Protests have erupted at the California state capitol after two stalled reparations proposals for black residents were seemingly killed.
The development came during the final day of the legislative session in Sacramento Saturday, following hours of fierce lobbying.
Some two dozen protesters were seen inside and outside the building that day, airing shouts for the bills to move forward and chants for reparations ‘now’.
Signs and shirts emblazoned with the same message were also on display, as lawmakers made their way to and from the Assembly floor.
Onlookers cry, meanwhile, emanated throughout, but The California Legislative Black Caucus would still later reveal in a statement how neither bill was moving forward, ahead of their midnight deadline.
State Sen. Steven Bradford, a member of the caucus, spoke to several local outlets Saturday from the senate floor, revealing what exactly stalled the process.
‘We’re at the finish line,’ Bradford told reporters after penning Senate Bills 1403 and 1331 himself.
‘And I think we as the Black Caucus owe it to the descendants of chattel slavery, we owe it to black Californians and Black Americans. to move this legislation forward and get it to the governor’s desk,’ he continued.
When asked about the holdup, Bradford blamed ‘a fear of the veto.’
In a written statement, the Black caucus added, in part, ‘The caucus was unable to participate in the legislative process collectively and only recently became aware of the concerns and issues with the bill.’
Previously, both bills had the votes to clear the Assembly, but Bradford said he and others also found issue with edits to the proposed guidances proposed by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
Newsom’s aides pushed to authorize further study of the issues rather than make restitution right off the bat, he said – something he and others will not accept.
‘We owe it to our ancestors,’ said the Democrat from Gardena said. ‘And I think we disappointed them in a way.’
The bills initially sought to create a process for those whose land was stolen as a result of racism and slavery, while demanding a formal apology from the state.
Both bills, awaiting votes in the state Assembly this week, had new drafts from Newsom by Monday, with the progressive shifting their entire purpose.
Previously, Newsom had set aside $12million for reparations-related initiatives, supporting the prospect of reparations.
The new drafts, viewed by Politico, instead proposed sending $6 million to California State University, to study how to most effectively implement strategy to get the operation going, based on recommendations from a state task force.
This comes as many wondered where the money for such a project would come from, and how those worthy of payouts would be identified.
While some assembly members would not confirm it was the requested changes that killed to the two bills, Bradford confirmed the authenticity of the drafts, saying they did, indeed, come from the Newsom office.
He went on to tell reporters how the governor’s office had also supposedly cited costs as a deciding factor, in a year where California was forced to make $16 billion in cuts, including a blanket 7.95 percent reduction in funding for all state agencies.
As of writing, Newsom’s office has yet to comment on the tossing of the two bills, but officials did tell the Sacramento Bee that they were still working with the caucus on both.
The last minute development left supporters who showed up at the Capitol Saturday in hopes of witnessing history irate, with the bill’s core purpose – creating a new Freedmen Affairs Agency – seemingly no more.
‘They’re killing the bills because they’re scared of the governor,’ Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, told the Bee as onlookers shouted and chanted at lawmakers before proceedings were halted.
‘We’ve got the money,’ he said, pushing back on the budget concerns reportedly aired by Newsom. ‘Do we have the will? Do we have the courage?’
The bills, for now, thus remain in limbo, years after the reparations movement first gathered momentum across the US following police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Supporters say it’s time for America to repay its black residents for the injustices of the historic Transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow segregation and inequalities that persist to this day, though the prospective sums are eye-watering.
Currently, lawmakers in Washington are seeking at least $14 trillion for a federal bid to ‘eliminate the racial wealth gap’ between black and white Americans, though critics say payouts to selected citizens will inevitably stoke divisions.
The concept has also raised questions about why American Indians and others don’t get their own handouts, despite $1.3 billion being awarded to 176 tribes and bands in 1946.
From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and merchants and sold into slavery.
Those who survived the brutal voyage ended up toiling on plantations in the Americas, including in Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States, while others profited from their labor.
Descendants of these victims with roots in California would be the ones up for payouts, if the original version of the bill is ever revived.
A survey last year of 6,000 registered California voters, however, found that only 23 percent supported cash reparations, while 59 percent were opposed.
Campaigners have also been divided over the best strategy to implement them, following years of deliberation as they aim to deliver tangible benefits to those descended from slaves.
With the deadline now come and gone, supporters will have to wait until 2025 for any future developments.
