A California task force issued a 500-page report detailing the harms suffered by descendants of enslaved people; the roles federal, state and local laws, public officials and the courts played in sustaining it; and how to address it now.
People line up to speak during a reparations task force meeting at Third Baptist Church in San Francisco on April 13, 2022.
The 500-page document released Wednesday details the harms suffered by descendants of enslaved people and how federal, state and local laws, public officials and the courts were active in sustaining systemic racism in all facets of life for African Americans, despite the abolition of slavery in the 19th century.
“When reports such as these are created for the first time in the nation’s history, they are a compelling model for other states to address the same issues. As California goes, so goes the nation,” Callender said in a statement to The Associated Press. “I’m not opposed to this, because I think it is all for a good reason, but I would rather see these reparations commissions use that as leverage to force the federal government to do something,” said Yvette Carnell, president of ADOS Advocacy Foundation. The Georgia-based grassroots organization, which began in response to a question about Black wealth, has advocated for reparations since 2020.
California was the first state to create a task force on reparations. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, became the first city to make reparations available to Black residents last year through a $10 million housing project. Cities and universities have since followed.