SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The Slave Reparation Movement reached a crucial moment on Wednesday with the release of a comprehensive report detailing California’s role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans, an important step in educating the public and set the stage for an official government apology and case. for economic restitution.
The 500-page document covers the damage suffered by the descendants of enslaved people even today, long after the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century, through laws and discriminatory actions in all facets of life, from housing and education to employment and the legal system.
Longtime reparations advocate Justin Hansford, who is a law professor at Howard University and director of the Thurgood Marshall Center for Civil Rights in Washington, described the moment as exciting and monumental.
“Having an official detail of these stories from the state is important,” he said. “I know a lot of people say we shouldn’t keep studying, but the reality is that until it comes from a source that people think is objective, it will be harder to convince everyone of some of the inequalities described. . ”
The report comes at a time when school boards and U.S. states are banning books or restricting what can be taught in classrooms, with parents and lawmakers largely opposed to issues of sexuality, gender identity, or race. . State lawmakers have tried to prevent schools from teaching the “Project 1619,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times report that rethinks American history with enslaved people at heart.
California is going in the opposite direction, said Adam Laats, a Binghamton University historian who described the document as remarkable for its unwavering account, including detailing how Los Angeles district police and district attorneys did. for a century they were members or had ties to it. from the Ku Klux Klan.
“Who the children have to learn are the main actors in the history of us as a nation has always been a real lightning rod,” he said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year task force in 2020, making California the only state to move forward with a study and plan. Cities and universities have taken up the cause, with the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, becoming the first city to make repairs available to black residents last year.
On Wednesday, Newsom issued a statement praising California for leading the country in a long-awaited discussion on racial justice and equity. State Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office helps the task force, said, “California was not a passive actor in perpetuating this damage.”
A similar effort is being made to delve into what Newsom has called the dark history of Native American violence, mistreatment, and neglect in California. The Truth and Healing Council report, to be presented in 2025, could include recommendations for reparations. Many tribes across the country have tried to acquire their ancestral lands and co-manage public lands.
The African-American Repairs Working Group, which began meeting in June 2021, will publish a comprehensive repair plan next year. The committee voted in March to limit reparations to descendants of African Americans living in the U.S. in the 19th century, overriding advocates who wanted to extend compensation to all blacks in the U.S.
“Four hundred years of discrimination have led to a huge and persistent wealth gap between black and white Americans,” said the California Task Force report to study and develop remedial proposals for African Americans. .
“These effects of slavery continue to be embedded in today’s American society and have never been sufficiently resolved. The governments of the United States and the state of California have never apologized or compensated African Americans for these damages “.
California is home to the fifth largest black population in the United States, after Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York, according to the report. An estimated 2.8 million blacks live in California, although it is unclear how many are eligible for direct compensation.
African Americans make up less than 6% of California’s population, but they are overrepresented in prisons, juvenile detention centers, and prisons. About 28 percent of inmates in California are black, and in 2019, 36 percent of juveniles detained in state juvenile detention centers were African American, according to the report.
Black Californians earn less and are more likely to be poor than white residents. In 2018, black residents earned an average of just under $ 54,000 compared to $ 87,000 for white Californians.
“We are not homeowners and if we look at why there is such a big disparity between African Americans and white Americans and our ability to maintain and maintain wealth, it is because we do not have homes,” he said. Assembly Reggie Jones. Sawyer, member of the working group.
The initial recommendations of the working group include reforms of the prison system. Inmates should not be forced to work and, if they do, should receive a fair wage from the market. Prisoners should also be able to vote and people convicted of crimes should be on the jury.
The group recommends the creation of a state-subsidized mortgage program to guarantee low rates for qualified African-American applicants, free health care, free tuition to California colleges and universities, and scholarships for high school graduates. African Americans to cover four years of college education.
The committee also calls for a cabinet-level secretary position to oversee an African-American affairs agency with branches of civic engagement, education, social services, cultural affairs, and legal affairs. It would help people to research and document their lineage to a 19th century ancestor so that they could qualify for a financial restitution.
People who oppose paying for the repairs argue that California had no plantations or Jim Crow-era laws as in the South.
But the interim report explains how California, despite being “free,” perpetuated the damage that has worsened over generations.
He noted that Basil Campbell, a native of Missouri, was bought for $ 1,200 and forced to move to Yolo County, California in 1854, leaving behind his wife and two children. Campbell finally paid his purchase price, got married, and became a landowner. But when his children demanded a portion of his estate after his death, a California judge ruled that marriage between two enslaved people “is not a marital relationship.”
Most recently, he said, the home of Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin was valued at a much lower price because it was located in a mostly black part of the luxurious Marin County, where African Americans were forced to live from of World War II.
The report should offer other cities and states, and ultimately the federal government, a plan to seek redress, members said. Over the next year, the task force will take on the difficult task of working out an apology and creating a repair plan to compensate and stop the damage.
“The big question is, what are they going to do about it? The danger here is that everyone reads it and nods and waits for the working group to start the answer,” said Hansford, a law professor. “We need to have universities, local governments, businesses and others working together to do their part to address … the recommendations offered in the report.”
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AP writers Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix, Arizona, and Felicia Fonseca in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed.