SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Legislative Black Caucus unveiled their priority bills on reparations earlier this month.

The lawmakers based the actions in their bills around the recommendations of the final report by the California Reparations Task Force last year.

The proposals include policies such as California issuing a formal apology for historical discriminatory actions, creating a new state agency to oversee reparations and restitution for property seized through eminent domain.

The push to right past wrongs in California comes as the state faces a massive budget deficit. 

“We’re not the people that you only do stuff more when you have extra money. That’s disrespectful to us. We’re not the people [who] you only do what’s right for us when you got extra change in your pocket. We deserve to be prioritized at the highest level,” said Chris Lodgson.

Lodgson is the lead organizer for the Coalition For a Just and Equitable California. He has spent the last six years trying to turn the idea of reparations into reality.

“We think that the time for strong, bold action for reparations with targeted, timely, and tangible material— monetary resources is now, not later,” he added.

State Senator Steve Bradford agrees.

He served on the first-in-the-nation task force last year and says the time is now for California to correct past wrongs.

“The budget is a reflection of our priorities and a reflection of our values. If we say we value reparations and want to heal the harms of slavery in this country and in this state, we have to make this a priority,” Bradford said.

The Gardena lawmaker acknowledges the $38 billion budget deficit will affect how much can be accomplished this year but he recommends the state set aside $1.5 billion to fund some proposals.

“This didn’t happen overnight. It’s 160 years in the making so it won’t happen in one budget cycle,” he said.

Bradford is the author of legislation to create a new state agency to handle the reparations distribution, which is one proposal Lodgson favors. However, when it comes to other bills introduced by the CLBC, he was disappointed.

“We do not consider that reparations. I don’t think anybody who reads that list [sic] could call that reparations. I think even if you were against reparations you wouldn’t call that reparations. There’s stuff in there for everybody,” Lodgson said.

The CLBC 2024 reparations bill package has proposals that cover areas such as criminal justice reform and improving health equity for marginalized communities, but there is no bill focused on direct cash payments to descendants of enslaved people.

“We waited long enough. Our ancestors were fighting for reparations while we were enslaved,” Lodgson said.

Assemblymember Lori Wilson, chair of the CLBC, defended the package. “While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations, the true meaning of the word to repair involves much more! As we laid out in the report, we need a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism,” she said in a statement.

Though Bradford says this year’s bill package is one of the first steps in correcting a longstanding wrong in the state.

“We still have a debt. This is not charity. This is not a handout. This is what’s owed, and it’s 160 years overdue,” he said.

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