven

Mother Emanuel

Nine worshippers were murdered at a Wednesday night Bible study in Charleston, by a stranger they had welcomed among them.

They opened the door and gave him a seat. That is who we are.

On the evening of 17 June 2015, a young man of about twenty-one joined the Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and sat with the members for about an hour. Then he opened fire. [Source 1]

He killed nine people: the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Sharonda Singleton, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr. and DePayne Doctor. [Source 1]

It was the congregation of Denmark Vesey, whose church white Charlestonians tore down in 1822. [Source 2]

On 10 July 2015, South Carolina took the Confederate flag down from its Statehouse grounds. [Source 1]

On 15 December 2016, a federal jury convicted him on 33 counts, among them hate crimes and obstruction of religious exercise. On 10 January 2017 it sentenced him to death. [Source 3] [Source 1]

The federal prosecutor said it plainly: "Motivated by racist hatred, Dylann Roof murdered and attempted to murder innocent African-American parishioners." [Source 4]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Timeline of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston (Associated Press, via The Washington Times, 2017).
  2. 2.Primary record. Denmark Vesey (National Park Service).
  3. 3.Primary record. U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina, Federal Jury Sentences Dylann Storm Roof to Death (U.S. Department of Justice, 2017), Press release.
  4. 4.Primary record. U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina, Federal Jury Sentences Dylann Storm Roof to Death (U.S. Department of Justice, 2017), Press release. “Motivated by racist hatred, Dylann Roof murdered and attempted to murder innocent African-American parishioners.”

2017 Proven

Flint

For eighteen months, a majority-Black Michigan city drank water that poisoned its children, while those in charge doubted the tests.

Would they have let it happen in a white suburb? Michigan's own Civil Rights Commission answered.

Flint is a Michigan city where, in the Commission's words, "more than half Flint's residents are African Americans." [Source 1]

While under state control, to save money, the city drew its water from the Flint River for 18 months without treating it to keep the pipes from corroding. Lead leached from old pipes into homes. High levels of lead were found in children. [Source 2]

Twelve people died in an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease linked to the water. "Even after some tests showed there was a problem, decision makers questioned the tests, not the water." [Source 2]

On 17 February 2017, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission reported that "the disparate response is the result of systemic racism that was built into the foundation and growth of Flint." [Source 3]

It asked whether the same thing would have happened in Birmingham, Ann Arbor or East Grand Rapids. Its answer: "We believe the answer is no." [Source 4]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Michigan Civil Rights Commission, The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint (17 February 2017) (State of Michigan, 2017), Report. “more than half Flint's residents are African Americans”
  2. 2.News report. Commission: 'Systemic racism' at root of Flint water crisis (CBS News Detroit, 2017). “the result of systemic racism that was built into the foundation and growth of Flint”
  3. 3.Primary record. Michigan Civil Rights Commission, The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint (17 February 2017) (State of Michigan, 2017), Report. “the disparate response is the result of systemic racism that was built into the foundation and growth of Flint”
  4. 4.Primary record. Michigan Civil Rights Commission, The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint (17 February 2017) (State of Michigan, 2017), Report. “We believe the answer is no.”

2017 Proven

Georgetown Apologizes

The order of priests that sold 272 of us asked forgiveness on the campus the sale had saved, and put one of the sold on a building's name.

They sold us to pay their debts. In 2017 they asked to be forgiven.

In 1838, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown College sold 272 enslaved men, women and children. [Source 1]

On 18 April 2017, at a Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition and Hope, the Jesuits apologized. Father Timothy Kesicki said: "We have greatly sinned, in our thoughts and in our words, in what we have done and in what we have failed to do." [Source 2]

Mulledy Hall, named for the priest who signed the sale, became Isaac Hawkins Hall, for the first person listed in it. McSherry Hall became Anne Marie Becraft Hall, for a free woman of color who founded a school for Black girls in Georgetown. [Source 2] [Source 3]

Their descendants are still among us.

