After nearly three years of fact-finding, reports and public hearings, the California Reparations Task Force on Thursday handed over to state lawmakers an extensive report and recommendations for compensating eligible Black people of California for the harms of slavery.
The task force held its final meeting in Sacramento, where members issued final statements and made the full report public.
It is the most ambitious effort in the country to address the impact of slavery on Black people, with task force members saying they want to create a reparations blueprint for the country.
This event is over. For more coverage, check out NBCBLK.
What to know about California's reparations efforts
- The statewide task force to study the effects of slavery and racial discrimination in America's most populous state formed in 2021.
- Last year it released a 500-page interim report, documenting the “moral and legal wrongs" the federal and state governments have inflicted upon Black people.
- The report includes more than 100 policy proposals to state lawmakers, who will then use that information to sponsor bills. Gov Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, will then need to sign those bills into law.
Caribbean Heritage Organization shows support for California reparations
The Caribbean Heritage Organization expressed support for its Black American "brothers and sisters" in an exclusive statement released following the reparations task force meeting.
“As Caribbean and Latin Americans of African heritage, we are obligated to support our brothers and sisters here in the U.S. as they seek reparatory justice,” CHO founder and CEO Marva Griffiths Herman told NBC News in a statement.
Last year, the state's task force decided that only those who are direct descendants of slaves, and not all Black Californians, would be eligible for reparations.
While the report includes a "commendable" formal apology, Griffiths Herman said it is "certainly not enough" and that the state's legislature needs to put the recommendations into action. She also said CHO will meet with scholars and activists on Aug. 1 to examine the report and discuss the status of reparation in the Caribbean region.
Reparations task force meeting adjourned
In the task force's last meeting, Black California residents shared moving accounts of their families' histories reckoning with the multi-generational harms of slavery. Testimonies frequently elicited cheers, standing ovations, and comments from a captivated crowd.
The reparations task force will now hand its findings over to state lawmakers.
At the meeting, task force members and some local politicians discussed hopes that their ambitious efforts will not only translate into reparative state policy, but also serve as a model for the country: “So goes California, so goes the nation,” the room chanted at one point.
California's attorney general: "This is personal to me, too."
“This is personal to me, too," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta as he held up the hefty reparations report. "It’s time for California to begin to remedy the ability, economic, educational, health hardships, your monthly experienced Americans hardships we unequivocally know are the results of centuries of slavery, and discrimination from our nation’s original sin."
“This is my country,” California secretary of state says
“I am an American with African traditions and heritage,” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said, “but this is my country.”
On trips to various regions of the African continent, Weber said she would try to figure out how she fit in. Despite enjoying and embracing these quests to understand her heritage, “the reality is I am an American,” she continued.
“This is it and we have to make this respond to our needs. Nobody can tell you to go back somewhere else, because there’s nowhere else to go. No matter how we do ancestry.com,” she said.
“Stripped from me — from day one — and my ancestors was that past. And you can learn the language, you can make the food, you can wear the clothes, but in the end this country has shaped and formed us. And we have given to it, and we have a right to be here, a right to have the benefits.”
Task force member says 'reparations cannot guarantee repair'
Jovan Scott Lewis, Ph.D., an economic anthropologist and geographer, was the last task force member to speak in the public hearing.
He said that "reparations cannot guarantee repair," and that compensation is only the first step to helping Black people whose descendants were wronged by slavery.
Lewis, a professor University of California - Berkeley, said as much as Black people want to uplift their ancestors, he also wants them to think about the generations to come:
“Reparations are the compensation for the injuries of African Americans today and their ancestors are repair is the work of self-determination. Repair is the work of taking what was promised and reconstruction tools and labor, your own land and to go about the work of deciding who you want to be. So as much as we want to uplift and we need to uplift our ancestors, I want us to think about our generations to come. . . You never feel the need for repair and that’s what I want for all of our children.”
Why the voices of Black Californians were vital to all of the public hearings
The task force held 16 public hearings over the years, and heard from hundreds of people as they developed the report.
Task force member Reginald Sawyer-Jones said hearing from the people was a vital part of the process. He said a white colleague asked him, “How can you take them yelling at you?”
He said he told her, “I don’t think you really understand what was really going on. What I heard was 400 years of Black oppression. You are testifying for every African American that was enslaved on the ships and brought here, place on slave plantations, treated like animals through force and treated subhuman. They couldn’t speak out. . . You’ve spoken for them.”
Black California residents 'spoke' for their ancestors, says task force member
Reginald Jones-Sawyer said during his closing remarks that the Black people who shared their thoughts about reparations "spoke" for their ancestors.
Those who were enslaved, Jones-Sawyer said, "couldn't speak out," and were beaten if they did. He also told the crowd how "resilient" they were for doing what their ancestors couldn't.
"You spoke for your ancestors" he said. "Your ancestors are speaking to you right now."
Jones-Sawyer's remarks prompted a man to shout from the crow, "we're with you Reggie!"
What is in California's reparations report
California’s highly anticipated reparations report, released today, outlines how Black Californians can receive monetary compensation for the harms of slavery and systemic racism.
The task force proposed more than 100 statewide policies to address generations of discrimination and racial disparities. Still, the report does not issue a concrete dollar amount owed to individuals “who are able to demonstrate that they are the descendant of either an enslaved African American in the United States, or a free African American living in the United States prior to 1900.”
The document, coming in at nearly 1,100 pages, offers a comprehensive look at ways that the United States and California wronged descendants of enslaved Black people through racial terror, political disenfranchisement, unequal housing and educational opportunities, and environmental racism, among other harms. It also offers suggestions for issuing a formal apology and implementing a curriculum based on the task force’s findings.
Read more about cash payments, policies, and a timeline for what's next here.
"We are not post-racial," task force member says
“I’ve been a civil rights lawyer for 20 years. And I say, 'Show me the statute of limitations on mass genocide,'” Lisa Holder said in response to those who may say the time for reparations has passed.
“'Show me the statute of limitations on the world’s greatest crime against humanity.'”