September 1, 2024

Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

Scores of advocates from across California protested at the State Capitol Saturday after the Legislature failed to bring two critical reparations bills to the floor for a full vote on Aug. 31, the final day of the legislative session.  

Chanting “What do we want? Reparations! When do we want it? Now!,” the advocates expressed their outrage and disappointment that Senate Bill (SB) 1403 and Senate Bill (SB) 1331 — both authored by Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood) — had stalled.

Despite advancing smoothly through much of the legislative process this year, the session concluded without a vote on both bills, leaving the future of reparations in California hanging in the balance.

“This is becoming a political disaster. It’s our own people holding this up,” said Chris Lodgson, a reparations advocate from the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California (CJEC), blaming members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC).

Lodgson said the Legislature’s decision to pass another bill, Assembly Bill (AB) 1840, on Aug. 28, only heightened his frustration.

AB 1840, authored by Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), would allow eligible undocumented immigrants to purchase homes with state-backed financing through the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan program.

AB 1840 passed the Assembly on Aug. 28, and is now moving on to the governor for his consideration, prompting some in the Black community to feel overlooked.

“This tells me and Black Californians who are ancestors of slavery, who built this country we are not as important,” Lodgson said. “We’re not a priority or important as those other programs. That’s what is most infuriating and that’s what Black legislators are telling their people. That’s not going to be accepted.”

Tiffany Quarles, a reparations activist and supporter of Bradford’s bills, drove from Los Angeles to Sacramento to watch what she thought would be the passage of a historic vote.

“I am not disdained, and I am not discouraged. I came here to fight for Black Americans whose families were enslaved in this country. My family was enslaved in this country. So, I am not giving up. If they think that this is over, they are wrong,” said Quarles. “We still demand lineage-based reparations.”

Quarles said she believes Democratic leaders decided against advancing the bills because they are worried their decision would hurt V.P. Kamala Harris’s chances of winning the presidency.  

“They will sacrifice Black America just to get her in, and that’s not right,” stated Quarles.

According to Bradford, the Governor’s Office expressed some concerns over his reparation’s bills.

“They offered up some amendments that weren’t accepted by me. We had no indications of any amendments up until Monday (Aug. 26) of this week,” said Bradford.

“We had legislation that made it out of Assembly Appropriations committee without one single amendment — not a single amendment was offered up. We moved these bills with the understanding that we had the votes to take it up on the Assembly floor,” Bradford explained.  “It was just some simple amendment that pretty much would have gutted SB 1403 and made it an additional study.”

Bradford, who served on the Reparations Task force, said California researched reparations for two years and delivered a 1,100-page report to the legislature. Therefore, there is no need to conduct an additional study.

The CLBC issued a statement on the final day of the legislative session confirming that SB 1403 would not be brought to a vote this session and would be reintroduced next session. 

“The California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) remains steadfast in our commitment to advancing the CLBC 2024 Reparations Priority Legislative Package,” the statement read. “The CLBC has chosen to concentrate our collective energy on the legislative priorities that the entire caucus has voted on and those that positively impact Black Californians.”

The CLBC reaffirmed its commitment to its 2024 reparations priority legislative package, despite SB 1403 and SB 1331 not being part of the original package.

The CLBC statement emphasized the complexity of the legislative process and its ongoing dedication to advancing reparative justice for Black Californians.

SB 1403 aimed to establish the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency to recommend measures for compensating Black Californians who are descendants of enslaved people. SB 1331 proposed the creation of the Fund for Reparations and Reparative Justice in the State Treasury to fund policies approved by the Legislature and Governor that address the harm done to descendants of enslaved African American persons who experienced chattel slavery or free Black people living in the U.S. before the end of the 19th century.

Another bill in the CLBC’s legislative package, SB 1050, authored by Bradford and introduced for the vote by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), calls for the establishment of a process for California to review and investigate public complaints from individuals who claim their property was taken without just compensation as a result of racially motivated eminent domain. The legislation would also establish a process for providing compensation to the rightful owner. That bill passed with a 56-0 vote on Aug. 29, marking a significant victory for those advocating for reparative justice.

“We understand that the legislative process is complex and does not always unfold as initially envisioned. However, we remain committed to our long-term goals and recognize that this is a multi-year effort,” the CLBC statement continued.

According to the CLBC, the work of advancing reparations and achieving justice for Black Californians is “far from complete.”

“We will not be distracted from our mission. We will stay focused on the work at hand, united in our purpose, and dedicated to the cause of reparations and equity for all. The CLBC will continue to lead with integrity and purpose, ensuring that our legislative efforts are impactful and meaningful for the communities we serve,” the statement concluded.