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Thomas F. Mulledy, Henry Johnson and Jesse Batey, Article of Agreement, 19 June 1838 (Georgetown Slavery Archive, Georgetown University, 1838).
  2. 2.Primary record. Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, Society of Jesus Apologizes for the Sins of Jesuit Slaveholding at Georgetown University Liturgy (Jesuits.org, 2017), Liturgy, 18 April 2017. “We have greatly sinned, in our thoughts and in our words, in what we have done and in what we have failed to do”
  3. 3.Scholarly. The Fate and Legacy of the GU272 (GU272 Memory Project, American Ancestors (New England Historic Genealogical Society)).

2017 Proven

Sandra Bland

A turn-signal stop on a Texas road ended with a woman dead in a county jail cell. The trooper who arrested her never stood trial.

A lane change. That is all it took. Say her name.

On 10 July 2015, near the campus of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, state trooper Brian Encinia pulled Sandra Bland over for failing to properly signal a lane change. [Source 1]

After a heated argument, he arrested her on a charge of assaulting a public servant. [Source 1]

Three days later she was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County Jail. Her death was ruled a suicide. [Source 1]

A Waller County grand jury indicted the trooper for perjury. In 2016, her family reached a $1.9 million settlement, with changes to how the jail checks its cells and a nurse or medic on every shift. [Source 1]

In June 2017, a judge dismissed the perjury charge. In exchange, the trooper agreed to "never again seek work in law enforcement in any capacity." [Source 2]

That same year, Texas passed a law in her name, the Sandra Bland Act. The Legislature wrote that "the events leading up to Sandra Bland's jailing and death proved the need for comprehensive criminal justice reform in Texas." It required training in calming situations down, help for people in a mental health crisis, and sensors or cameras so that jail cells are truly checked. [Source 3] [Source 4]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Sandra Bland's family settles wrongful death lawsuit (KUT Austin, 2016).
  2. 2.News report. Associated Press, Perjury case dropped against ex-trooper in Sandra Bland case (CBS News Texas, 2017), Report, June 2017. “never again seek work in law enforcement in any capacity”
  3. 3.Primary record. Texas House of Representatives, House Research Organization, Bill Analysis, S.B. 1849 (the Sandra Bland Act), 85th Texas Legislature (2017) (Texas Legislature Online, 2017), Background and Purpose. “the events leading up to Sandra Bland's jailing and death proved the need for comprehensive criminal justice reform in Texas”
  4. 4.Primary record. Texas House of Representatives, House Research Organization, Bill Analysis, S.B. 1849 (the Sandra Bland Act), 85th Texas Legislature (2017) (Texas Legislature Online, 2017), Bill analysis. “install automated electronic sensors or cameras to ensure accurate and timely in-person checks of cells”

2019 Proven

The Wealth Gap

Thirty years of the Federal Reserve's own figures show how far the wealth of Black families still trails white families.

Every record in this book leads here: to what a family has left to pass down.

The Federal Reserve surveys the wealth of American families. [Source 1]

In 1989, the typical white family held $143,563 in wealth. The typical Black family held $8,552. [Source 1]

Thirty years later, in 2019, the typical white family held $189,100. The typical Black family held $24,100. [Source 1]

The land taken back in 1865. The savings lost in 1874. Greenwood burned. The red lines. The GI Bill closed to us. This book is the trail behind those numbers.

2020 Proven

COVID-19

In the first year of the pandemic, Black Americans died of COVID-19 at about twice the rate of white Americans.

The virus did not choose by color. The conditions it found did.

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the United States. [Source 1]

By the CDC's own count, 377,883 people in the United States died of COVID-19 in 2020. [Source 2]

Measured fairly, by age, Black Americans died at a rate of 151.1 for every 100,000. White Americans died at 72.5. More than twice as many of us, for every hundred thousand. [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. New Data on COVID-19 Mortality by Race and Ethnicity Underscore Disparities (from APM Research Lab data) (Regional Asthma Management and Prevention, 2020).
  2. 2.Primary record. Farida B. Ahmad, Jodi A. Cisewski, Arialdi Miniño and Robert N. Anderson, Provisional Mortality Data — United States, 2020 (MMWR 70(14), 9 April 2021) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021), Table. “59,871 (151.1)”

2021 Proven

Evanston Pays

A Chicago suburb put its own housing record on trial and voted to pay for it, funded by a tax on cannabis sales.

