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Texas board unwittingly approves reparations for slavery

DALLAS - Dallas County leaders have passed a resolution supporting reparations to African-Americans for years of slavery - without even realizing they had done so.

County commissioners unwittingly gave their OK by unanimously passing a Juneteenth resolution on Tuesday that stated blacks' suffering should be "satisfied with monetary and substantial reparations."

The meeting agenda made no specific mention of it, but it was read aloud by Commissioner John Wiley Price, who introduced the measure.

The resolution went beyond supporting Juneteenth. It included a list of injustices endured by blacks before it endorsed reparations in the final paragraph.

The Dallas Morning News reports other commissioners admitted afterward they hadn't read the resolution before voting.

Commissioner Mike Cantrell, the court's lone Republican, later changed his vote to an abstention, the News reported.

"The reason why I didn't abstain this morning is that I had not received a copy of the resolution," he said.

The vote is nonbinding, so no reparations - through payments or other means - will be made.

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