SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers wrapped up this year’s legislative session late Saturday night, sending hundreds of bills to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Two of the proposals that won’t be on the governor’s desk are two reparations bills by State Sen. Steven Bradford. On the final day to pass bills, the California Legislative Black Caucus announced they would not move forward with Bradford’s proposals.
Both bills had passed the Senate and needed to be voted on in the Assembly to land on Newsom’s desk.
Reparations advocates from across California drove to Sacramento to urge members of the caucus to vote on Bradford’s bills, SB 1403 and SB 1331.
SB 1403 would’ve established the California American Freedmen Affairs agency to oversee reparations for descendants of enslaved people in the state.
“It’s disappointing, almost unconscionable, that no legislator had the political will or courage to introduce these two bills to the floor,” said Kamilah Moore, chair of the California Reparations Task Force.
The task force Moore led spent more than two years working on a report that made more than 200 recommendations for how California can repair some of the damage of slavery and systemic racism to the Black community.
SB 1331 and SB 1403 were part of the task force’s recommendations.
Bradford said he received amendments from the Governor’s Office on Monday that would have changed SB 1403 to a California State University study instead of creating an agency to oversee reparations. Newsom’s office proposed providing CSU $6 million to research and review the recommendations made by the task force.
“We’ve studied this for two years as a task force. We’ve studied it for decades as Americans — the harms and effects of slavery — so we didn’t need another study. Now is the time for action,” Bradford said.
Bradford rejected the amendments, and according to the CLBC, other members were not involved in that process. Some of the members also said they had concerns Newsom would veto SB 1404 without the amendments that Bradford didn’t accept.
In a statement, the CLBC said, “The caucus was unable to participate in the legislative process collectively and only recently became aware of the concerns and issues with this bill.”
The caucus also said in its statement that it will continue working on the bill and plan to reintroduce it next year.
“You hear challenges on every piece of legislation — that doesn’t mean that you don’t move forward with it. We’re at the finish line and I think we owe it to the descendants of chattel slavery. We owe it to Black Californians and Black Americans,” Bradford said in response to the CLBC not advancing his bills.
Moore said she felt blindsided by CLBC’s decision to halt Bradford’s bills.
“Let’s say this was about petty differences between them and Bradford. I would hope that they would put their petty differences aside and prioritize their community over any self-interest or ego,” Moore noted.
Members of the CLBC declined to speak on camera. The bills ultimately did not get a vote despite activists like Moore driving hundreds of miles and spending all day at the Capitol to try to convince the CLBC to give the bills a chance on the Assembly floor.
“While the community may leave the State Capitol with bad news tonight, a dream delayed doesn’t mean that we’re not going to get victory in the long run,” Moore said.
Moore said they’ll keep pushing for reparations for Black Californians for as long as it takes.
The California Legislative Black Caucus sent other reparations-related bills to Newsom’s desk, including one that would offer a formal apology for California’s role in supporting chattel slavery.
“The work of advancing reparations and achieving justice for Black Californians is far from complete, and we will not be distracted by our mission. We will stay focused on the work at hand, united in our purpose, and dedicated to the cause of reparations of equality for all,” said the CLBC in a statement.