Loudoun County leaders taking up reparations proposal
LEESBURG, Va. - The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is taking up a proposal to launch a study on whether reparations are in order to rectify a history of racial discrimination.
Throughout the summer, the Loudoun County Public Schools community has been locked in fiery meetings over so-called Critical Race Theory and transgender rights.
On Tuesday night, County Supervisor Juli Briskman will call for a vote on her new initiative for both the county government and public schools to study what she called the harm caused by the county’s discrimination of Black residents, and its impact on Black students.
"The anti-CRT movement is much more about ‘today’ and what we’re teaching today. And my Board member initiative is looking back at potential harm that was because we operated segregated schools illegally against the ruling of Brown vs. the Board of Education," Briskman said.
Briskman cites examples of jurisdictions addressing racial disparities by paying reparations for slavery.
Georgetown University announced that it would make reparations to descendants of slaves it sold to stop bankruptcy in 1838.
But with tempers having already flared up in Loudoun County in school board meetings, Briskman says she’s not concerned about turned up the heat with a debate on disparities because she start it’s a systemic issue that needs to be dealt with.
Download the FOX 5 DC News App for Local Breaking News and Weather
"I would just encourage our joint commission or whatever committee to come out of this to just ignore the outside noise because what’s happening in Fairfax and us, has little to do with us and in many ways has to do with ‘message testing’ for the 2022 elections and beyond," she said.
The board is set to take up the proposal at 7:30 p.m. tonight.