Bill No. 22-61 A Resolution Calling for Reparatory Justice

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BILL NO. 22-61 DEC 1 4 2022 � I DAWN M.JONES RESOLUTION NO. 4996-22 CITY CLERK. SOUTH BEND, IN A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, CALLING FOR REPARATORY JUSTICE WHEREAS, the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that the 1851 Indiana State Constitution expressly outlawed African Americans from residing in the State of Indiana; and WHEREAS, the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that the 1851 Indiana State Constitution, Article 13, Section 1 reads: "No negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution"; and WHEREAS,the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that one of the earliest African American families to reside in the City did so illegally when, in 1858, Farrow and Rebecca Powell permanently settled; and WHEREAS, the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that in the early 20th Century, African Americans escaping racial violence in the Jim Crow South migrated to the City in search of jobs as laborers, domestic workers, factory workers, service workers, among other fields; and WHEREAS,the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that African American migrants built resilient communities in a racially segregated City of South Bend despite terrible challenges; and WHEREAS,the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that according to The Chicago Tribune in 1923, the Ku Klux Klan drove an estimated 1,000 African American residents from South Bend with threats of violence; and WHEREAS,the South Bend Common Council acknowledges from the 1930s until the 1950s, the City and local companies disposed of wasted hazardous materials in the LaSalle Park Neighborhood, one of the few communities where African Americans could live due to racial discrimination in housing and employment; and WHEREAS,the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that harmful toxins such as asbestos, plating and paint wastes, solvents and oils, and arsenic-contaminated foundry sand have been disposed of in this community; and WHEREAS,the South Bend Common Council acknowledges that Beck's Lake and surrounding residential areas in the LaSalle Park Neighborhood were listed on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List(NPL), which lists"sites of national priority among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances,pollutants, or contaminants throughout the United States and its territories"; and