The Department of Justice is warning a North Carolina county that it could investigate and enforce violations of civil rights laws over a proposed reparations program.

The assistant attorney general in the department’s Civil Rights Division issued the warning in a September 4 letter to the county that was obtained by the Asheville Watchdog.

“The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division has recently become aware of concerning recommendations presented to you by the Asheville-Buncombe County Community Reparations Commission,” the letter states.

“After our initial review, we are deeply concerned that many of the recommendations, if implemented, would violate federal civil rights laws,” the letter adds.

Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, is 81 percent white according to U.S. Census Bureau data and heavily liberal, giving 61 percent of its votes to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. 

The county established a task force in 2022 that was mandated to consider ways to compensate black residents whose families had suffered from systemic racism across generations.

The task force submitted a final list of 39 recommendations on September 3, covering criminal justice, economic development, education, health and wellness, and housing.

One proposal calls for an affordable housing plan that would reserve funding exclusively for the black population. Another recommendation would establish a transportation service to take expectant black mothers to prenatal appointments, birthing classes, and hospitals.

The commission would also require the government to justify any failure to include “diverse candidates” among the finalists for government jobs. And it wants to require diversity, equity, and inclusion training for all managers in the city of Asheville government – flying in the face of Mr. Trump’s campaign against so-called DEI programs.

Yet another recommendation would give the county more control over the Asheville city school district and apply “racial equity metrics” to funding for those schools.

The chief equity and human rights officer for Buncombe County says there is $2.9 million already set aside to implement the recommendations.

“The next phase is kind of really digging into those recommendations and analyzing them and seeing whether there’s alignment for possible implementation,” Ms. Armstrong told a local television station, WLOS-TV.

The Justice Department letter cites the $2.9 million figure and says the office “will be closely monitoring your actions.”

“To the extent these recommendations are formally adopted, you are now on notice that my office stands ready to investigate and enforce violations of federal civil rights laws to the fullest extent possible,” the letter says.

The reparations push has gone forward even in the face of billions of dollars in damage suffered by residents of the region during Hurricane Helene.

In late September 2024, Asheville was nearly wiped off the map by Helene. At least 35 people were killed when more than a foot of rain sent the French Broad River flowing over its banks and tearing through the surrounding neighborhoods.

Most of the tents that many Asheville residents lived in for months are now gone, but scores of businesses are still struggling to reopen and the tourism industry on which the region depends has yet to recover. 

Other cities and states across the country are considering their own reparations programs, with commissions established in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois.

Governor Gavin Newsom allotted $12 million for “reparations legislation” in California but says he will not support any direct payments to individuals.