The nation’s first state-level Reparations package of bills was introduced into the California Assembly on January 30, 2024.
Democrats in the state Assembly introduced several measures to address past racial injustice and also to provide future protections for Black Californians.
A key feature is to address “land takings,” where Black people’s homes and communities were taken by race-based imminent domain for large public or private projects. The bill proposes returning land to the original owners, and for cash payments when that is no longer possible.
The new bill does not authorize cash payments for slavery or the generalized anti-Black policies of recent or past decades.
Another bill is a request for the state legislature and governor to formally apologize for California’s role in human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.
Other Democrats, including many in the Legislature and Governor Newsom, are expected to oppose the so-called “Reparations Package.”
Source:
Lara Korte, “California Introduces first-in-nation reparations package,” January 31, 2024, politico.co
Photo: California State Capital, Sacramento, from Tloolan, Wikimedia Commons
