The California Legislative Black Caucus is holding community listening sessions to promote its slate of 14 reparations bills, while the clock is ticking on getting those proposed laws to the governor’s desk before the legislative session ends Aug. 31.
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Their 14 reparations measures tackle education, business, criminal justice, health care, and civil rights and include two proposed constitutional amendments that lawmakers hope to place before voters in November. |
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One of the amendments, ACA 8, would ban one of the last vestiges of involuntary servitude: forced labor in jails and prisons. The other, ACA 7, would authorize the state to pay for programs designed to improve life expectancy and educational outcomes of “groups based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, or marginalized genders, sexes, or sexual orientations.” |
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The bills to place the proposed amendments on the ballot must first pass the Senate Appropriations Committee by June 24 to meet a June 27 deadline to finalize ballot measures. |
Rehabilitation and Healing: The Role of Social Workers in the Reparations Movement – Webinar. Jun 11, 2024, 10:00 AM Pacific. To delineate the history and role of social work in today’s Reparations Movement, a multigenerational veteran panel from the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) will share their perspectives. For more information and to RegisterCA Reparations Legislative Hearings. After more than 70% of the CA State Senate recently voted in favor of SB-1403 and SB-1331, these historic Reparations-related bills are officially scheduled for hearings before the CA State Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, June 11th starting at 9:00 am! The hearings are at the Capitol Building located at 1315 10th Street Sacramento, 95814, Room 447.
- You can attend and deliver public comments to urge committee members to VOTE YES!
- You can call the committee members and urge them to VOTE YES!
Two extra FYI:
- Japanese Support for Black Reparations – Webinar. Don Tamaki, member of the CA Reparations Task Force. June 11 at 5:00 pm Pacific. Practical ways to identify the 5 most common arguments against reparations and respond with reasonable counter-argument rejoinders for each. Register at bit.ly/JA4Rep.
Resources to keep handy:
CA Reparations Bills Tracker – updated by CJEC
KQED CA Reparations Bills Tracker – updated by KQED
Email individual and organizational letters of support directly to the elected officials and/or submit via this portal (you’ll need to set up an account)
Call and visit the elected officials at their Capitol and local district offices (both scheduled and/drop-in)
Make sure to read the groundbreaking CA Reparations Task Force: Full Report; Executive Summary; Chapter 33 – Educating the Public & Responses to Questions
Legislative Update 5/23/24
- Reparations: The California state Senate passed three bills authored by Democrat Sen. Steven Bradford of Inglewood. Senate Bill 1050 seeks to compensate residents whose land was taken by “raced-based” eminent domain and is in the California Legislative Black Caucus’ 14-bill package. The two other bills are not: SB 1331 would establish a reparations fund and SB 1403 would form a state agency to manage reparations.
Actions:
Send letters of support via the portal (see resources below) this week in anticipation of SB 1403 (CA Freedman Affairs Agency), SB 1331 (Reparations and Reparative Justice Fund), and SB 1050 (Restitution for Racially Motivated Eminent Domain) being referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee soon.
If your organization hasn’t already done so, endorse the CA Reparations Task Force Report here
Register here for an upcoming Reparation Generation virtual house meeting on June 18, July 30 or Aug 22 to learn about our reparations in action approach and ways you can get involved. And sign up for the RepGen newsletter there too!
Resources to keep handy:
CA Reparations Bills Tracker – updated by CJEC
Email individual and organizational letters of support directly to the elected officials and/or submit via this portal (you’ll need to set up an account)
Call and visit the elected officials at their Capitol and local district offices (both scheduled and/drop-in)
Make sure to read the groundbreaking CA Reparations Task Force: Full Report; Executive Summary; Chapter 33 – Educating the Public & Responses to Questions
If you don’t wish to receive these periodic updates, please feel free to reply to let m
From Reparation Generation:
Some great news! May 16th – SB 1403, SB 1331, and SB 1050 moved forward to the Senate floor! The vote will likely be on Wed May 22nd probably late in the day. I hope to see this important and historic moment in person and hope you’ll join me. Senator Bradford’s staff report that he and other elected officials have noted all the letters, calls and visits in support of the reparations bills.
May 24th – is the last day for each house to hear and vote on these bills on the floor.
I’m passing along this related timely call to action from California Organizations for Reparations (COR) which is coordinated by CJEC and BARHII. You can receive such updates directly via text if you sign up here.
Two other bills SB 1013 and SB 1007 did not make it out of committee (because they required allocation of funds), so they’re technically dead for the rest of the year.
Here are key tips and resources to keep handy:
- How to find your own representatives
- CA Elected Official Roster
- Email individual and organizational letters of support directly to the elected officials and/or submit via this portal (you’ll need to set up an account)
- Call and visit the elected officials at their Capitol and local district offices (both scheduled and/drop-in)
- Make sure to read the groundbreaking CA Reparations Task Force: Full Report; Executive Summary; Chapter 33 – Educating the Public & Responses to Questions
1/31/24 ‘Just the beginning’: California reparations backers applaud bills, even without big cash payouts
- Reparations rebranding? Members of California’s Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday detailed 14 reparations bills modeled after recommendations that a state reparations task force spent years studying and developing. In the proposed laws: the state would compensate people whose property was taken in race-based cases of eminent domain, apologize for human rights violations, and fund programs to decrease violence in Black communities. None of the bills calls for direct cash reparations, which has sparked criticism from some. “Reparations will not be rebranded or redefined. If it doesn’t include direct money payments and compensation to California residents who are descendants of those emancipated from Chattel Slavery in the U.S, it’s not Reparations,” said Chris Lodgson, lead organizer of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California.
In California, Black lawmakers share reparations plan
SAN FRANCISCO >> California’s Legislative Black Caucus released a slate of reparations bills to implement ideas from the state’s landmark task force on the issue. The proposals include potential compensation for property seized from Black owners, but do not call for widespread direct cash payments to descendants of enslaved Black people.
If approved, the proposals would expand access to career technical education, fund community-driven solutions to violence and eliminate occupational licensing fees for people with criminal records. Another proposal would pay for programs that increase life expectancy, better educational outcomes or lift certain groups out of poverty. Some of the measures would require amending the state constitution and are likely to face opposition. In 2022, the Democrat-controlled state Senate voted down a proposal to ban involuntary servitude and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has resisted restricting solitary confinement for prison inmates.
State Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, said at a news conference Thursday that the Black caucus’ priority list does not preclude individual lawmakers from introducing additional reparations legislation. He cautioned that the journey will be long and difficult, but worth it. “This is a defining moment not only in California history, but in American history as well,” said Bradford, who served on the nine-person state task force on reparations.
But the 14 proposals are already drawing criticism from advocates who don’t think they go far enough.
Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, which pushed to create the reparations task force, said the proposals are “not reparations.”
California Reparations Report
On June 1, 2022, the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans issued its interim report to the California Legislature. The interim report surveys the ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery and its lingering effects on American society today. The interim report also includes a set of preliminary recommendations for policies that the California Legislature could adopt to remedy those harms. A final report will be issued before July 1, 2023.
AB 3121: Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans