A bill in the California Legislature would create a first-of-its-kind agency in charge of administering economic reparations for slavery. Sen. Steven Bradford introduced the legislation in August, and the legislature could vote on it this year.
But that would be just the first step. California legislators would also have to pass a reparations package before any money or benefits would be distributed. One question in all of this is what exactly should reparations look like? Another: Who should be eligible?
Eligibility was a topic of fierce debate for the California reparations task force as it put together its nearly 1,100-page report published in June. Here’s where it landed: Economic reparations should only be granted to Black residents whose lineage can be traced back to enslaved ancestors or to free Black people who arrived in the United States before the 20th century.
Jovan Scott Lewis, a task force member and University of California, Berkeley, professor, played a major role in shaping the eligibility recommendation, despite coming to the United States from Jamaica.
“The policies that we’re talking about, the history of policies, were directed towards this particular community that emerged out of slavery in this country,” he said. “You’re talking about the Black Code, you’re talking about Jim Crow, you’re talking about these foundational policies being directed against a very particular community.”
State Sen. Steven Bradford was also on the task force. He sees paying reparations to only Black people who meet these criteria as an important first step.
“It’s a hierarchy. We want to start with those folks who are clearly descendants of 250 years of wage theft in this country, first and foremost,” Bradford said. “And then we’re going to kind of build out from there.”
Bradford’s agency would determine which candidates meet the criteria, mainly by looking at a range of historical records, like baptism certificates, mortgages, life insurance policies, church records, legal documents and financial papers.
In the United States, government policies have historically favored white Americans, leading to a significant wealth gap for Black Americans. In California, this wealth gap is wide. One study showed that in Los Angeles, the median value of liquid assets of U.S.-born Black households was $200 in 2014, compared to $110,000 for white households.
The task force cited discriminatory 20th century policies such as redlining; denial of GI Bill of Rights benefits for returning World War II veterans; and segregation in education.
“You know, people forget that the University of California is a public institution — used to be free for everybody who got admitted,” said Lewis, the task force member and UC Berkeley professor. “And it was only until the Civil Rights Act, at the point when African Americans begin attending the University of California, that then-Gov. Ronald Reagan instituted an actual tuition fee.”
The Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, who was also on the reparations task force, believes the proposal could eventually be expanded to include Black folks not descended from slavery in the United States. But he stressed the importance of not compromising this effort now.
“I think we have to understand if we get one battle through, the next battle can be for those from the Caribbean,” Brown said. “And you’ve got to remember, there are other countries who owe something. You’ve got to begin somewhere.”
While the experience of Blackness is shared globally, he said, the specific harms and policies in the U.S. were directed at a very distinct community.
Lewis said the task force approved its eligibility recommendation by a narrow vote of 5 to 4. It’s proof of how complex and sensitive the reparations issue promises to be in 2024, including within the Black American community.
“It was really important because there is a community who has been fundamentally harmed in this country, through slavery and through the policies that followed slavery, and that particular community does deserve recognition,” he said. “Reparations is one way to provide that recognition.”
In the series “Golden Promises: The Battle Over Slavery Reparations in California,” “Marketplace Morning Report” brings you more of the history, details and challenges of the state’s reparations movement. Part 1 focuses on where the legislative process stands. Part 3 looks at alternatives to reparations and other forms of restitution.
