Guides: 2024 Reparations Priority Bill Package: New California Laws Taking Effect : Home

Introduction

California State Capitol

State Capitol | Photo by Jennie Richards

In January 2024, the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) announced its 2024 Reparations Priority Bill Package, a slate of 14 bills directly stemming from the findings of the 2023 California Reparations Report. The bills aimed to address racial discrimination and civil rights inequities across a range of categories including labor, health care, criminal justice, and education, and were chosen by the CLBC as "its first step in what will be a multi-year effort" to implement the report's policy guidance.

By the end of the legislative session, Governor Newsom signed the following six bills from the original 2024 Reparations Priority Bill Package announcement into law:

AB 1815 by Assemblymember Dr. Akilah Weber (D-San Diego) – Discrimination: race: hairstyles.
AB 1929 by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) – Career technical education: data collection.
AB 1986 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) – State prisons: banned books.
AB 3089 by Assemblymember Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr. (D-Los Angeles) – Chattel slavery: formal apology.
AB 3131 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – Strong Workforce Program: applicants receiving equity multiplier funding.
SB 1089 by Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) – Food and prescription access: grocery and pharmacy closures.

In addition, the following reparations-related bills put forth individually by CLBC members were also enacted:

AB 51 by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) – Early childcare and education: California state preschool program.
AB 1984 by Assemblymember Dr. Akilah Weber (D-San Diego) – Pupil discipline: transfer reporting.
AB 2319 by Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) – California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act.
AB 2508 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – Student financial aid: California Kids Investment and Development Savings (KIDS) Program: foster youth.
AB 2906 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) – Foster care payments.
SB 1340 by Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) – Discrimination.
SB 1348 by Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) – Postsecondary education: Designation of California Black-Serving Institutions.

The intent of this research guide is to compile information on these bills and how their effect on existing laws, and to provide relevant educational resources from our collection at the USD Legal Research Center.

News Coverage of the 2024 Reparations Priority Bill Package

Lara Korte, California Introduces First-in-Nation Slavery Reparations Package, Politico (Jan. 31, 2024).
Chandelis Duster & Justin Gamble, California Lawmakers Unveil Sweeping Legislative Proposals Aimed at Slavery Reparations, CNN (Feb. 1, 2024).
Wendy Fry, Reparations Rift? California’s Black Lawmakers Divided on How Far to Go, CalMatters (Apr. 10, 2024).
Sara Weissman, California Bill Would Create ‘Black-Serving Institution’ Designation, Inside Higher Ed (May 28, 2024).
Megan Myscofski, First-in-the-Nation Reparations Bills are Headed to Newsom’s Desk, But Not Without Some Tension, CapRadio (Sept. 12, 2024).
Guy Marzorati & Annelise Finney, Centerpiece Reparations Bill Derailed by Newsom's Late Request. Here's Why, KQED (Sept. 4, 2024).
Wendy Fry, California Will Apologize for Slavery as Part of Reparations Push, CalMatters (Sept. 27, 2024).
Lylah Schmedel-Permanna and Jasmin Shirazian, Black California Students Want More Support. A New Law Names Colleges that Serve Them Best, CalMatters (Dec. 4, 2024).

Further Reading at the LRC

The California Reparations Report
Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans
Assembly Bill 3121 (2020) established the Reparations Task Force, a committee charged with studying the history and lasting impact of slavery and recommending "appropriate remedies of compensation, rehabilitation, and restitution for African Americans, with a special consideration for descendants of persons enslaved in the United States" via a congressionally mandated report. The final report was delivered to the California Legislature in June of 2023. Per the Task Force: "The final report surveys the ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery and its lingering effects on American society today, and proposes a comprehensive reparations plan in satisfaction of the direction set forth by the Legislature in AB 3121 (2020)."

Interim Report by California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans
Call Number: LRC Reading Room E185.89.R45 C24 2022
Publication Date: 2022
The interim report provided to the California Legislature by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. Contains background and preliminary policy recommendations ahead of the final report.

