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Study · Case study · 6 min read

Asheville: First Commission in the South

Five years, $4.1M committed, 39 recommendations, none funded, then a DOJ letter and dissolution. A case study in operations and durability for Southern commissions.

In July 2020 Asheville became the first Southern city to pass a reparations resolution, unanimously, with Buncombe County following weeks later.[1][2] In October 2025 its Community Reparations Commission was dissolved with roughly $6.4M unspent and none of its 39 recommendations funded.[2][3] The record of what happened in between has become one of the most closely studied process failures in the field.

The design

The city framed its program as "community reparations": investments aimed at generational wealth rather than direct cash payments.[4] The seed money carried its own history. The city's initial $2.1M came from selling land taken from a Black neighborhood during urban renewal, so the fund began with the returned value of a documented taking.[5] Buncombe County added $2M plus a recurring $500K per year.[6]

A 25-member joint city-county Community Reparations Commission was seated in March 2022, with 15 of the 25 seats reserved for nominees of impacted neighborhoods, including those harmed by urban renewal.[22][7][8] It organized its work into five Impact Focus Areas: housing, economic development, education, health and wellness, and criminal justice.[7]

Its most distinctive product was the Cease Harm Comprehensive Audit (about $175K), a forensic audit of how current city and county policy still harms Black residents.[9] The audit produced 108 recommendations.[21][9] It was also the only commission recommendation that ever received funding.[10]

The process problems

  1. The commission depended on outside consultants. The first project-management consultant resigned after a year; the second stepped back within another year ("my involvement has not had the intended impact"). The commission had no in-house staff to absorb the churn.[11]
  2. Deadlines kept slipping. April 2024 became December 2024, then 2025.[11][10] Extensions became the commission's most reliable output, and public confidence declined with each one.[12]
  3. Volunteers left faster than they could be replaced. The 25 seats proved hard to keep filled and harder to keep aligned: the county reopened applications for three seats in November 2022,[24] and by early 2023 five commissioners had resigned, including both public housing representatives, two county appointees and a county alternate.[25] Internal disputes made local news.[12]
  4. There was no agreed path from report to budget. The final report's 39 recommendations included $148,000 settlements to families harmed by urban renewal, $100K Black business grants, and a Black-led economic development center.[23][13][10] It was presented to the city and county in September 2025 without a pre-negotiated budget path, and went to an open-ended staff "legal review."[10]
  5. A disaster hit, and there was no cushion. Hurricane Helene rearranged every local budget, and the county then eliminated its recurring $500K commitment.[3]

The federal response

On September 4, 2025, one day after the county briefing, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights sent Buncombe commissioners a letter: DOJ was "deeply concerned that many of the recommendations, if implemented, would violate federal civil rights laws," and stood "ready to investigate and enforce... to the fullest extent possible."[14] Separately, HUD declined to release a $225M hurricane-recovery grant until Asheville removed equity language.[15] Six weeks later, the city council dissolved the commission by resolution.[2] The mayor said, "We need to be very careful in how we proceed."[3] A former Black councilman now argues publicly for "legally durable" place- and income-based delivery instead of race-based design.[3]

Lessons observers draw for Atlanta

  • Staffing. The commissions that delivered results had paid research staff (Fulton's co-project managers and researchers, California's DOJ attorneys), while consultant-dependent processes stalled.[16][17] The survey's staffing question comes directly from this record.
  • A path into the budget. Recommendations without a pre-committed budget process arrive as suggestions.[10] California's experience points the same direction.[17]
  • Where the money sits. Asheville's $6.4M sat in ordinary public accounts when the political climate turned, where it could be frozen or reclaimed.[3] Tulsa's private trust and even San Francisco's empty donations-fund shell survived the same year intact.[18][19] How the money is held affects whether it survives.
  • Expect legal challenges. Asheville received the first DOJ warning letter aimed at a local reparations plan; Evanston received the first intervention.[14][20] Advocates argue that a Georgia commission should design its legal strategy, including indemnification for commissioners, on the assumption that similar scrutiny will come.
  • The audit idea. The one thing Asheville funded, a formal audit of harm still underway, is the element other cities have most often cited as worth copying.[9][10]

