By Daniela Pardo Sacramento PUBLISHED 12:48 PM PT Sep. 18, 2024 PUBLISHED 12:48 PM PDT Sep. 18, 2024
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s been nearly three weeks since the California Legislative Black Caucus blocked two key reparations bills. The bills would have created a reparations agency and established a reparations fund.
Community advocates say they were blindsided by the CLBC’s decision to not bring the bills up for a vote on the final day of the legislative session.
Since then, reparation activists like Kamilah Moore have been demanding answers and working together to make sure the reparations bills are passed next year.
“It’s going to take pressure on the legislators, but also a multicultural coalition and first and foremost — Black unity,” Moore said.
Moore led California’s Reparations Task Force. The LA-based attorney shares she was in disbelief when the CLBC chose not to move forward with the two reparations bills by Senator Steven Bradford.
Back in February, Bradford held a solo news conference to introduce the bills. Three weeks later, the CLBC held another press conference to introduce its priority list of reparations bills. The list did not include SB 1403 and SB 1331 by Senator Bradford, the two bills that were stalled at the end of session.
In May, the CLBC updated its priority package to include SB 1403, the bill to create the California American Freedman Affairs Agency, which would oversee the compensation for descendants of enslaved people. Members of the Black caucus eventually added their names to the list of co-authors.
“We continued to work with our fine Senator even after he stepped out on his own and did a press conference after we all agreed to stick together,” Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor said.
Newsom set aside $12 million in the budget for reparations-related legislation. The CLBC wrote a letter to the governor in May, where members requested $6 million go toward establishing the reparations agency and $6 million for the California Black Freedom Fund.
On the final days of the legislative session, Newsom’s administration proposed amending SB 1403 by turning the reparations agency bill into a study.
The amendments called for setting aside $6 million for the California State University system to study the issue further and recommend a process for determining one’s eligibility for reparations.
Senator Bradford rejected the amendments. “We didn’t need another study. Now is the time for action,” he said.
According to McKinnor, the caucus didn’t think the bill would get Newsom’s signature without the amendments. She also had concerns about ongoing funding for the agency, since the CLBC had only secured onetime funding.
“We hadn’t baked this enough. I believe that the $6 million, the amendment that the governor was putting forth was not to go study reparations, but it was to go get information on lineage and study what our Japanese Americans did,” McKinnor noted.
Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas said Bradford didn’t consult with the caucus when he refused to accept the amendments.
“We never anticipated that one of our biggest obstacles to successfully passing this reparations package would come from one of our own members,” Smallwood-Cuevas said.
The Los Angeles lawmaker says the caucus wasn’t able to get all the answers about how the bill would work.
“I think it’s very problematic to have a ‘name only’ bill that sets up the bureau, but there’s no real defined infrastructure and to leave that up to the administration,” Smallwood-Cuevas added.
Smallwood-Cuevas said it was disheartening to see that the other reparations bills that were sent to Newsom’s desk were overshadowed by the outcome of SB 1403.
“I think we can come back from this experience, which really did damage our collective efforts to achieve reparations, and I think part of repairing this harm through this policy is also repairing the division in our community.”
During a one-hour interview on KBLA, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan said he believes it was a mistake to not vote on the two Bradford bills.
“Personally, I do. And I let that be known, but I also think that this is an incredible Black caucus,” Bryan said. He went on to say he understands the pain and frustration community members feel after the bills were stalled.
Members of the caucus all agree they want to build better relationships with the community as they look ahead to next year.
“I take responsibility as a Black caucus member that it shows we haven’t gone out and talked to our community, given them a lesson on advocacy, given them a lesson on the legislative process,” McKinnor said.
Gov. Newsom recently praised the CLBC chair, Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, for the work she did to advance the eight reparations bills that made it to his desk.
“Members of the Black caucus did not deserve to be attacked and their integrity impugned. That was disgraceful,” Newsom said after several members reported being doxxed.
“It was sad for us to see our people scream and holler at us on the last day. It was incredibly disheartening, hurtful, and now I may even be a little frightened because we had a lot of death threats,” McKinnor said.
Marcus Champion, a reparations advocate and organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California and the Lineage Equity and Advancement Project, said on KBLA that his organizations don’t engage with any kind of threats or doxing.
“We do our advocacy as we’re supposed to. We contact our legislators, we keep pressure on our legislators by constantly following up and then like at the end of session – we show up when we need to,” Champion said.
Champion shared there will be a town hall at True Vine Baptist Church in Inglewood on Sept. 28. He said they will be inviting members of the Black caucus and encouraged community members who want to weigh in on reparations to attend the meeting.
The CLBC also plans to have a community listening session on Sept. 28 at the Oakland Museum of California.
As for the $12 million that was set aside in the budget, the CLBC says the funds have not been allocated yet.
