Black California Residents One Step Closer To Receiving $1 Million Reparations Payments

California is not playing around when it comes to giving Black residents what they are due in reparations.

KTLA reports the California Reparations Task Force is set to meet and vote on how much residents should receive. Eligible residents who have lived in California their whole lives and those who are 71 or older could potentially get as much as $1.2 million. If the vote is approved, the task force would suggest the money be distributed as “down payments.”

The payments would reflect the work of economists who advised the task force and were asked to estimate the total losses suffered by Black Californians impacted by slavery and institutional racism. Qualifying candidates could get various payments to make up for the injustices of “over-policing,” discrimination in housing, and inequity in the healthcare system. According to the Sacramento Bee, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 3121, sponsored by former Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, exploring how the state can compensate Black residents for harms caused by enslavement and racial discrimination.

This is one of many meetings discussing reparations for Black Californians. Earlier this year, the San Francisco Reparations Committee presented a hefty payback program for Black residents. The recommended sum is $5 million each. San Francisco residents who identify as Black and are at least 18 years of age would receive a lump sum of cash under this plan but with strict requirements. Residents must be “personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs” or “descendants of someone enslaved through U.S. chattel slavery before 1865.”

The task force may also recommend the State of California issue a formal apology for slavery and several state laws and actions that members say actively discriminated against Black residents, like the prohibition of interracial marriage, Confederacy-based monuments, and open segregation and discrimination in the arts industry.

The final meeting is set to be held on June 30.