Washington State made history by funding the Charles Mitchell and George Washington Bush Study on Reparative Action—a legislatively mandated examination of the harms of U.S. chattel slavery and their enduring impacts on direct descendants in Washington. The Legislature appropriated funds, community partners raised additional support, and the Governor signed study language that clearly defined who is qualified to conduct this work. Sacred work demands accountability. Sign: the Change.org Petition
Those safeguards were intentional. They exist to protect public trust and ensure the study’s independence, rigor, and credibility.
What Happened After the Award Announcement
After the Department of Commerce announced an apparent successful bidder, Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter and a separate team including Dr. Sandy Darity each filed formal challenges and requested debriefings pursuant to Commerce’s procurement procedures.
Both filings raised the same substantive concern: Truclusion is not led by a descendant community member, nor does not meet the qualifications explicitly required by the study language enacted into law. These were not abstract objections. They were qualification-based challenges submitted through the proper procedural channels.
Commerce declined to move those claims forward and did not adjudicate whether the selected entity satisfies the statutory criteria—despite retaining discretion within its own procedures to do so.
No National Search, Narrowed Field
Equally concerning, Commerce did not conduct a national search for qualified research teams. Reparations research is a nationally established field with recognized scholars, methodologies, and institutions. Limiting outreach materially narrowed the pool of qualified applicants and undermined confidence that the most capable teams were fully considered.
Advisory Input Is Not a Substitute for Law
The Department of Commerce relied on advisory from the Commission on African American Affairs Chairman Joseph Todd and Director Ed Prince along with consultant Paula Sardinas and Mayor of Olympia Dontae Payne. Notably, Mayor Payne had previously selected Truclusion to conduct a study for the City of Olympia earlier in 2025, after which the firm acknowledged that it did not have experience conducting a reparative justice study. Advisory influence, however, cannot substitute for statutory compliance or cure a failure to meet the law’s requirements.
Why This Matters
This study examines slavery, its afterlives, and Washington State’s historical role in those harms. That work must be insulated from procedural shortcuts and conducted by teams that clearly meet the legal qualifications set by the Legislature.
AR1870 does not allege intent or impropriety. However, when qualifications are disputed by multiple independent teams, procedural challenges are set aside, and transparency is limited, public trust is weakened. That alone requires correction.
Call to the Governor
Because this study was created by statute and signed into law, executive intervention is now required.
American Renewal 1870 respectfully calls on Governor Bob Ferguson to:
- Pause the current award,
- Reset the procurement process,
- Require a transparent, national search for qualified research teams, and
- Ensure that all qualification-based challenges receive full procedural review.
The names Charles Mitchell and George Washington Bush demand nothing less.
When the process is sound, the findings can stand.
When the process is flawed, leadership is measured by the willingness to correct it.The integrity of this study is the integrity of our history.
We ask the Governor to act.
Sacred work demands accountability. Sign: the Change.org Petition and contact the Governor’s office to urge an immediate reset of this process—because the integrity of this study, and our history, cannot be compromised.
Demand a reset of Washington’s Reparations study process
American Renewal 1870
Guarding the Promise of Reparative Justice