Los Angeles Attorney, Kamilah Moore, who served as chair of the Reparations Task Force, called the turn of events “unconscionable.”

“The bills sailed through various committees and people expected them to be introduced to the floor for a vote,” Moore said. “What happened was unexpected. It’s causing a lot of confusion and different emotions from the community.” 

“I think it was unconscionable that no legislator had the courage to get up and introduce the bills, particularly the California Legislative Black Caucus. The CLBC is such an esteemed institution. They had the chance, and still have a chance, to do something historic.”

Stakeholders Discuss Reparations for Black Californians as State Faces Deep Budget Cuts

April 22, 2024

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

Although California will have to make significant budget cuts to balance its budget as required by state law, Assemblymember and California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) member Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights) said there are still ways to achieve reparations for Black Californians.

Currently, the budget deficit for the 2024-25 fiscal year has been projected to be as high as $73 billion.

Bryan said it will be “absolutely difficult,” but the state is still investing in other priority programs, various essential industries, oil companies, and prisons. The 32-year-old lawmaker made these observations at the California Budget and Policy Center (Budget Center) annual Policy Insights conference held April 16 at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento.

“(California) has the 4th or 5th largest economy in the world. There will be $300 billion coming out of California State government,” Bryan said. “So, you can’t tell me that we don’t have the resources to foundationally begin reparations conversations or to start to make amends to start to do the repair work when we can invest in these institutions.”

The Budget Center is a nonpartisan, research and analysis nonprofit dedicated to advancing meaningful public policies that enhance the lives of Californians. It is also committed to exposing inequities in the state, budget priorities, and public policies that affect low and middle-income households, women, immigrants, American Indians, Asians, Black, Latinx, and Pacific Islander Californians.

The Budget Center’s Policy Insights 2024 conference brought together diverse stakeholders, including community advocates, government officials, nonprofits, and members of the media. The conference featured 11 workshops and plenary sessions covering topics in tax and budget policy, poverty, racial equity, housing and homelessness, child development, and more.

During the conference’s luncheon plenary session, titled “Policy Pathways to Reparations,” discussions were centered around the topic of reparations.  

The session explored courses of action for securing reparations, guided by a 2023 task force report that examined the damages endured by African Americans as a result of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and legal and illegal discriminatory practices that were a part of the country’s culture for centuries.

Bryan was joined by Felicia Jones, the Director of Programs and Operations for Social Good Solutions and The Black Equity Collective; James Woodson, from the California Black Power Network and African Americans and the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth (ARRT); and Don Tamaki, a former member of the California Reparations Task Force and Senior Counsel, Minami Tamaki LLP.  The moderator was John Kim, a member of the Budget Center Board of Directors and President and CEO of Catalyst California.

Woodson acknowledged that it would take more than members of the CLBC to pave the way toward reparations in the state. He said it would take a collective effort from people of all backgrounds to get the public and other lawmakers on board.

Both Woodson and Tamaki are members of AART. The organization’s mission is to raise public awareness about reparations and to build a base of multi-racial and multi-sector supporters in the state. 

CLBC members Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood) are also associated with ARRT. Both lawmakers were members of the California Reparations Task Force.

“There are hearts and minds we’ve got to change outside the Legislature,” Woodson said. “From a moral standpoint but also a practical standpoint that it just can’t be about Black communities and Black people. We have to have other communities standing with us.”

Several reparation bills presented by the CLBC as a whole or by separate members are working their way through the State Legislature.

Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), Chair of the CLBC, stated in January, “While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations, the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more.”

Before discussions about financial payouts can take place, considering budget concerns, Wilson said that “a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism” is necessary.

Gov. Gavin Newsom presented a $291 billion spending plan to the California Legislature on Jan. 10. None of CLBC’s package of bills is tied to direct cash payments but Bryan did ask supporters at the conference to keep the conversation going about reparations.

“Don’t let the legislature or the governor off the hook,” Bryan said.

Tamaki, who is Japanese American, was the only non-Black member of the nine-person reparations task force. He told the Policy Insights attendees that “moving the needle” in the direction of public opinion, raising awareness, and passing the CLBC bills are the next steps in the push for reparations.

“Out of 115 (reparations) proposals for repair, only a few of them deal with individual compensation. The rest have to do with policies,” said Tamaki.  “For example, Black infant mortality over 10 years in San Francisco is literally five times the rate for White babies. So, these are the systematic outcomes we are familiar with that need to be addressed.”

