Nearly a year and a half after its formation, South Bend’s Reparatory Justice Commission has a new leader.
The commission Wednesday night unanimously elected South Bend NAACP president Trina Robinson to become its new chair. She replaces Darryl Heller, director of Indiana University South Bend’s Civil Rights Heritage Center, who is stepping down for health reasons.
Black Lives Matter South Bend has pressured Heller to resign, saying he hasn’t done enough outreach to the Black community, especially younger adults.
Robinson says Heller did a fine job, while noting the commission has recently added some younger members. The South Bend Common Council created the commission in September 2023, with then-council President Sharon McBride picking the members.
Robinson says the commission is talking about things like new programs and systemic changes rather than cash payments to descendants of slaves, as has been proposed in some other cities.
And she says the commission already has at least two reports, Prosperity Now’s Racial Wealth Divide and the city’s Financial Empowerment Blueprint, that identify harms that Black people in South Bend still feel.
"And we're going to utilize those documents to help the city to see where it is necessary to fulfill not only those documents but to move forward with reparations for those individuals that have been marginalized," Robinson said.
