Reparations supporters plot comeback after bitter defeat in California Legislature

Still grappling with the fallout from the defeat of two bills in the Legislature’s final hours, backers of reparations geared up for a grinding fight they said could last a decade and debated whether new divisions amongst them are best resolved through reconciliation or open political warfare. 

Some supporters of the bills, which would have established a fund and an agency to administer reparations in California, are even promising payback, possibly by campaigning to recall legislators who blocked the bills.

The defeat of the legislation caused a deep schism between the reparations advocates who backed the bills and the California Legislative Black Caucus, which wants to take a more incremental approach and successfully kept those bills from coming to a vote on the Assembly floor Saturday.

The caucus prioritized 14 other pieces of legislation, drawing on the recommendations of a state reparations task force. Many passed the Legislature and are headed to the governor’s desk. Caucus leaders pointed to the package as a concrete achievement; it includes one bill that establishes a process to restore property to victims of racially motivated eminent domain.

Political experts say California Democrats are walking a balance beam: trying to advance reparations policies far enough to appease advocates and Black voters, but not so far as to incur potential voter blowback. 

Tatishe Nteta, professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, directed a 2021 national poll that found 67% of those surveyed were opposed to the federal government providing cash payments to descendants of enslaved people. A more recent poll put the number at 61%. Nteta called cash payments consistently and “uniquely unpopular,” though public opinion is slowly shifting toward more support for reparations. 

“Until the (reparations) movement itself can agree upon what a reparations program should look like, you’re not going to see any entrepreneurial member of the Legislature, who is outside of that movement, make a case or a claim, and use their own political capital on what is a holistically unpopular policy,” Nteta said.

Nteta said support for reparations policies broadens when cash is taken off the table. Other equity measures approved by the Legislature this year do not involve cash, including one that would require the state to apologize for its role in perpetuating harm against Black Californians, and one aimed at eliminating hair discrimination in competitive sports.

Advocates for monetary reparations framed the defeat of their bills as subverting the work of the California Reparations Task Force, which last year issued a 1,000-page document and more than 200 recommendations following two years of public hearings.

The defeated bills came via Inglewood Democrat Steven Bradford who, in his final term as a state senator, introduced the legislation independently from the 14-bill priority package advanced by the California Legislative Black Caucus. Despite dozens of protesters showing up in person and calling for a vote, the Black Caucus and Democrats refused to call Bradford’s bills to the Assembly floor on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to send a bad message across the country that a state as progressive as California didn’t have the votes, so to speak, on a bill that pretty much had been run through all the traps,” said Bradford, noting his bills made it through the Senate, and Assembly committees, with little or no change. In May, all the members of the Black Caucus signed on as co-authors, he said. 

“You’re not going to see any entrepreneurial member of the Legislature … use their own political capital on what is a holistically unpopular policy.”

Tatishe Nteta, professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Backers framed the defeat as a gut punch for organizers who have worked for years to advance reparations in California. It was also perhaps a glimpse at deeper-seated problems for complex racial justice movements, even in a state dominated by Democrats who need the support of Black voters. 

Whispers began circulating the Wednesday before the session’s finale. “It was minutes away from coming up on the agenda, and we have everybody up there; we’re so excited,” said Chris Lodgson, an organizer for Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, who has been working with state lawmakers on reparations since 2019. 

“And I turn around, and I see some of Bradford’s staff came up to the third floor, and I could see it in their eyes. I could see it in their faces. ‘We got a problem,’” he recounted. 

California’s groundbreaking efforts on reparations have reverberated across the nation, with several states and cities following its lead. Now, days after a defeat, emotions are still raw as lawmakers and advocates consider where to go from here.  

“The trust is completely broken between the Black Caucus and reparations organizers,” said Kamilah Moore, the chair of the state’s landmark reparations task force. 

“It’s going to send a bad message across the country that a state as progressive as California didn’t have the votes.”

assemblymember Steven Bradford, democrat from inglewood

Some advocates are vowing revenge and considering trying to recall Black caucus members. They plan on showing up at town hall meetings in some of the legislators’ districts, and at least one group has filed an ethics complaint with the special committee on legislative ethics against the caucus. The complaint alleges corruption and improper influence played a role in the bills’ fates. 

“There has to be a political price to pay,” said Lodgson. “I don’t know if these people can remain in office. To be honest, I don’t think these people can remain in office.”

Those are threats that Bradford says are “totally unnecessary.” 

“That’s wasted energy. We should find a way to work in a constructive manner,” he said earlier this week. 

