California Task Force Votes to Provide Reparations to Descendants of Slaves

On Tuesday, California’s reparations task force voted that only black Californians who can prove a direct lineage to enslaved ancestors will be eligible for the statewide — and first-in-the nation — reparations program. The task force voted 5-4 in favor of the proposal after six hours of debate. A failed proposal would have provided reparations to the state’s entire black population regardless of slave lineage.

The California reparations task force defined those eligible as someone, “determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the US prior to the end of the 19th century,” according to the motion. An earlier amendment to the motion pushed for a broader definition of eligibility that would have included all 2.6 million African Americans in California, with “special consideration” for those with direct lineage to slaves. That amendment did not pass.

Two years ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation giving “special consideration” to black Americans who are direct descendants of slaves. Among one of the bill’s requirements was the formation of a task force to study the distribution of financial compensation to the state’s black population.