They said it could not be done. One small city did it.

On 22 March 2021, the City Council of Evanston, Illinois, voted 8 to 1 to begin reparations for its Black residents, the first American city to do so. [Source 1]

The city says it plainly: "The Program acknowledges the harm caused to African-American/Black Evanston residents." It covers housing discrimination and the city's own inaction from 1919 to 1969. [Source 2]

It set aside $10 million over ten years, paid from a 3 percent tax on recreational marijuana. The first $400,000 went to Black households, $25,000 each, for home repairs, down payments or property costs. [Source 1] [Source 3]

It was for those who lived in Evanston in those years, or their direct descendants. Cash payments were added later. [Source 1] [Source 3]

The money was "set aside for an injured community," said Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, a community "injured by the city of Evanston for anti-Black housing policies." [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Illinois city 1st in US to offer Black residents reparations (Associated Press, via News4JAX, 2021).
  2. 2.Primary record. City of Evanston, Evanston Local Reparations (City of Evanston, Illinois, 2026), Evanston Local Reparations. “The Program acknowledges the harm caused to African-American/Black Evanston residents.”
  3. 3.Primary record. City of Evanston, Evanston Local Reparations (City of Evanston, Illinois, 2026), Evanston Local Reparations. “committed the first $10 million dollars of the City's Municipal Cannabis Retailers' Occupation Tax”

2021 Proven

Juneteenth

The day word of freedom reached Galveston is now a holiday the whole nation must mark.

Our ancestors kept this day for 156 years before the nation did.

On 19 June 1865, in Galveston, Texas, Union Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3. [Source 1]

It read: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." [Source 2]

It came more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. [Source 1]

The handwritten order is kept today at the National Archives in Washington. [Source 3]

On 17 June 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. It was the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday, added in 1983. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Juneteenth National Independence Day: A New Federal Holiday (Congressional Research Service, via EveryCRSReport, 2021).
  2. 2.Primary record. Michael Davis, National Archives Safeguards Original "Juneteenth" General Order (National Archives, 2020), General Order No. 3, 19 June 1865. “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
  3. 3.Primary record. Michael Davis, National Archives Safeguards Original "Juneteenth" General Order (National Archives, 2020), National Archives News, 19 June 2020.

2021 Proven

Malcolm X

In 2021, New York cleared the two men it had imprisoned for the killing of Malcolm X, and its District Attorney apologized.

They killed Malcolm. Then two innocent men spent decades in prison for it.

On 21 February 1965, Malcolm X was shot and killed at the Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan, New York. [Source 1]

On 11 March 1966, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were convicted of his murder and sentenced to life. [Source 1]

Aziz was released in 1985, after about nineteen years. Islam was released in 1987, after twenty-one years, and died in 2009. [Source 1]

On 18 November 2021, the Manhattan District Attorney asked a court to throw out their convictions. He admitted that there were "numerous materials that my office tragically did not have in 1965 and thus did not turn over to the defense," much of it in the hands of the FBI. [Source 2] [Source 1]

"I apologize on behalf of our nation's law enforcement for this decades-long injustice," he said. Their convictions were thrown out. Khalil Islam did not live to see his name cleared. [Source 3] [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Khalil Islam (Innocence Project).
  2. 2.Primary record. Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Remarks of District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. moving to vacate the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam (18 November 2021) (Patch (reprint of the DA's press release), 2021), Remarks, 18 November 2021. “numerous materials that my office tragically did not have in 1965 and thus did not turn over to the defense”
  3. 3.Primary record. Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Remarks of District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. moving to vacate the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam (18 November 2021) (Patch (reprint of the DA's press release), 2021), Remarks, 18 November 2021. “I apologize on behalf of our nation's law enforcement for this decades-long injustice”

2021 Proven

Mothers Who Did Not Come Home

The government's own count of deaths in pregnancy and childbirth for 2021 shows a gap between Black and white mothers wider than two to one.

She went in to give life. Too many of our mothers never came home.

