ALBANY, N.Y. — New York on Tuesday created a commission to study potential reparations for state residents of African descent, making it the second state after California to do so.

The commission, which will report its findings in 2025, will have a broad charge. It will examine New York’s legacy of slavery and discrimination and will make recommendations on both statutory changes and potential payments to combat generational wealth inequality.

“In New York, we like to think we’re on the right side of this — slavery was a product of the South, the Confederacy,” Hochul said while signing the bill at an event in Manhattan. “What is hard to embrace is that our state also flourished from that slavery. It’s not a beautiful story, but it’s the truth.”

Hochul was joined by Black leaders in the state Legislature and the Rev. Al Sharpton in the bill signing. They praised the measure as a way to rectify generations of wrongs caused by slavery, such as........

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