California lawmakers pass landmark bills to atone for racism, but hold off on fund to take action
Sacramento: California lawmakers This week saw the passage of some of the country’s most ambitious laws aimed at atoning for the legacy of apartheid policies black manFrom housing to education to health.
Neither bill would provide massive direct payments to African Americans. The state legislature instead approved proposals to allow the return of land or compensation to families whose property had been unjustly confiscated by the government, and issued formal amnesties for laws and practices that harmed black people.
But lawmakers dropped two bills that would have created a fund and an agency to carry out the measures, which would have been considered key components of the action effort. California Legislative Black Caucus Chair Assemblymember Lori Wilson said Saturday that while the Black Caucus has pulled the bills, the proposals need more work.
“We knew from the beginning that it was going to be an uphill battle. … And we knew from the beginning that it was going to be a multi-year effort,” Wilson told reporters.
Sen. Steven Bradford, who authored the measures, said the bills did not move forward out of fear that Gov. Gavin Newsom would veto them.
“We are at the finish line, and we, as the Black Caucus, owe it to the descendants of chattel slavery, to black Californians and to black Americans, to move this legislation forward,” Bradford said, urging his colleagues to reconsider Saturday afternoon.
The Democratic governor has not weighed in on most bills, but he signed a $297.9 billion budget in June that included up to $12 million in compensation. Law, however, did not specify in the budget which proposals the money would be used for, and his administration has indicated opposition to some of them. Newsom has until September 30 to decide whether to sign the bills into law.
Democratic Assembly member Reggie Jones-Syer, who is black, called his bill a “labor of love” to issue a formal apology for discrimination. His uncle was part of a group of African American students who in the 1950s led federal troops past an angry white mob at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, three years after the US Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. The students became known as the “Little Rock Nine”.
“I think my grandmother, my grandfather, would be very proud of what we’re going to do today,” Jones-Syer said before the vote on the legislation that passed. “Because this is what they struggled for in 1957, so that I would be able – and we would be able – to move our people forward.”
Newsom approved legislation in 2020 creating a First-Country Task Force to study compensation proposals. New York State and Illinois followed with similar laws. The California group released a final report last year with more than 100 recommendations for lawmakers.
Newsom signed a law last month requiring state funding for a career education program to collect data on the performance of participating students by school districts by race and gender. The legislation, part of a reparations package supported by the California Legislative Black Caucus, is intended to help close the student achievement gap.
Returning Confiscated Property The state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill to return land or compensate those whose property was wrongfully taken using eminent domain in racially discriminatory ways.
The issue gained renewed attention in California when Los Angeles-area officials in 2022 returned a beachfront property to a black couple decades after it was confiscated from their ancestors.
The Newsom administration’s Treasury Department opposes the bill. The agency said the cost of implementing it is unknown but “could range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to low millions of dollars annually, depending on the workload required to receive, review and investigate applications.”
It was not immediately clear how the initiative would be implemented even if Newsom signed it into law after lawmakers dropped a measure to create an agency to implement it. The proposal would create a genealogy office to help black Californians research their family lineage and verify their eligibility for any compensation that becomes law.
Official Apology California would accept responsibility and formally apologize for its role in perpetuating segregation, economic inequality and discrimination against black Americans under another bill approved by the Legislature.
The law requires the secretary of state to send a final copy of the apology to the state archives, where it can be viewed by the public.
The apology will state that the state “affirms its role in protecting the civil, political and sociocultural rights of descendants of slaves and all black Californians as well.”
The California American Freedmen’s Affairs Agency and Fund would have created an agency to implement the reparations program if the two failed proposals passed in California.
According to the California Government Operations Agency, it can cost the state between $3 million and $5 million annually to run the compensation agency.
Another proposal would establish a fund for a compensation program that becomes law in California. The money was used to counter state policies that harmed enslaved black people or free black Californians living in the United States before the end of the 19th century.
Neither bill would provide massive direct payments to African Americans. The state legislature instead approved proposals to allow the return of land or compensation to families whose property had been unjustly confiscated by the government, and issued formal amnesties for laws and practices that harmed black people.
But lawmakers dropped two bills that would have created a fund and an agency to carry out the measures, which would have been considered key components of the action effort. California Legislative Black Caucus Chair Assemblymember Lori Wilson said Saturday that while the Black Caucus has pulled the bills, the proposals need more work.
“We knew from the beginning that it was going to be an uphill battle. … And we knew from the beginning that it was going to be a multi-year effort,” Wilson told reporters.
Sen. Steven Bradford, who authored the measures, said the bills did not move forward out of fear that Gov. Gavin Newsom would veto them.
“We are at the finish line, and we, as the Black Caucus, owe it to the descendants of chattel slavery, to black Californians and to black Americans, to move this legislation forward,” Bradford said, urging his colleagues to reconsider Saturday afternoon.
The Democratic governor has not weighed in on most bills, but he signed a $297.9 billion budget in June that included up to $12 million in compensation. Law, however, did not specify in the budget which proposals the money would be used for, and his administration has indicated opposition to some of them. Newsom has until September 30 to decide whether to sign the bills into law.
Democratic Assembly member Reggie Jones-Syer, who is black, called his bill a “labor of love” to issue a formal apology for discrimination. His uncle was part of a group of African American students who in the 1950s led federal troops past an angry white mob at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, three years after the US Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. The students became known as the “Little Rock Nine”.
“I think my grandmother, my grandfather, would be very proud of what we’re going to do today,” Jones-Syer said before the vote on the legislation that passed. “Because this is what they struggled for in 1957, so that I would be able – and we would be able – to move our people forward.”
Newsom approved legislation in 2020 creating a First-Country Task Force to study compensation proposals. New York State and Illinois followed with similar laws. The California group released a final report last year with more than 100 recommendations for lawmakers.
Newsom signed a law last month requiring state funding for a career education program to collect data on the performance of participating students by school districts by race and gender. The legislation, part of a reparations package supported by the California Legislative Black Caucus, is intended to help close the student achievement gap.
Returning Confiscated Property The state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill to return land or compensate those whose property was wrongfully taken using eminent domain in racially discriminatory ways.
The issue gained renewed attention in California when Los Angeles-area officials in 2022 returned a beachfront property to a black couple decades after it was confiscated from their ancestors.
The Newsom administration’s Treasury Department opposes the bill. The agency said the cost of implementing it is unknown but “could range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to low millions of dollars annually, depending on the workload required to receive, review and investigate applications.”
It was not immediately clear how the initiative would be implemented even if Newsom signed it into law after lawmakers dropped a measure to create an agency to implement it. The proposal would create a genealogy office to help black Californians research their family lineage and verify their eligibility for any compensation that becomes law.
Official Apology California would accept responsibility and formally apologize for its role in perpetuating segregation, economic inequality and discrimination against black Americans under another bill approved by the Legislature.
The law requires the secretary of state to send a final copy of the apology to the state archives, where it can be viewed by the public.
The apology will state that the state “affirms its role in protecting the civil, political and sociocultural rights of descendants of slaves and all black Californians as well.”
The California American Freedmen’s Affairs Agency and Fund would have created an agency to implement the reparations program if the two failed proposals passed in California.
According to the California Government Operations Agency, it can cost the state between $3 million and $5 million annually to run the compensation agency.
Another proposal would establish a fund for a compensation program that becomes law in California. The money was used to counter state policies that harmed enslaved black people or free black Californians living in the United States before the end of the 19th century.