References

  1. ABC News, "Reparations for slavery: Is Asheville a national model?" abcnews.go.com. Accessed July 2026.
  2. City of Asheville, "Community Reparations Commission," ashevillenc.gov. Accessed July 2026.
  3. Blue Ridge Public Radio, "'A place of fear:' Asheville candidates hedge on pushing forward landmark reparations endeavor amidst federal scrutiny," bpr.org. Accessed July 2026.
  4. City of Asheville, "Asheville reparations resolution is designed to provide Black community access to the opportunity to build wealth," ashevillenc.gov. Accessed July 2026.
  5. City of Asheville, "Asheville City Council makes initial $2.1 million in reparations funding appropriation," ashevillenc.gov. Accessed July 2026.
  6. Blue Ridge Public Radio, "Buncombe County approves reparations and recovery funds," bpr.org. Accessed July 2026.
  7. Asheville.com News, "City of Asheville Announces New Reparations Commission Members," asheville.com. Accessed July 2026.
  8. Buncombe County, "Community Reparations Commission," buncombenc.gov. Accessed July 2026.
  9. Blue Ridge Public Radio, "'Cease Harm' audit reaches final recommendations for Asheville, Buncombe officials," bpr.org. Accessed July 2026.
  10. Blue Ridge Public Radio, "Last Night at Council: Community Reparations Commission gives final report to Asheville," bpr.org. Accessed July 2026.
  11. Blue Ridge Public Radio, "Community Reparations Commission extends process; consultant 'steps back,'" bpr.org. Accessed July 2026.
  12. Asheville Watchdog, "Democracy Watch: The near death of the well-intentioned plan for Asheville's racial reparations might have been self-inflicted," avlwatchdog.org. Accessed July 2026.
  13. The Urban News, "Asheville-Buncombe County Reparations Commission 2025 Report," theurbannews.com. Accessed July 2026.
  14. Asheville Watchdog, "U.S. Department of Justice threatens Buncombe County with investigation over reparations recommendations," avlwatchdog.org. Accessed July 2026.
  15. Blue Ridge Public Radio, "'DEI is dead.' HUD axes DEI programs in Asheville's $225M Helene recovery plan," bpr.org. Accessed July 2026.
  16. Fulton County Reparations Task Force, "Harm Report" (2025), Acknowledgments (research team and project manager), fultoncountyga.gov. Accessed July 2026.
  17. California Department of Justice, "AB 3121: Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals — Final Report," oag.ca.gov. Accessed July 2026.
  18. City of Tulsa, "Mayor Nichols Presents Road to Repair to Address Systemic Impacts from 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre," cityoftulsa.org. Accessed July 2026.
  19. The Voice of San Francisco, "Board of Supervisors revisits reparations," thevoicesf.org. Accessed July 2026.
  20. Evanston RoundTable, "Reparations Committee reflects on future of the program amid lawsuit," evanstonroundtable.com. Accessed July 2026.
  21. Carter Development Group, "Cease Harm Comprehensive Audit" final presentation to Buncombe County (Mar. 19, 2024: "108 Recommendations"), buncombenc.gov (PDF). Accessed July 2026.
  22. Asheville Citizen-Times, "Buncombe County, Asheville announce final members of reparations commission" (Mar. 15, 2022), citizen-times.com. Accessed July 2026.
  23. Blue Ridge Public Radio, "Asheville-Buncombe reparations commission approves plan for a Black-led economic center" (May 7, 2024), bpr.org. Accessed July 2026.
  24. WLOS, "Applications open for vacancies on Buncombe County Community Reparations Commission" (Nov. 18, 2022: "there are three vacancies — one on the board and two alternates"), wlos.com. Accessed July 2026.
  25. Asheville Daily Planet, "Reparations panel OKs, sends its 2nd recommendation" (Jan. 4, 2023: "The resignations of five commission members, including both public housing representatives, two county appointees and a county alternate"), ashevilledailyplanet.com. Accessed July 2026.

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