How would they be funded?
Moore said if the Legislature approves recommendations for reparations, it would be tasked with finding a funding source.
Wasn’t California a ‘free state’?
California adopted an antislavery constitution before it became a state in 1850, but it had a long history of tolerating slavery.
Stacey Smith, a history professor at Oregon State University and consultant to the task force, estimated that during the Gold Rush there were at least 600 enslaved Black people living in California, based on census records.
Enslaved Black people were brought to California while the state was still part of Mexico — between 1821 and 1848 — and during the US-Mexico war, so there was precedent for tolerating slavery, she said.
The state enacted a fugitive slave law in 1852 which deputized slave owners and state officials, allowing them to violently capture and arrest enslaved people.
Meanwhile the state also passed a law that allowed only white people to testify in court cases involving white people, effectively barring freed and enslaved Black people, as well as Native Americans and immigrants, from any hope of due process.
How was the task force created?
Among the task force’s nine members, five were chosen by Gov. Gavin Newsom, two by Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, and two by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. The California Department of Justice provides “administrative, technical and legal assistance” to the task force. The department helps coordinate virtual meetings, drafts the task force reports and contracts with experts on the history of slavery, systemic racism and reparations.
Who are some of the experts working with the task force?
Currently the DOJ has contracted with six experts, including Darrick Hamilton, an economics and urban policy professor at the New School in New York City, who will help research and develop methods to disperse reparations. In addition, the department has hired Marne Campbell, an African American studies professor at Loyola Marymount University; Stacey Smith, a history professor at Oregon State University; William Darity and Kristen Mullins, economists and authors of From Here to Equality, a book that has been described as a roadmap to reparations; and Doreathea Johnson, who is the task force parliamentarian.
What about a federal program for reparations for Black Americans?
Shortly after slavery was formally abolished in 1865, some freed Black people pushed for early forms of reparations, such as pensions for when they fell ill or for burial services. In 1915 a group of formerly enslaved people filed a lawsuit arguing that the U.S. Treasury department owed them $68 million from profits garnered from cotton sales — but that suit was denied. Time and again various groups brought forth reparations proposals, lawsuits and legislation.
John Conyers, a Democratic Representative of Michigan, first introduced H.R. 40 to Congress in 1987, a bill to establish a commission to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans. California’s AB 3121 borrows language from H.R. 40, which would create a commission to study the role of federal and state governments in supporting slavery and other forms of discrimination against freed Black people, their descendants, and all African Americans. Conyers introduced the legislation at the start of every session of Congress until he stepped down in 2017.
That same year Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee took over the bill. In April 2021, it was voted out of committee. Now the bill appears to have enough Democratic support to pass the House, some observers say, but with a Republican majority in the Senate, it is a long way from becoming law.
Has the United States ever paid reparations to another group?
In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which included a formal apology and paid $20,000 to many of the more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated in internment camps across the country during World War II.
Decades before, in 1946, Congress created the Indian Claims Commission and awarded $1.3 billion to 176 tribes and bands. That averaged less than $1,000 per person of Native American ancestry, and most of it was held in trust and managed by the US government, which was accused of mismanagement.
In 1921 the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act created homesteads to compensate for the overthrow of the island kingdom. About 200,000 acres were placed in a land trust. People who could prove 50% native Hawaiian ancestry could sign up to lease parcels for $1 for 99 years. Critics say much of the land is remote, with no water or utilities and far from roads or development. They also argue that the 50% rule complicates intergenerational land leasing in interracial families.
Why are reparations discussions gaining momentum now?
California’s task force on reparations may be the first statewide program in the country but other cities and counties have already begun the process of determining eligibility and the scope of similar reparations plans.
In early 2021 Evanston, Illinois became the first city in the country to approve a form of reparations. Sixteen Black residents will receive $25,000 in home improvement grants and mortgage assistance. Most were able to show they were descendants of residents from 1919 to 1969, a period of historic redlining.
Asheville, North Carolina voted in 2020 to provide reparations to Black residents and to issue a formal apology. The city has committed $2.1 million but that will not include direct cash payments. Instead the city will boost funding for such things as housing, business and healthcare to address racial disparities, though the city council has yet to determine the exact investments.
This article is part of the California Divide project, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California.
