SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Thursday, the California Reparations Task Force plans to release its final report. That’s at the task force’s final meeting, starting at 9 a.m. Thursday, at the March Fong Eu Secretary of State Building in Downtown Sacramento.
ABC10 has been following this story since 2020, back when the state legislature passed a law forming the task force. Its nine members – who have been holding meetings for two years now - are tasked with studying slavery and its lasting impacts on the lives of Black Americans.
The task force held meetings and heard testimony, discussing topics ranging from housing discrimination and employment & wage gaps, to disparities in the legal system and education.
"There have been things that have gone on in America that have stifled, impeded or stopped African Americans from really realizing our full potential,” said Assemblymember Reggie Byron Jones-Sawyer Sr., a task force member.
The task force is recommending reparations be limited to descendants of enslaved or free Black people who were in the country by the end of the 1800s. Members say reparations should include “cash or its equivalent” for eligible residents.
"Capital. Money. Reparations. That will stimulate this economy for the 2.6 million Blacks in California,” said one man, commenting at a task force meeting in March.
Task force members have also approved a formal apology they believe the state should provide, for past discriminatory policies, as the state has done for other marginalized groups.
“The question becomes, if you did all that labor for all these years - your ancestors - how would you feel?” said task force vice-chair Dr. Amos C. Brown.
ABC10 asked him how he responds to critics who ask why California taxpayers should be on the hook for reparations when California was admitted to the Union as a free state.
“Because they've benefited from California being complicit with the slave states,” said Brown.
As for next steps, the Legislature would need to pass a new bill to authorize payments, which hasn’t happened yet. Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he looks forward to reviewing the task force’s final report and recommendations.
Thursday marks a historic day. California is the first state in the nation to form a statewide reparations task force.
Members say the final report will be the most comprehensive look at the Black experience in America since the Kerner Commission Report of 1968. That concluded, “Our Nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.”
That was 55 years ago, and task force members say those words remain sadly relevant today.
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