People listen to the California reparations task force, a nine-member committee studying restitution proposals for African Americans, at a meeting at Northeastern University in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, May 6, 2023.
Sophie Austin/AP
California's reparations task force has given final approval to a list of recommendations for reparations legislation that will be presented to state lawmakers.
The nine-member committee approved the recommendations after being convened for nearly two years.
- The task force was created in 2020, focusing on California's historical culpability for harm against African Americans.
- Economists have estimated that California could owe upwards of $800B in reparations to Black people.
- Proposals for reparations for African Americans have had mixed results in other parts of the country, with some initiatives stalled in Congress.
- The task force had previously voted to limit reparations to descendants of enslaved or free Black people in the country by the end of the 19th century.
- Reparations would include "cash or its equivalent" for eligible residents.
- San Francisco has created a separate reparations advisory committee, which will issue its proposal in June.
- In California, a recent report found for every $1 earned by white families, Black families earn 60 cents, the result of disparities and discrimination in the labor market.