Californians await key decisions from the Reparations Task Force

Nearly two years into the California reparations task force, the group still has to make key decisions that will underpin its final report, which recommends how the state should apologize and compensate black residents for the harm caused by slavery and discrimination.

A vote scheduled for this weekend on who will be eligible for payments and other remedies may have been delayed due to the absence of one of the committee’s nine members. But on Saturday, the group could vote on whether lawmakers should set up an agency to implement a possible reparations program.

In 2020, lawmakers passed legislation creating a task force to assess how the legacy of slavery has hurt African Americans long after it was abolished due to education, criminal justice and other inequalities. The law directs the task force to study reparation proposals “with special consideration” for descendants of enslaved blacks living in California, and is not intended to create a program in place of a federal government program.

The task force’s work attracted worldwide attention as it was the first of its kind in the country. But some have used the group’s last two-day meeting in Sacramento to warn that not enough black Californians are sufficiently informed about its work.

One resident said the groundbreaking 500-page working group interim report released last year should be available in libraries and schools. But others said it wasn’t just the task force and its communications team that needed to talk about their work.

“This room should be filled with media, and it’s not because blacks are outcasts,” Los Angeles lawyer Cherice Cryer said Saturday. “We are at the foot of the totem pole.”

A two-day meeting in Sacramento, the state capital, comes as the group approaches the July 1 deadline to release the report to lawmakers. This document will be an important milestone in strengthening reparations efforts in various parts of the country. This movement gained the support of a significant portion of African Americans as well as supporters, including Japanese Americans, who fought to ensure that families received payments from the federal government after residents were placed in internment camps during World War II.

Sacramento resident Tariq Alami, who has been following the task force’s work since the beginning, said the government should have compensated black Americans long ago.

“It doesn’t take a genius to see that there are differences in society as a result of what we’ve experienced as blacks,” Alami said.

Dozens of advocates and residents from across the state arrived at the California Environmental Protection Agency building to give public comments Friday and Saturday that ranged from detailed family histories of ancestral property seizures to calling on federal lawmakers to follow California’s lead.

Once the task force releases its final report, the fate of its recommendations will depend on state legislators, two of whom are members of the task force – Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer and state senator Stephen Bradford, both Democrats representing parts of Los Angeles. District. Legislators will also decide where funding for any indemnity legislation can come from.

The task force has held several meetings discussing what time frames may affect damages for the five reasons economists make estimates to help quantify the extent of discriminatory policies against black Californians.

Those economists said Friday that some of the data and information they still need to come up with additional estimates includes numbers on the gap between how much the government paid black residents for the property it seized and the actual value of that property.

Previously, the task force proposed the following timeframes for five types of harm that start either from the founding of the state or from the implementation of certain discriminatory policies: from 1933 to 1977 for housing discrimination and homelessness, from 1970 to 2020 for excessive policing and mass imprisonment, From 1850 to 2020 for wrongful taking of property, from 1900 to 2020 for bodily harm, and from 1850 to 2020 for the devaluation of black-owned businesses.

Task Force member Monica Montgomery Stepp expressed concern on Friday that 1977 will be the year ending housing discrimination and homelessness, given that black residents make up about a third of Californians homeless. This year was proposed through the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, a federal law that encourages lending to low- and middle-income areas.

Economists said the use of this year helps confirm their assessments of the impact of the government-sponsored redline, with black-majority neighborhoods often classified as “dangerous.”

“There are additional reasons why people sleep outside,” Stepnoy said.

Last year, the task force voted to limit damages to the descendants of enslaved or free blacks who lived in the United States during the 19th century. Members have not yet voted on whether compensation should be limited to California residents or also include people who lived in the state and intended to stay but were displaced.

In other parts of the country, offers of reparations for African Americans have had mixed results. A bill that would have allowed the federal government to explore reparations has not passed a vote in Congress since it was first introduced in 1989.

Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, made headlines in 2021 as the first city to offer compensation to black residents in the form of housing subsidies. But few have benefited from the program, according to the Washington Post.

In December, the San Francisco Advisory Committee on African American Reparations released a draft report that proposed $5 million in compensation to each person eligible for compensation. The city’s supervisory board is expected to vote on the committee’s final recommendations.

Earlier this year, New York state legislators reintroduced a bill that would create a commission to look into reparations for African Americans. ___

Sophie Austin is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on hidden issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna