California passes landmark slavery reparations law
CALIFORNIA has begun a process to pay reparations for slavery after it became the first US state to pass a law to study and develop compensation proposals for the descendants of slaves.
The landmark bill, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, will create a task force to develop recommendations for how the state could make payouts and determine who would be eligible.
In addition, the nine-member body can recommend how the state might offer a formal apology “for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants”. The task force can also recommend the elimination of laws that disproportionately affect black people.
Signing the legislation into law, Mr Newsom acknowledged that people of colour continued to face “discrimination and disadvantages” in the state, but said that the bipartisan support for the new law represented a “paradigm that we hope will be resonant all across the United States”. The task force will carry out a study on the lingering effects of slavery on all parts of society, such as racial disparities in prison populations, unemployment, wealth, housing, healthcare and education.
The law does not prescribe a form of reparations or who should be eligible, which is something the task force must study and recommend, and any proposals for payments would still require further legislation to proceed.
“California has come to terms with many of its issues, but it has yet to come to terms with its role in slavery,” said Shirley Weber, the Democratic assembly member who wrote the bill.
“We’re talking about really addressing the issues of justice and fairness in this country that we have to address.”
California entered the Union as a “free state” in 1850, but slavery continued in the state. It was abolished nationwide by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1865. The issue of reparations has gained traction in the upper echelons of political power in recent years, with the US House of Representatives holding a hearing on it last year.