California is often celebrated as a leader in the growing movement for reparations for Black Americans. In 2020, it announced its first-in-the-nation reparations taskforce, which was charged with studying the issue and making recommendations for redress. Since then, it’s inspired similar initiatives across the US. But actually implementing those reparations proposals hasn’t been as easy.
Over the past year, members of California’s Legislative Black Caucus put forward a package of bills that drew on the taskforce’s policy recommendations released last June. They included initiatives to increase access to education for Black Californians, prohibit race-based discrimination in schools and workplaces, and offer restitution for mid-century racist eminent domain programs in which the homes and businesses of Black residents were seized by the state.
