REPARATIONS PANEL BACKS PLAN TO CREATE AGENCY

Nearly two years into the California reparations task force’s work, the group still has yet to make key decisions that will be at the heart of its final report recommending how the state should apologize and compensate Black residents for the harms caused by slavery and discrimination.

A vote possibly slated for this weekend on requirements for who would be eligible for payments and other remedies was delayed because of the absence of one of the committee’s nine members.

But after two hours of intense debate Saturday, the task force voted unanimously in favor of an agency that would provide certain services to descendants of Black enslaved people while overseeing groups that provide other services. The vote followed one proposed by task force member Cheryl Grills at a prior meeting to recommend that this entity mainly serve as an oversight body.

Task force Chair Kamilah Moore said Saturday’s vote was necessary to take into account input from residents who gave public comments in favor of an agency with the power to provide services.

“It’s not enough for us as nine esteemed colleagues to determine what repair looks like,” Moore said. “We have to listen to the descended community.”

Lawmakers passed legislation in 2020 creating the task force to assess how the legacy of slavery harmed African Americans long after its abolition through education, criminal justice and other disparities. The legislation directs the task force to study reparations proposals “with a special consideration for” the descendants of enslaved Black people living in California and is not meant to create a program in lieu of one from the federal government.

The work of the task force has captured widespread attention, a result of being the first of its kind in the country. But some used the group’s latest two-day meeting in Sacramento to warn that not enough Black Californians are sufficiently informed about its work.

One resident said the task force’s groundbreaking interim 500-page report, released last year, should be made available in libraries and schools, a topic the group discussed Saturday. But others said it’s not just up to the task force and its communications team to get the word out on their work.

“This room should be filled with media, and it’s not because Black people are a pariah,” Los Angeles lawyer Cheryce Cryer said Saturday. “We are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

The gathering in Sacramento comes as the group approaches its July 1 deadline to release a report for lawmakers. The document will represent a milestone in a growing push for reparations efforts in different parts of the country.

Sacramento resident Tariq Alami, who has been following along with the task force’s work since its early stages, said it is clear the government should have passed reparations for Black Americans a long time ago.

“It doesn’t take a genius to see that there are differences in the society as a result of what we have encountered as Black people,” Alami said.

After the task force releases its final report, the fate of its recommendations would then lie with state legislators. Lawmakers would also decide where funding for any reparations legislation may come from.