Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m CalMatters reporter Wendy Fry.
California lawmakers voted to offer an official apology for the state’s role in supporting slavery and moved several reparations bills but let others die.
Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat from south Los Angeles, authored Assembly Bill 3089, the apology bill, after serving on a nine-member state task force that studied harms committed against Black residents.
“We were people’s properties in this state. And it was defended by the State Supreme Court and other courts,” Jones-Sawyer told the Assembly ahead of the vote.
Four Democrats and 12 Republicans did not vote on the apology bill. The Assembly approved the bill 62–0, including six Republicans who voted for it. Now it heads to the state Senate and, if approved, to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
State lawmakers embraced and applauded as soon as the bill passed. Jones-Sawyer said Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia have all enacted some form of apology for their role in slavery.
His bill is one of more than a dozen in a package of reparations bills supported by the California Legislative Black Caucus. In February the state Assembly approved a resolution acknowledging “harms and atrocities” state leaders inflicted on Black residents over the years. Assemblymember Akilah Weber, a Democrat from San Diego, authored that bill.
Other key bills in the Black Caucus’ reparations package cleared important hurdles.
A proposal by Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford of Inglewood to compensate Black residents for land unjustly taken by eminent domain moved forward.
The California Senate also advanced proposed legislation that would create an agency to help Black families research their family lineage and confirm eligibility for any future restitution measures, and a bill that would establish a reparations fund. The bills will now head to the state Assembly for another vote.
Bradford said the state “bears great responsibility” to atone for injustices against Black Californians.
“If you can inherit generational wealth, you can inherit generational debt,” Bradford said. “Reparations is a debt that’s owed to descendants of slavery.”
A bill that would require state licensing boards to prioritize Black applicants passed the Legislature’s appropriations committees. The Pacific Legal Foundation testified in opposition, saying it is unconstitutional.
“The state’s licensing laws are already too burdensome. Making race a factor is an insult to the state’s workers who just want the means to earn an honest living,” Andrew Quinio, a foundation attorney, told lawmakers April 23.
Two other proposals aimed at implementing the California Reparations Task Force recommendations quietly died in the suspense file last week: SB 1007 would have provided financial aid for buying or maintaining a home and SB 1013 would have granted property tax relief to descendants of slaves. Bradford wrote both bills, but the Black Caucus did not designate them as priority bills this year.
DON’T MISS
- Tiny homes. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’d send 1,200 tiny homes to San Jose, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego County, to shelter homeless residents. CalMatters reporter Marisa Kendall examines why that hasn’t happened yet.
- Cuts, cuts, cuts. Capital & Main reported on three critical areas slated for substantial budget cuts that would directly impact vulnerable Californians: housing, welfare, and minimum wage increases for healthcare workers. CalMatters’ Ana B. Ibarra wrote about negotiations on possible changes to the health worker minimum wage law, SB 525.
- Scorching schoolyards: California groups hope the state will convert more asphalt into green space on school campuses. Trees, they said, can counteract the effects of an overheating planet on youngsters, CalMatters reporter Alejandra Reyes-Velarde reports.
- Debt relief. The U.S. Department of Education issued a proposed rule that would waive student loan debts that meet certain criteria. In June 2023, the Supreme Court overturned a previous sweeping plan to cancel some $430 billion in student loan debt.
- Foster kids’ kids. The California Assembly Appropriations Committee effectively killed a bill that would have increased support for infants parented by foster youth. AB 1952 by Assemblymember Diane Dixon, a Republican from Newport Beach, would have funded short-term residential programs for pregnant youth and parenting teens, many of whom have experienced trauma and child sex trafficking.
- Wage theft. The Los Angeles Times reported on the results of a study from researchers with UC San Francisco and Harvard University. The study found 41% of the 980 California workers surveyed had experienced at least one serious labor violation in the last year, such as being required to work off the clock, not being paid overtime, or being paid less than minimum wage, according to the report, released last week.
- Back pay. The U.S. Department of Labor recovered more than $450,000 in back pay and damages for 62 people employed by two Half Moon Bay mushroom farms where a disgruntled employee fatally shot seven migrant workers in January 2023.
- Bypassing bans. Cops in San Francisco aren’t supposed to use facial recognition technologies. The Washington Post found they are doing it anyway by asking police in neighboring towns to run photos of criminal suspects through their facial recognition programs.
- CalMatters on TV: We recently launched a partnership with PBS SoCal for two-minute video stories each weekday. SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. on PBS SoCal and is available online at PBS SoCal, CalMatters, and on KQED’s “California Newsroom.”
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The California Divide Team