South Bend’s Reparatory Justice Commission formally presented its report on historic discrimination against African Americans in the city to the common council Monday night. The council and Mayor James Mueller vow to take it seriously.
At a press conference he called Tuesday alongside Council President Canneth Lee, Mueller said they’ll quickly get to implementing the 138-page report’s recommendations.
“I have read the report," Mueller said. "I acknowledge what it documents: a history of racial discrimination in South Bend, in housing, in employment, in education, in health, in the basic fairness of services. It’s real and sustained for more than a century. I am sorry for it. This apology is not an ending point. The commission’s report does not ask us to grieve our history. It asks us to acknowledge our history and act on it.”
Mueller said one of his administration’s first actions will come in the predominantly African American LaSalle Park neighborhood, where the report documents that companies like Bendix for decades dumped hazardous waste in Beck’s Lake. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently has removed all of the contamination.
”But the health consequences of decades of exposure have never been studied in the population that lived through them," Mueller said. "The commission identified that study as essential and the city will help to see it done.”
