BALDWIN HILLS, Calif. — California has moved one step closer to potentially paying reparations to descendants of American slaves. Assemblymember Shirley Weber authored the bill signed by Governor Newsom that creates a task force looking into this possibility. Weber says it’s time to address the generational hardships African Americans still suffer.

In 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Rasheda Kilpatrick wasn’t even born yet. But it was growing up hearing her parents talk about the significance of the March on Washington that inspired her activism today.


What You Need To Know

  • California has moved one step closer to potentially paying reparations to descendants of American slaves

  • Assemblymember Shirley Weber authored the bill signed by Governor Newsom that creates a task force looking into this possibility. Weber says it’s time to address the generational hardships African Americans still suffer today

  • Cheryce Cryer is a member of the American Descendants of Slaves, or ADOS, organization. It is one of the organizations that were instrumental in drafting and getting this bill passed

The National Action Network's Los Angeles Political Director says parts of Dr.King’s speech are finally coming to fruition.

"Addressing the heat of oppression, and addressing the heat of injustice," Kilpatrick read on the Dr. King memorial in Baldwin Hills. "What I love about the task force that’s being created is they’re going to do that.”

Governor Newsom signed a bill establishing a first in the nation task force to inform Californians about slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations to the descendants of American slaves.

Kilpatrick took part in the committee hearing, voting yes for the bill and urging legislators to move forward.

"It was a bipartisan effort saying that this is something that is worth looking into. So that really made me happy," she said.

Cheryce Cryer is a member of the American Descendants of Slaves, or ADOS, organization. It is one of the organizations that were instrumental in drafting and getting this bill passed. She says she’s a descendant of slaves on both her maternal and paternal side.

"That’s kind of unusual to find, in African Americans," Cryer explained. "There’s been a lot of immigration over the last 100 years and my family has been here, we have roots here. Essentially our blood is in the soil in this country and so it’s a relief to see that our struggle and our history and the need for redress is being recognized.”

Cryer says the ultimate goal is to close the racial wealth gap, but this task force is just the first step of many to reaching an actual payment.

Governor Newsom and the senate will appoint nine California residents to a commission that will have its first meeting by June of 2021.

The bill states African Americans continue to suffer debilitating hardships, including having less than 1/16th of the wealth of white families, on average.

Commissioners will work with the U.C. Board of Regents to determine the economic impacts of slavery. Cryer plans to recommend a database or Bureau of ADOS affairs that will help prove someone is a descendant of slaves.

"People who are descendants of slavery in the United States, we know our history," Cryer said. "We have bibles, we have oral tradition, now we have DNA testing, and at least with my family, we have a lot of records.”

The bill says an insurance commissioner will also launch an investigation into companies still doing business in the state who may have benefitted from slavery.

Though California did not enslave African Americans, it did allow slave owners who came to the state to keep them.

Kilpatrick says that was just the beginning of the resources that were stripped from African Americans for centuries to come.

"This isn’t just African American history, it’s America’s history," said Kilpatrick. "It’s all of our history. If we are celebrating our diversity and our backgrounds, then we should celebrate all of our backgrounds — not just the good but also sometimes the bad and we actually have to atone for it.”

Looking to the past to quantify free labor, in an effort to create an equal future.