Recognizing racist past, Tampa will create reconciliation committee

According to the resolution approved Thursday, each City Council member will appoint one person to the committee. The following organizations will also each have one appointee: The Hillsborough County NAACP, the Urban League of Hillsborough County, the Tampa Bay History Center, the Tampa Bay Coalition of Clergy, Abe Brown Ministries and Florida Rising.

Members will serve without compensation. Appointees will be proposed next month.

Thursday’s resolution recognizes that “the City of Tampa has made great progress on matters of racial and social justice, but still has many miles to go.”

A 2015 Tampa Bay Times investigation found that Tampa police ticketed more people than the state’s four other largest cities combined, and that eight out of 10 bicyclists ticketed were black.

Then, in 2021, a Times investigation revealed a controversial Tampa Police Department program in which officers alerted landlords when their tenants were arrested and urged they be evicted. About 90% of tenants flagged to landlords were Black renters, the Times found.

Both reports prompted U.S. Department of Justice investigations.

The committee approved Thursday will serve “as a catalyst for greater citizen participation in the determination of racial harmony, racial equality and matters of justice and inclusion,” according to the resolution. All committee meetings will be open to the public.

“We’ve fought a long, uphill battle for this,” said Valerie Bullock, a lifelong city resident who left Thursday’s meeting angry. “The boys and girls of East Tampa are still dealing with the same issues I dealt with 50 years ago.”