The federal government counts the women who die from causes tied to pregnancy and childbirth. [Source 1]

In 2021, 1,205 women in the United States died of maternal causes. [Source 1]

For Black women, the rate was 69.9 deaths for every 100,000 live births. For white women it was 26.6. [Source 1]

A Black mother was 2.6 times as likely to die as a white mother. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2021 (National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

2022 Proven

George Floyd

A Minneapolis man died under an officer's knee on a city street in May 2020. The video went around the world, and millions marched.

Nine and a half minutes. Count them.

On 25 May 2020, Minneapolis police officers arrested George Floyd, forty-six years old. [Source 1]

Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee on or near Floyd's neck for about nine and a half minutes. Floyd was handcuffed. Again and again he gasped, "I can't breathe." Onlookers yelled at Chauvin to stop. [Source 1]

Chauvin later admitted in federal court that he kept his knee there when he knew Floyd "had lost consciousness and a pulse." [Source 2]

A bystander filmed it. Protests broke out in Minneapolis, across the country and beyond. On 20 April 2021, a jury convicted Chauvin of murder and manslaughter. [Source 1]

On 7 July 2022, a federal judge sentenced him to 252 months, 21 years, for violating Floyd's civil rights. The Justice Department said: "In no uncertain terms, George Floyd should be alive today." [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Jury finds former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in George Floyd case (Fortune, 2021).
  2. 2.Primary record. U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Minnesota, Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Sentenced to More Than 20 Years in Prison for Depriving George Floyd and a Minor Victim of Their Constitutional Rights (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022), Press release, 7 July 2022. “he was aware that Mr. Floyd had lost consciousness and a pulse”
  3. 3.Primary record. U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Minnesota, Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Sentenced to More Than 20 Years in Prison for Depriving George Floyd and a Minor Victim of Their Constitutional Rights (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022), Press release, 7 July 2022. “In no uncertain terms, George Floyd should be alive today”

2022 Proven

Ahmaud Arbery

Three men chased down a young Black jogger in coastal Georgia in 2020. Federal law named it what it was: a hate crime.

He went for a run. They went for their guns.

On 23 February 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, ran past a home near Brunswick, Georgia. [Source 1]

Greg McMichael and his son Travis armed themselves and chased him in a pickup truck. A neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, joined the chase in his own truck and filmed it on his phone. Travis McMichael shot Arbery with a shotgun. [Source 1]

They told police they suspected he was a burglar. Investigators found he was unarmed and had committed no crimes. [Source 1]

In January 2022, a Georgia judge sentenced all three to life for murder. [Source 1]

In February, a federal jury convicted them of hate crimes. The jury found that "race formed a but-for cause" of what they did. The Justice Department said the men "had strongly held racist beliefs that led them to make assumptions and decisions about Arbery." [Source 2] [Source 3]

On 8 August 2022, the federal judge sentenced Travis McMichael to life plus 10 years, Greg McMichael to life plus 7 years, and Bryan to 35 years. She said: "Ahmaud Arbery will be forever 25. And what happened a jury found happened because he's Black." [Source 4] [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Ahmaud Arbery's killers sentenced to life for federal hate crimes (Georgia Public Broadcasting, 2022).
  2. 2.Primary record. Office of Public Affairs, Federal Judge Sentences Three Men Convicted of Racially Motivated Hate Crimes in Connection with the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022), Press release. “the jury found that the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that race formed a but-for cause”
  3. 3.Primary record. Office of Public Affairs, Federal Judge Sentences Three Men Convicted of Racially Motivated Hate Crimes in Connection with the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022), Press release. “had strongly held racist beliefs that led them to make assumptions and decisions about Arbery”
  4. 4.Primary record. Office of Public Affairs, Federal Judge Sentences Three Men Convicted of Racially Motivated Hate Crimes in Connection with the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022), Press release.

2023 Proven

Buffalo

A young white supremacist came to a neighborhood grocery store on a Saturday to kill Black people. In 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison.

They went to buy groceries. That was all.

