CA Senate Passes Reparations Legislation

Sen. Steven Bradford’s three pieces of legislation implementing reparations in California have passed the state Senate.

After two years of study by the California Reparations Task Force on the impact of slavery and institutional discrimination on African Americans in California, the state is now taking action.

These three bills confront the harms caused by both slavery and the discriminatory actions by state and local governments and establish a way for people who lost property for racially-motivated reasons to receive restitution.

• SB 1403 is the foundation that would create the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency to administer all future reparations.
• SB 1050 would provide restitution for Californians who lost homes or had their land taken without fair compensation as a result of the racially-motivated use of eminent domain.
• SB 1331 would establish an account in the state treasury for the purpose of funding reparations policies approved by the Legislature and the Governor.

These three bills are critical for setting up the framework for reparations. 

The bills will now go to the members of the Assembly to similarly pass SB 1403, SB 1050 and SB 1331 so they can be presented to Gov. Newsom for his signature.