EXCLUSIVE: 1st CA reparations bills announced by Black Caucus, making history

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) — On Wednesday, members of the California Legislative Black Caucus announced a package of reparations bills in a first effort to repair Black Californians harmed by the legacy of slavery and anti-Black policies in the century and a half since emancipation.

The bills announced, on the eve of Black History Month, aim to make good on some of the more than 100 proposals issued by California’s first-in-the-nation state reparations task force in the summer of 2023.

The Black Caucus announced more than a dozen bills ranging from policies that would increase homeownership for Black Californians, expanding access to education and training, and a formal apology by the state for human rights violations and crimes against humanity against enslaved Africans and their descendants.

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ABC7 News Anchor and Race & Social Justice Reporter Julian Glover spoke exclusively with State Senator Steven Bradford of southern California who authored a handful of the bills.

Senator Bradford served on California’s nine-member state Reparations Task Force and argues reparations for Black Americans is long overdue.

“Reparations is not charity, it’s not a handout. It’s not a gift. It is what was promised and what is owed. It’s something that is 160 years overdue to African Americans who built this country. We wouldn’t be the great nation that we are today if it wasn’t for 400 years of free labor” he said.

Bradford has authored four pieces of legislation-three of which would promote homeownership for Black Californians and another that would establish a new state agency to oversee and fund the disbursement of any reparations passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.

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There is a notable absence from the package of bills being proposed that many who attended the reparations task force’s meetings have demanded: direct cash payments for Black Californians that can trace their lineage to an enslaved African American.

The proposals released in the California Reparations Task Force’s final report were just that-recommendations. It is now up to the State Senate and Assembly to turn some, all, or none of those suggestions into concrete policy proposals. And even in California, in a state where democrats hold a supermajority, the political calculus involved is far from simple.

In 2020, California became the first state in the nation to create a state task force to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans.

This is a developing story. ABC7 News will update this post when additional information becomes available.