On 14 May 2022, a nineteen-year-old gunman drove about three hours from his home to the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York. [Source 1]

He chose the store because it stood in a mostly Black neighborhood. He said he hoped the attack would help preserve white power in the United States. [Source 1]

He shot thirteen people. Ten were killed, aged 32 to 86, among them Ruth Whitfield, 86, Katherine Massey, 72, and Celestine Chaney. [Source 1]

That July, a federal grand jury charged him with hate crimes. The Justice Department said the attack "resulted in the deaths of 10 Black people, as well as injury to three others." [Source 2]

He pleaded guilty in state court to murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, and in February 2023 was sentenced to life in prison. "There was nothing hasty or thoughtless about your conduct," the judge told him. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Buffalo shooter sentenced to life for killing 10 Black victims in emotional hearing (CBC News, 2023).
  2. 2.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Federal Grand Jury Indicts Accused Tops Shooter on Federal Hate Crimes and Firearms Charges (14 July 2022) (United States Department of Justice, 2022), Press release, 14 July 2022. “resulted in the deaths of 10 Black people, as well as injury to three others”

2023 Proven

The Vatican Answers

The Church disowned the doctrine built on the papal orders that once blessed the taking of Africans.

Five hundred and seventy years later, Rome answered.

In 1452 and 1455, the Pope gave the King of Portugal the right to reduce non-Christians to "perpetual slavery." [Source 1] [Source 2]

On 30 March 2023, the Vatican said those orders had been "manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples," and that the doctrine built on them is not Church teaching. [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Papal Bulls: Dum Diversas and Romanus Pontifex (It's Just History, Smith College, 2023).
  2. 2.Primary record. Pope Nicholas V, Romanus Pontifex (1455), as quoted in "The Doctrine of Discovery" (Minnesota Historical Society, 1455). “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever … and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery”
  3. 3.Primary record. Dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development, Joint Statement on the "Doctrine of Discovery" (The Holy See, 2023), Paragraphs 5–6. “manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples”

2023 Proven

California Counts the Cost

A state government put the full ledger of its harms on paper, and asked itself to say it was sorry.

A state put it in writing. Now the question is whether it will pay.

California's reparations task force worked for two years. [Source 1]

On 29 June 2023, it delivered its final report to the Legislature: nearly 1,100 pages and more than 100 recommendations. [Source 1] [Source 2]

The report "surveys the ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans" and lays out a plan for repair. [Source 2]

One chapter is titled "Recommendation for a California Apology." It limited eligibility to people descended from free or enslaved Black people. [Source 3] [Source 1]

Its members cited economists who found the state responsible for more than $500 billion for overpolicing, mass incarceration and housing discrimination. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. California reparations report urges action on housing discrimination and overpolicing (Associated Press, via WDIV ClickOnDetroit, 2023).
  2. 2.Primary record. Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, The California Reparations Report (California Department of Justice, 2023), Reports page. “surveys the ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans”
  3. 3.Primary record. Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, The California Reparations Report (California Department of Justice, 2023), Final report, chapter 16. “Recommendation for a California Apology”

2024 to 2025 Proven

The Last Survivors of Tulsa

Two women who lived through the burning of Greenwood asked the courts for repair when they were past 100, and were turned away.

They waited one hundred and three years. The court still said no.

On 31 May and 1 June 1921, as many as 300 Black people were killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. More than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools and churches of Greenwood, a Black district of more than thirty blocks, were destroyed. [Source 1]

A century later, the last two known survivors, Viola Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle, sued. [Source 1]

They asked for an accounting of the property and wealth taken, a fund for survivors and descendants, a hospital in north Tulsa, land and scholarships for descendants. [Source 1]

On 12 June 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 against them. It said their grievances were legitimate, but did not fall within the state's public nuisance law. Viola Fletcher was 110. Lessie Benningfield Randle was 109. [Source 1]

The court's own opinion admits that "the tragedy that forms the basis of the present appeal is acknowledged and memorialized, at least in part, in Oklahoma law." [Source 2]

Viola Fletcher died on 24 November 2025, at 111, without repair. [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. What we know about the lawsuit filed by the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (Associated Press, via WDIV ClickOnDetroit, 2024).
  2. 2.Primary record. Supreme Court of Oklahoma, Randle v. City of Tulsa, 2024 OK 40, 556 P.3d 612 (Leagle, 2024), Opinion, paragraph 1. “the tragedy that forms the basis of the present appeal is acknowledged and memorialized, at least in part, in Oklahoma law”
  3. 3.News report. Associated Press, Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Viola Fletcher dies at 111 (High Plains Public Radio, 2025), Report, 24 November 2025.

