Nearly two years in the California reparations task force, the group still has not made the key decisions that will be at the heart of the final report recommending how the state should apologize and compensate Black residents for the harms caused by slavery and discrimination.
A vote that may have been scheduled for this weekend on the requirements for who is eligible for payments and other remedies was postponed because none of the nine members of the committee were present. But the group could vote Saturday on whether lawmakers should create an agency to implement the compensation program.
Lawmakers approved legislation in 2020 creating a task force to assess how the legacy of slavery harms African Americans long after it is abolished through education, criminal justice and other disparities. The law led the task force to study proposals for reparations “with special consideration for” the descendants of enslaved Black people who live in California and does not intend to create a program in lieu of one of the federal government.
The work of the task force has attracted public attention, as it is the first of its kind in the country. But some used the group’s latest two-day meeting in Sacramento to warn that not enough Black Californians are sufficiently informed about the work.
One resident said the task force’s 500-page interim report, released last year, should be available in libraries and schools. But others say it’s not just the task force and the communications team to get the word out about their work.
“This room should be filled with media, and it’s not because Black people are pariahs,” Los Angeles lawyer Cheryce Cryer said. “We’re at the bottom of the totem pole.”
The two-day meeting in Sacramento, the state capital, comes as the group approaches a July 1 deadline to release a report to lawmakers. The document will be a milestone for reparations efforts in various countries. It was a movement that gained support from many African-Americans, but also supporters that included Japanese Americans who fought for families to receive payments from the federal government after citizens were placed in internment camps during World War II.
Sacramento resident Tariq Alami, who has been following the task force since its early stages, said the government should pay compensation to Black Americans.
“It doesn’t take a genius to see that there are differences in society as a result of what we have encountered as Black people,” Alami said.
Dozens of legal advisors and residents came from across the country to the California Environmental Protection Agency building to give public comments there and there that ranged from details of family history having property seized from ancestors to call on the federal legislature to follow California’s lead.
After the task force releases its final report, the fate of its recommendations will rest with the state legislature, two of which are members of the task force – Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer and Sen. Steven Bradford, two Democrats representing parts of Los Angeles. Country. Lawmakers will also decide where the funding for the reparations law will come from.
The task force has spent several meetings discussing possible time reparations for the five injured economists who are working on estimates to help quantify the extent of discriminatory policies against Black Californians.
Those who save said there is some of the data and information that still needs to come up with additional estimates to include figures on the gap between what the government pays Black residents for seized property and the real value of that property.
The task force previously proposed the following time frames for the five harms, beginning when the state was founded or when certain discriminatory policies were implemented: 1933 to 1977 for housing discrimination and homelessness, 1970 to 2020 for over-policing and mass incarceration, 1850 to 2020 for unjust taking of property, 1900 to 2020 for harm to health, and 1850 to 2020 for devaluation of black-owned businesses.
task force member Monica Montgomery Steppe voiced concerns there about making 1977 the cutoff year for housing discrimination and homelessness, given that Black residents make up about a third of Californians experiencing homelessness. It was proposed that year based on the Community Reinvestment Act, a federal law that encourages lending in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
Economists say using that year helps estimate the effects of government-sponsored redlining when majority-Black neighborhoods are often categorized as “dangerous.”
“There are additional reasons why people sleep on the streets,” Steppe said.
The task force voted last year to limit reparations to descendants of enslaved or free blacks who lived in the United States in the 19th century. Members have not yet voted on whether the reparations should be limited more to Californians or also include people living in the state and was going to stay but was moved.
Elsewhere in the country, reparations proposals for African Americans have had mixed results. A bill that would allow the federal government to study compensation hasn’t come close to a vote in Congress since it was first introduced in 1989.
Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, made national headlines in 2021 as the first city to offer compensation to black residents in the form of housing grants. But few have benefited from the program, the Washington Post reported.
In December, the African American Reparations Advisory Committee in San Francisco released a draft report proposing a payment of $5 million for each eligible person. The city’s Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the committee’s final recommendations.
In New York, state lawmakers reintroduced a bill earlier this year that would have created a commission to study reparations for African Americans.
Learn how to navigate and strengthen trust in your business with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter that examines what leaders need to succeed. Log in here.