Following more than a year of deliberation on implementing reparations for descendants of African Americans in the state, California has finally introduced a series of reparations bills.
This legislative package makes California the first state to produce reparations legislation, aimed at providing restitution to descendants of slaves and those African Americans whose lives were harmed by segregation and other racist policies in California history.
As reported by Politico, the state’s Legislative Black Caucus introduced the package Wednesday which includes 14 measures that “touch on education, civil rights and criminal justice, including reviving a years-old effort to restrict solitary confinement that failed to make it out of the statehouse as recently as last year.”
California state lawmakers recently unveiled a first in the nation reparations legislative package this week. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times )
However, one of the most controversial reparations proposals discussed by the state’s Reparations Task Force – the panel tasked with informing lawmakers on how to best implement reparations – did not make it into the package. The bill made no mention of providing cash payment to descendants of slaves and others historically discriminated against by the government.
The cash compensation proposal made headlines last year, after the task force recommended payments given to Black residents based on the type of historical discrimination their family faced.
For instance, the panel calculated that Black residents affected by redlining by banks might receive $3,366 for each year they lived in California from the early 1930s to the late 1970s, amounting to up to $148,099.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., at the time, declined to endorse cash payments, though he expressed support for the work the Reparations Task Force had done.
He told Fox News Digital last May, “The Reparations Task Force’s independent findings and recommendations are a milestone in our bipartisan effort to advance justice and promote healing. This has been an important process, and we should continue to work as a nation to reconcile our original sin of slavery and understand how that history has shaped our country.”
The reparations package notably does not have a bill proposal cash payments to descendants of African Americans in the state, a notion that even Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., declined to endorse last year. (California Governor Gavin Newsom YouTube channel)
In a recent statement, caucus chair and Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson touched on the lack of cash payments included in the slate of bills, noting the fight for reparations is much bigger than that.
The Democrat said, “While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations, the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more. We need a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.”
The legislative package reportedly has a provision for giving payments to those residents whose families dealt with “property takings.” This bill, authored by State Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Los Angeles, would “Restore property taken during raced-based uses of eminent domain to its original owners or provide another effective remedy where appropriate, such as restitution or compensation.”
The series of bills still need to be decided on by state lawmakers, with passage of them into law being the next big hurdle.
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The governor’s office did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital for comment.
Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar and Peter Hasson contributed to this report.