From Here to Equality: reparations for Black Americans in the twenty-first century by William A. Darity; A. Kirsten Mullen
Call Number: Online and LRC Reading Room ; E185.89.R45 D37 2020
ISBN: 1469654970
Publication Date: 2020
Racism and discrimination have choked economic opportunity for African Americans at nearly every turn. At several historic moments, the trajectory of racial inequality could have been altered dramatically. Perhaps no moment was more opportune than the early days of Reconstruction, when the U.S. government temporarily implemented a major redistribution of land from former slaveholders to the newly emancipated enslaved. But neither Reconstruction nor the New Deal nor the civil rights struggle led to an economically just and fair nation. Today, systematic inequality persists in the form of housing discrimination, unequal education, police brutality, mass incarceration, employment discrimination, and massive wealth and opportunity gaps. Economic data indicates that for every dollar the average white household holds in wealth the average black household possesses a mere ten cents. In From Here to Equality, William Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen confront these injustices head-on and make the most comprehensive case to date for economic reparations for U.S. descendants of slavery. After opening the book with a stark assessment of the intergenerational effects of white supremacy on black economic well-being, Darity and Mullen look to both the past and the present to measure the inequalities borne of slavery. Using innovative methods that link monetary values to historical wrongs, they next assess the literal and figurative costs of justice denied in the 155 years since the end of the Civil War. Finally, Darity and Mullen offer a detailed roadmap for an effective reparations program, including a substantial payment to each documented U.S. black descendant of slavery. Taken individually, any one of the three eras of injustice outlined by Darity and Mullen--slavery, Jim Crow, and modern-day discrimination--makes a powerful case for black reparations. Taken collectively, they are impossible to ignore.
Atonement and Forgiveness : A New Model for Black Reparations by Roy L. Brooks
Call Number: Online and LRC Reading Room ; E185.89.R45 B76 2004
ISBN: 0520239415
Publication Date: 2004
Roy L. Brooks reframes one of the most important, controversial, and misunderstood issues of our time in this far-reaching reassessment of the growing debate on black reparation. Atonement and Forgiveness shifts the focus of the issue from the backward-looking question of compensation for victims to a more forward-looking racial reconciliation. Offering a comprehensive discussion of the history of the black redress movement, this book puts forward a powerful new plan for repairing the damaged relationship between the federal government and black Americans in the aftermath of 240 years of slavery and another 100 years of government-sanctioned racial segregation. Key to Brooks's vision is the government's clear signal that it understands the magnitude of the atrocity it committed against an innocent people, that it takes full responsibility, and that it publicly requests forgiveness--in other words, that it apologizes. The government must make that apology believable, Brooks explains, by a tangible act that turns the rhetoric of apology into a meaningful, material reality, that is, by reparation. Apology and reparation together constitute atonement. Atonement, in turn, imposes a reciprocal civic obligation on black Americans to forgive, which allows black Americans to start relinquishing racial resentment and to begin trusting the government's commitment to racial equality. Brooks's bold proposal situates the argument for reparations within a larger, international framework--namely, a post-Holocaust vision of government responsibility for genocide, slavery, apartheid, and similar acts of injustice. Atonement and Forgiveness makes a passionate, convincing case that only with this spirit of heightened morality, identity, egalitarianism, and restorative justice can genuine racial reconciliation take place in America.
When Sorry Isn't Enough : The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice by Roy L. Brooks (Editor)
Call Number: Online and LRC Reading Room HM671 .W48 1999
ISBN: 0814739474
Publication Date: 1999
Seemingly every week, a new question arises relative to the current worldwide ferment over human injustices. Why does the U.S. offer $20,000 atonement money to Japanese Americans relocated to concentration camps during World War II, while not even apologizing to African Americans for 250 years of human bondage and another century of institutionalized discrimination? How can the U.S. and Canada best grapple with the genocidal campaigns against Native Americans on which their countries were founded? How should Japan make amends to Korean "comfort women" sexually enslaved during World War II? Why does South Africa deem it necessary to grant amnesty to whites who tortured and murdered blacks under apartheid? Is Germany's highly praised redress program, which has paid billions of dollars to Jews worldwide, a success, and, as such, an example for others? More generally, is compensation for a historical wrong dangerous "blood money" that allows a nation to wash its hands forever of its responsibility to those it has injured? A rich collection of essays from leading scholars, pundits, activists, and political leaders the world over, many written expressly for this volume, When Sorry Isn't Enough also includes the voices of the victims of some of the world's worst atrocities, thereby providing a panoramic perspective on an international controversy often marked more by heat than reason.

Democratic Policymakers’ Ambiguous Support for Reparations: Implications for the Policymaking Process
Elizabeth Rigby & Vernicia Griffie
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (2024)
Abstract: This paper investigates the increasing, but complex, support for reparations among Democratic elected officials—highlighting their tendency to endorse the concept while deferring discussion of policy details. This strategic ambiguity is common in policy discourse and can be embedded within policy design, such as legislative proposals to create commissions tasked with studying and recommending future actions on reparations. The effectiveness of these reparations commissions is uncertain. They could represent productive steps toward genuine reparations or simply serve to alleviate political pressure without any substantial policy changes. We explore these potential outcomes in three inter-related analyses: a compilation and comparison of all bills mentioning slavery reparations introduced at the federal and state level, the first nationally representative public opinion poll asking about support for reparations commissions, and a content analysis of legislative bill texts establishing reparations commissions. Our findings suggest that while reparations commissions offer an effective way for Democratic policymakers to manage conflicting constituency pressures in the short term, their potential to propel forward, rather than stall, the reparations debate hinges on their design and execution.
Healthcare Reparations in California
Chelsea J. Gaudet
60 San Diego L. Rev. 569 (2023)
Abstract: The Reparations Task Force has recommended several key areas in which the state of California can offer reparations for its systemic abuse of African Americans. The Interim Report issued by the Task Force highlights the discrepancy in health outcomes for White Californians versus Black Californians and attributes the difference not just to inequitable access, but also to a special compounding effect of physical and mental stress suffered solely by Black Californians as a result of systemic and personal environmental racial discrimination. Here, Gaudet discusses the unique aspects of "weathering" and the insidious effect of racial bias in research meant to study and treat it. The solution must address the physical ramifications of the intergenerational impacts of slavery and racial discrimination on today's Californians as recompense for the state's perpetuation of the atrocities.