Advocates Weigh in On California Black Caucus Reparations Package

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌ l California Black Medial l February 22, 2023

n Feb. 21, the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) held a press conference at the State Capitol organized to introduce a package of reparations legislation the lawmakers call “a starting point” to atone for the state’s legacy of discrimination. 

All 12 members of the CLBC were present to explain their efforts to rectify the damages caused by the systemic discrimination against Black Californians detailed in the 1,100-page report by the first-in-the-nation California reparations task force.   

The nine-member panel submitted the recommendations on June 28, 2023. 

CLBC chairperson Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) said it may take three to seven years to pass legislation aimed at implementing the task force recommendations.   

The package the CLBC members presented consists of 14 legislative proposals, each designed to address different aspects of systemic racism and inequality.  

One proposal by Assemblymember Cory Jackson (D-Riverside), ACA 7, seeks to amend the voter-passed initiative, Prop 209, that prohibits considering race, color, sex, or nationality in public employment, education, and contracting decisions. This amendment would allow the governor to approve exceptions to the law in order to address poverty and improve educational outcomes for African Americans and other marginalized groups. 

Bradford also discussed proposal legislation aimed at compensating families whose properties were seized through eminent domain as a result of racism and discrimination.  

The package of bills includes a measure proposed by Assemblymember Reggie Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), Assembly Bill (AB) 3089 to formally acknowledge California’s history of slavery and discrimination, requiring lawmakers to issue a formal apology.  

Additionally, a proposed constitutional amendment, ACA 8, sponsored by CBLC chair, Lori Wilson aims to ban involuntary servitude, particularly within the state’s prison system. 

Reparations advocates and social justice groups from statewide organizations shared their support and criticism of the 14-bill reparations package with California Black Media (CBM). 

A Coalition for a Just and Equitable California (CJEC) stated that the CLBC’s package does not address direct-cash payment, which, for that group’s leadership, is a non-negotiable component of any proposed compensation package.  

“Our coalition’s unwavering commitment has been to pursue lineage-based reparations, encompassing direct monetary payments/compensation, state recognition of descendants as a protected class, and the establishment of the California American Freedman Affairs Agency through Senate Bill (SB) 490,” CJEC member Chris Lodgson outlined in a statement.  

Lodgson continued, “We believe these vital components are imperative and a necessary first step toward true Reparations. As we’ve communicated to elected officials directly for some time, we believe any Reparations package must be targeted explicitly and exclusively to California’s 2 million Black American descendants of person enslaved in the U.S. (American Freedmen).”  

Media present at the news briefing persistently questioned Wilson and other CLBC members about direct payments.  

Wilson mentioned that the budget deficit California is currently facing has become a consideration in discussions about compensation. A Legislative Analyst’s Office report released Feb. 20 estimates that the state’s budget shortfall could expand to $73 billion by May.  

“In regard to direct-cash payments to individuals we will continue to have that discussion as we navigate the next few years,” Wilson said. “As noted, we’re halfway through a legislative session. We have about three months of the legislative process in each house (Senate and Assembly) to work through these existing bills. In the next session, we have two years, and during that two-year session, we will consider in the fall concluding additional payments whether they are direct-cash payments or direct payments to communities,” Wilson said.  

The Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth (ARRT), a collaboration of California’s leading Black power-building and justice groups, supports seven of CLBC’s 14 reparations bills with proposals that include the restoration of property, establishing the property tax assistance for Descendants of enslaved persons program, a formal apology for human rights violations and crimes against humanity, amending the California Constitution to prohibit involuntary servitude for incarcerated persons, and prohibiting discrimination based on natural and protective hairstyles. 

“The California Legislative Black Caucus reparations package marks a historic and meaningful moment in time. ARRT encourages lawmakers to pursue an even more expansive and definitive action to fulfill the reparations principles as recognized by the United Nations,” stated James Woodson, AART co-founder and Executive Director of the California Black Power Network. “Reparative justice must be impactful, transformative, and enduring, thus paving the way toward atoning for the wrongdoings deeply imprinted in the state’s history and healing this democracy.” 

ARRT is a collaboration between the Black Equity Collective, the California Black Power Network, Catalyst California, Equal Justice Society, and Live Free USA, Live Free California.  

Former members of the California reparations task force have partnered with AART: Loyola-Marymount clinical psychologist professor Dr. Cheryl Grills, Oakland-based civil rights attorney Lisa Holder, Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of California Berkeley professor Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, and Oakland-based attorney Donald Tamaki. 

“We absolutely are (in support of direct-cash payments),” Woodson told California Black Media. “I think we got to have it all. There were multiple harms that were caused and one of them was financial and that needs to be compensated for cash payments. And there are also systemic harms that were created. We need to change laws. We need to change how rules work because a lot of it flows out of anti-Black racism. We have to have everything because if you leave anything out it’s not for reparations.” 

