![]() So other than saying that we weren't a slave state, we were very much a slave state here in California.įLORIDO: To your colleagues in the legislature or to Californians who might say, no one who was enslaved is even alive today, so why are their descendants owed anything - how would you respond to that?īRADFORD: If you can inherit generational wealth, you can inherit generational debt. If you were a pregnant woman who gave birth as a slave here, your child was born a slave. And if you were brought here as a slave, you were treated as such. We still have colleagues who continue to say that this is not a issue that they're concerned with.įLORIDO: I wonder if they're asking you, why California? I mean, California was not a slave state.īRADFORD: We were not a slave state in name only, but in practice and deeds, we very much were. This is still a issue that's impacting not only California but the rest of the nation, and we will have to address it. I mean, chances are that the real meat of the legislation and what is in that Reparations Task Force won't take shape until sometime next year. I spoke with him yesterday and asked him how it's going.īRADFORD: We're still in early stages. He was on the task force, and now it is his job to convince his fellow lawmakers to pass a bill. We just know it won't if we don't push, if we don't continue to say there's a community that needs to have this happen.įLORIDO: A key person going forward is Democratic State Senator Steven Bradford, who we heard from just a little bit ago. STEWART HYLAND: You can't just have a study and stop. Stewart Hyland is a union organizer who came from the city of East Palo Alto. Yes.įLORIDO: Other people I spoke with at this meeting said that from here, public pressure will be critical. ![]() But this is a historic moment for me, for us. The heavy lifting is what's next with legislative action. And so I know it's just a report with recommendations. WHITEHURST: It's closer than we've ever been. Even so, Allie Whitehurst, a teacher, drove two hours to be here because she wanted to watch the task force hand its report over to lawmakers.ĪLLIE WHITEHURST: I want to be a part of this historic moment.įLORIDO: Why does it feel historic to you? We've come such a long way, and this work must not be in vain.įLORIDO: None of this is a sure thing, even in a state like California, which has a Democratic supermajority in the legislature and a progressive governor. MONICA MONTGOMERY STEPPE: We must believe that reparations can come to fruition. Monica Montgomery Steppe, a San Diego city councilwoman also on the task force, said the time for all this is now. The report also recommends tax breaks, free tuition, help with health care and other programs designed to help African Americans overcome the systemic racism that is slavery's legacy. We can do this if we're committed to it.įLORIDO: The Reparations Task Force has recommended cash payments, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, for any Californian who can show they are the direct descendant of a Black enslaved person or a free Black person alive before the 20th century. And while a few cities across the country have adopted very small-scale programs, nothing has ever happened like what's happening now in California.īRADFORD: Now's the time to face it, folks, to own up to the debt that is owed. They can be uncomfortable with the history, but you cannot deny the truth.įLORIDO: Black Americans have been seeking reparations since even before slavery was abolished. ![]() STEVEN BRADFORD: The task force report is documented with citations and footnotes. Steven Bradford, a state senator on the task force, spoke from the stage. The nine task force members sat on stage, each with a copy nearly 1,100 pages thick - a meticulous history of racist policy in California, its impact on people's lives and, yes, a recommendation that the state should pay reparations. Let's give it up.įLORIDO: It was the day the task force was to deliver its final report to the state legislature. And this is the last hearing of the California Reparations Task Force. Dozens waited outside for a chance to get in. had harmed Black residents of California and to recommend whether and how California should compensate people for that harm, whether it should pay reparations.įLORIDO: A few weeks ago in Sacramento, the state capitol, hundreds of people streamed into an auditorium. It created a task force on reparations - nine people whose job it was to study the way that the legacy of slavery in the U.S. More than two years ago, California's state legislature did something no state has ever done. ![]()
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