Still, people are hurt and angry. 

“This hurts in a different way because what we saw was our own people stop our own people. That hits different,” said Lodgson.

State Sen. Steven Bradford, right, speaks during a Reparations Task Force Meeting at San Diego State on Jan. 28, 2023. Photo by Ariana Drehsler for CalMatters

Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, a Democrat from Inglewood, said her family has traced their genealogy, and she is the descendent of people enslaved in the United States. 

“I am fully supportive of reparations for descendants of enslaved people,” she said. “It hurt me too. I know they were hurt.” 

Assemblymember Lori Wilson, the chair of California’s Legislative Black Caucus, said turning a state task force’s recommendations into concrete policies was always going to be a multi-year effort. It was well-known that some bills would take several legislative sessions to reach the finish line, she said. 

“(The Black Caucus) is absolutely committed to the recommendations that have come out of the task force, and to getting those across the finish line,” Wilson said on Saturday, adding that Bradford’s bills would be reintroduced next year. 

A state task force last year recommended up to $1.2 million in payments per eligible Black resident for racial harms perpetuated by the Golden State, such as lower life expectancies, excessive policing, housing discrimination, lost business opportunities, and land seized by racially motivated eminent domain. 

On a national level, conservatives pounced on the dollar figure as evidence of left-wing excess. 

The task force debated various forms for allocating reparations, such as tuition or housing grants, but it finally voted for direct payments to compensate for economic inequality. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the typical Black family in America is worth $23,000, compared to $184,000 for the average white family. About 6.5% of California’s population is Black.

McKinnor said the Black Caucus plans on eventually passing legislation that follows all the task force’s recommendations.  

“We have a plan,” she said. “A five- to ten-year plan. We plan on doing all the recommendations. Not one. We’re trying to close the wealth gap.” 

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law creating the task force in 2020, and he set aside $12 million this year from the state’s cash-strapped budget to implement new measures. But he’s been evasive about any actual dollar figures he’d be willing to allocate to eligible Black Californians, repeating that reparations are “about much more than cash payments.” 

Newsom said Friday that members of the Black Caucus are owed an apology for the reaction from reparations advocates. 

“The members of the Black Caucus did not deserve to be attacked in their integrity … that was disgraceful. There are members of the Black Caucus that are owed an apology,” Newsom said. 

“We have a plan. A five- to ten-year plan.”

Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, democrat from inglewood

 In the days before bills were set to come before the Legislature for final approval, Newsom’s office raised concerns about how much it would cost to establish the state agency, according to Bradford.

“I’m just disappointed,” Bradford said. “We have to remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King and accept finite disappointment but have infinite hope. I have infinite hope we will get this done, and it was never about me to begin with.” 

Not everyone was upset. 

The Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth, a coalition of California Black power and justice groups, applauded the measures the caucus moved to the governor’s desk this session. 

“While some important proposals may have failed this time, we acknowledge the complexities of the current fiscal and political environment and remain committed to advocating for meaningful and impactful progress. We urge our community and allies to remain steadfast,” a statement from the group read. 

The alliance includes Black Equity Collective, the California Black Power Network, Catalyst California, Equal Justice Society, Live Free California, and former reparations task force members Cheryl Grills, Lisa Holder, Jovan Scott Lewis, and Donald Tamaki. 

Assemblymember Isaac Bryan speaks during a press conference led by the California Legislative Black Caucus at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Feb. 21, 2024. Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer introduced AB 3089, a bill that seeks a formal apology for the state’s role in chattel slavery. It cleared the legislature and is headed for the governor’s desk. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Democrat from Moreno Valley, and member of the Black Caucus, said this legislative session marked “an important step forward in our journey toward reparations.”

“While we did not get every bill across the finish line, we are proud that the majority of our legislative package has made it to the governor’s desk,” an emailed statement read. 

But other advocates say those bills aren’t reparations — which they say must provide compensation — but rather they’re just racial equity bills. 

The United Nations has defined reparations as “proportional to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered.” Compensation is a condition for a measure to be considered reparations under international standards. Another key ingredient is satisfaction, meaning those who have been harmed must feel that the measures taken appropriately address the wrongdoing.  

Nteta, the UMass political scientist, said that, despite the political fear around cash reparations, beliefs change over time and allow for new policies. “At this moment in time, there is a perception that supporting a reparations policy potentially could have some damage on your political future. That is true about any and all unpopular policies… The Civil Rights Act wasn’t that popular initially. Neither was the Voting Rights Act or the Fair Housing Act.”