SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s Reparations Task Force recently concluded its two-day public meeting geared toward compensating Black Americans affected by the legacy of slavery. But the nine-member body is a long way from the finish line.
The panel has until July 1 to submit its final report to the Legislature. In the meantime, they’re focused on gathering feedback and working out the report’s moving parts.
One of the key discussions of the recent meeting was the creation of a new state agency — a “freedmen’s bureau” to be the authority should reparations become a reality.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 signed AB 3121, authored by then-Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a San Diego Democrat, to explore how California might compensate for harms caused by enslavement and racial discrimination.
More task force meetings are scheduled for March 29 and 30 in Sacramento, and approval of the final report is set for May 2 in the capital.
There will be a June 30 meeting once the report is finalized. All meetings will be in person and broadcast online.
Here are some top takeaways from the task force’s two-day meeting.
Establishing a state Freedman’s Bureau
The idea for the proposed California American Freedmen Affairs Agency was inspired by an act passed by Congress on March 3, 1865.
Back then, the federal government established a Freedmen’s Bureau to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services and land to African Americans newly freed from enslavement. It also established schools, supervised contracts between freedmen and employers, and managed confiscated or abandoned lands.
Nearly 160 years later, California’s task force looks to create an agency with the power to implement reparations and have oversight to ensure its many goals are met.
They could include implementing programs and policies that benefit the quality of life for descendants of enslaved Blacks. It could also provide services to the descendant community through contracts, grants or partnerships with community-based organizations, private entities and other local, state and federal agencies.
“That’s what the spirit of this new independent agency would be. It would be a permanent place and space for this unique group of people to get the services that they’ve been denied and despoiled for centuries,” task force chair Kamilah Moore said.
The proposed state freedmen’s bureau could include different branches to cover different areas reparations, such as confirming genealogy for eligibility of services. Other branches might handle legal affairs, data and research, social services and family affairs, medical/psychological services and business affairs for entrepreneurship.
Many on the panel said the recommendations, if approved, would give the new state agency “teeth.”
“That’s the only way we can really make sure that this two-year effort that we’ve been on matters,” Moore said. “That’s the only way we’re going to be able to make sure that our work that we’ve done is not in vain.”
The state agency would implement direct services in the areas where they are most needed. In places where existing services and programs already exist, the agency would provide oversight.
“We have oversight boards, people in charge of equity, et cetera,” said San Diego City Councilwoman Monica Montgomery-Steppe, a member of the task force. “But we don’t have (any) reparations without an agency and as many direct services that we can provide.”
Sacramento mayor warns of opposition
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg made an appearance during Saturday’s meeting, saying he fully supports reparations and “thinks everyone should.”
His office since 2021 has been researching reparations programs in other cities and also supports a grant-funded project that compiles personal narratives of African American families.
Steinberg, who mentioned the region’s history with redlining and other discriminatory practices, said the state reparations strategy is bold, but also just a start.
“Because you can’t make up for hundreds of years of discrimination with one task force or one bill or one legislative session,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg also said it’s important for reparations supporters to stand united, as there’s likely to be strong opposition. “There’s going to be legal challenges. There’s going to be oppositional pushback. You can already see it coming,” he warned.
“And so this is the start of not just the powerful ideas but the coalition that is going to be necessary to actually get something meaningful done for our community. For the African American community that has suffered for far too long.”
Unjust land seizures
The task force hasn’t decided upon a definitive dollar amount for reparations. There have been some estimates in the media, but task force member Don Tamaki said the group has “left it up to the economists to do the number-crunching and they’re still looking at data on housing, mass incarceration and so forth. Work is being done, but it’s not ready to present.”
Five harms committed against Black Americans identified by the task force will likely impact how they ultimately calculate an amount.
Those harms include:
—Properties taken unjustly through eminent domain from 1850 to 2020
—Devaluation of Black businesses from 1850 to 2020
—Housing discrimination and redlining from 1933 to 1977
—Mass incarceration and over policing from 1970 to 2020
—Harms related to health from 1900 to 2000
Task force member Amos C. Brown reminded his colleagues to not “gloss over” the land and property component of that review.
“In 1900, we owned about 19 million acres of land. But now we have less than 3 million,” Brown said. “We (have to) look at how land was stolen from us in the Fillmore in San Francisco. In West Oakland, in South Central Los Angeles. And other areas of the state. And even Allensworth.”
Allensworth is a Central Valley town founded in the early 20th century by Blacks who were ex-slaves. It’s now managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Task force member Reginald Jones-Sawyer mentioned how eminent domain was used as a tool to displace residents of Black neighborhood of Los Angeles, when the Century Freeway, Interstate 105, was built.
The Los Angeles Times reported that more than 21,000 residents had lost their homes because of the freeway, which was completed in 1993.
The Times reported some of those residents were overwhelmed by the pain of being forced out, suffering heart attacks or dying by suicide. Highway engineers conceded that the cost of building interstates through cities was too great.
Jones-Sawyer said while a fund was created to compensate affected families, it’s unclear if that was adequate.
“You may get payment for your house when they do eminent domain, but a lot of times you can’t get the equal value because of appreciation that has gone up and the property values going up.” Jones-Sawyer said.
____