2025 Proven

Breonna Taylor

Police broke into a young Louisville woman's home in March 2020 and killed her there. Her name now stands on the law that bans such raids in her city.

In her own home, the one place she should have been safe. Say her name.

Breonna Taylor was twenty-six years old, a paramedic in Louisville, Kentucky. [Source 1]

On 13 March 2020, police entered her apartment on a "no-knock" warrant, one of five in a drug case against a former boyfriend who was arrested somewhere else that evening. [Source 1]

Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he did not hear police announce themselves, and fired one shot. Three officers fired into the apartment. Breonna Taylor was shot several times and killed. No drugs were found in her home. [Source 1]

On 15 September 2020, Louisville agreed to pay her family $12 million and reform its police. The city passed a law named for her that bans no-knock warrants. [Source 1]

On 8 March 2023, the Justice Department found that the Louisville police "unlawfully discriminates against Black people in its enforcement activities," searched homes on invalid warrants, and "unlawfully executes search warrants without knocking and announcing." [Source 2] [Source 3]

One officer who fired that night, Brett Hankison, was convicted of violating her civil rights and sentenced in 2025 to 33 months. The Justice Department had asked for one day. [Source 4]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Louisville to pay family of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor $12M, bring in police reforms (CBC News, 2020).
  2. 2.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Justice Department Finds Civil Rights Violations by the Louisville Metro Police Department and Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government (8 March 2023) (United States Department of Justice, 2023), Press release, 8 March 2023. “Unlawfully discriminates against Black people in its enforcement activities”
  3. 3.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Justice Department Finds Civil Rights Violations by the Louisville Metro Police Department and Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government (8 March 2023) (United States Department of Justice, 2023), Press release, 8 March 2023. “Unlawfully executes search warrants without knocking and announcing”
  4. 4.News report. NPR, Former officer gets 33 months in prison for violating Breonna Taylor's rights (NPR, 2025), Report, July 2025. “the DOJ recommended Hankison get just one day in prison”

2026 Proven

Sonya Massey

An Illinois woman asked the sheriff's office for help one summer night in 2024 and was killed in her own home by the deputy who came. In 2026, he was sentenced.

She called for help. Help killed her.

Sonya Massey was thirty-six, a Black mother of two in Springfield, Illinois. [Source 1]

On 6 July 2024, she called 911 about a possible prowler outside her home. Sangamon County Deputy Sean Grayson answered the call. [Source 1]

He said he thought she would throw a pot of boiling water at him. Prosecutors said she obeyed his order to put it down. He killed her. [Source 1]

On 12 August 2025, the Governor of Illinois signed the Sonya Massey Act. Police agencies must now "comprehensively review an applicant's employment history" before hiring. The Governor said: "When Sonya Massey feared for her safety, she did what anyone would do—she called law enforcement for help." [Source 2] [Source 3]

In October 2025, a jury convicted Grayson of second-degree murder. On 29 January 2026, he got the maximum, 20 years in prison. [Source 1] [Source 4]

Her mother said at the sentencing: "Today, I'm afraid to call the police in fear that I might end up like Sonya." [Source 4]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Former Illinois sheriff's deputy sentenced to 20 years for murder of Sonya Massey (NBC News, 2026).
  2. 2.Primary record. Office of the Governor of Illinois, Gov. Pritzker Signs Landmark Sonya Massey Bill (12 August 2025) (State of Illinois, 2025), Press release. “requiring agencies to comprehensively review an applicant's employment history”
  3. 3.Primary record. Office of the Governor of Illinois, Gov. Pritzker Signs Landmark Sonya Massey Bill (12 August 2025) (State of Illinois, 2025), Press release. “When Sonya Massey feared for her safety, she did what anyone would do—she called law enforcement for help.”
  4. 4.News report. Associated Press, Former Illinois deputy who killed Sonya Massey is sentenced to 20 years in prison (PBS NewsHour, 2026), Report, 29 January 2026. “Today, I'm afraid to call the police in fear that I might end up like Sonya”