Sources shared with CBM that there will be a series of listening sessions with the CLBC to help educate Californians about the reparation bills and the workings of the legislative process. 

The members of the CLBC are Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City); Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood); Assemblymember Akilah Weber (D-La Mesa); Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles); Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda); Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena); Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson); Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Riverside); Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D- Los Angeles); Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood); and Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles).  

Gov. Newsom Vetoes Bill to Extend Term of Reparations Task Force

Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

On Sept. 29, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill (AB) 2296 authored by Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer.

The bill proposed extending the term for the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans by an additional year until July 1, 2024.

“I am returning Assembly Bill 2296 without my signature,” Newsom said in a written statement. “At the request of the author of the original legislation that created this task force, I am vetoing this bill.”

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber authored AB 3121 the legislation establishing the task force in 2020 – while serving in the Assembly. The task force was formed to study slavery and its lingering effects on African Americans with a “special consideration” for descendants of persons enslaved in the United States.

Jones-Sawyer is a member of the Task Force.

As written, AB 2296 would “remove the specified term of office for appointees and, instead, subject the appointees to removal at the pleasure of their appointing authority.”

That action would authorize the Task Force, by majority vote, to elect officers and create advisory bodies and subcommittees to accomplish its duties.

Currently, Los Angeles attorney Kamilah Moore is the task force chair and civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown of San Francisco serves as vice chair.

The Task Force consists of nine members. Five of them are appointed by the Governor, two members are appointed by the President pro Tempore of the Senate, and another two are appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.

The Assembly passed AB 2296 with a 59-13 majority vote. In the Senate, it passed 32-6 at the end of August. It was sent to the Governor on Sept. 9 for his signature.

Jones-Sawyer avoided making any public comment about AB 2296 since introducing the bill in the Assembly on Feb. 16, 2022.

At a two-day meeting in Los Angeles on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24 at the California Science Center and the Wallis Annenberg Building in Exposition Park, Jones-Sawyer made a public statement about the bill.

“The Task Force report will be completed on time as richly envisioned by Dr. Shirley Weber. It will not be delayed and will be done (July 1, 2023) whether the governor signs my bill or not,” Sawyer said. However, he avoided commenting on the removal of members mentioned in the bill.

Many speakers during public comment at the first day of the meeting voiced concerns about extending the Reparations Task Force sunset date for an additional year.

Jones-Sawyer said his intention to extend the task force was to allow members to lobby the Assembly and Senate legislators who may not be in favor of the recommendations or “dollar amount.”

“That is the purpose why I wanted this group to stay together, not to hold up part of the report, but to keep this group together so they can lobby our colleagues and other individuals who may not be in line or in lockstep with what we want to do. And there are several of them who are not in line with what we want to do,” Sawyer said.

The members of the Coalition of a Just and Equity California (CJEC) and other advocate groups for reparations conducted a month-long continuous social media campaign on all platforms and made pleas to the public to call the governor’s office urging Newsom to veto AB 2296.

“The Governor made the right decision. As Reparations advocates, our job is to make sure the Reparations development process is open, transparent, led by the descendant community, and free from political influence,” said Chris Lodgson, a member of CJEC. “We are thankful to Governor Newsom and Secretary Weber for agreeing with us, as well as everyone who reached out to the Governor or encouraged people to reach out to the Governor to help achieve this victory. AB 2296 was a bad bill and deserved to be vetoed.”

The San Francisco Black and Jewish Unity Coalition offered its support against the bill when it was asked by Rev. Brown and Weber to “reach out” to all the

participants in the “Teach-In on Reparations: for African Americans in California and San Francisco.”

Brown and Weber were guest speakers at the teach-in held in San Francisco on Sept. 18 at the Congregation Sherith Israel. The Unity Coalition is a grassroots organization, made up of people of faith and/or social activists, committed to the causes of racial, social, and economic justice and to dismantling systemic racism at the local, regional and national levels.

“Please immediately contact Governor Gavin Newsom’s office and ask him to veto the Jones-Sawyer legislation — AB 2296 — that would extend the term of the (California) State Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans and open up the opportunity to remove and replace members,” the coalition said in a statement to the teach-in participants. “The work of the Task Force is on track and on schedule, and we need to stay the course. The Task Force has not asked for an extension.”

On June 1, the Task Force submitted its interim report to the California Legislature. The interim report covers the ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery and its lingering effects on American society today.

A final report will be issued before July 1, 2023.

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