California Reparations Bill Falls Short As Key Components Are Shelved; Black Caucus Cites Need For Further Work

The legislation lacks a central fund and direct payments provision.

Although California legislators recently passed ambitious legislation aimed at addressing the state’s legacy of racist treatment of its Black citizens, the package left out two key components of previous proposals for a California reparations package.

According to the Associated Press, along with the lack of a central fund and an agency to carry out the recommended measures, both considered cornerstones of the state’s efforts to atone for reparations, direct payments to Black Americans are another missing component of the bills.

Instead, proposals allowing for the return of land or compensation for families whose land was taken by the government and a formal apology for the laws and practices that were detrimental to Black people in California were approved.

According to California Legislative Black Caucus Chair Assemblymember Lori Wilson, the Black Caucus pulled the bills, citing a need for more work on the proposed legislation.

Wilson told the AP, “The Black Caucus is absolutely committed to its reparations priority package and it is absolutely committed to the recommendations that have come out of the task force and to getting those across the finish line. We knew from the very beginning it was going to be an uphill battle. We knew from the beginning it would be challenging and we also knew from the very beginning that it would be a multi-year effort.”

Sen. Steven Bradford, the author of the legislation, told the AP that some feared California Gov. Gavin Newsom would veto the bills if those provisions remained intact.

According to Politico, Bradford takes issue with the Caucus’s choice to shelve the bills saying that he doesn’t agree with their choice to “only hold them now because of the possible concerns that have been expressed by the administration.”

Bradford continued, “You hear challenges on every piece of legislation. That doesn’t mean that you don’t move forward with it.”

Bradford also implored his colleagues to push the legislation through, “We’re at the finish line, and we, as the Black Caucus, owe it to the descendants of chattel slavery, to Black Californians and Black Americans, to move this legislation forward.”

Gov. Newsom signed a $279.9 billion budget in June 2024, including up to $12 million for reparations legislation. Although Newsom’s budget did not specify what the money would be used for, nor did he comment publicly on the bills, the Newsom administration has signaled their opposition to some of the initial proposals.

The Newsom Administration’s Department of Finance opposed the proposal of the return of land or compensation to families, objecting to the bill’s yet unknown cost. According to the AP, the department claims that the total cost could potentially “range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to low millions of dollars annually, depending on the workload required to accept, review, and investigate applications.”

Without the agency to implement the proposal, it is still unclear how it will be activated. While California will issue a formal apology that says it “affirms its role in protecting the descendants of enslaved people and all Black Californians as well as their civil, political, and sociocultural rights,” some complain that an apology without action is just window-dressing.

That sentiment is shared by Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California. Lodgson told Cal Matters, “This ain’t white folks blocking reparations bills. This ain’t Latinos blocking reparations bills. This ain’t the AAPI family blocking reparations bills. This is Black people blocking their own damn reparations bills because they’re scared of the governor.”

Lodgson continued, criticizing Newsom, “If the governor wants to veto the bills, don’t call your Black legislators and tell them to stop the bills from coming to your desk first. You be a man. Veto the bills with your chest and stand on that as a man.”