California's reparations task force submits final report. What's next?
SACRAMENTO – On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action for college admissions, the state's reparations task force unveiled its final report on recommendations.
After countless meetings and hours of research, do lawmakers have the appetite to tackle reparations now that the panel submitted its report ahead of its July 1 deadline?
California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber championed the legislation to create the first-in-the-nation panel which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2020.
"If any state could do it, it would be California," she said during a press conference Thursday ahead of the task force's last public meeting.
The historic day has been two years in the making.
Yet, reparations are not unheard of in America ever seen since the introduction of 40 acres and a mule.
"The state does not owe us reparations," an advocate said. "The federal government does."
CBS13 has done one-on-one interviews with members of the panel several times since it embarked on this journey.
In the first year, the group studied the lingering effects of slavery in the U.S.
Despite California being a free state, history reveals it enforced fugitive slave laws while implementing discriminatory legislation.
The second year focused on how to calculate the harms done to African Americans.
The findings looked at issues like political disenfranchisement, education and housing.
Some had hoped the governor would be at the last public meeting.
"I'd be [disingenuous] if I didn't share my dissatisfaction with our commander-in-chief of this great state – about wildfires from my understanding – not here at such a monumental period in history," Jonathan Burgess said.
Burgess' family is fighting to recover land once owned by his ancestors but is now in possession of the state.
However, the report goes to lawmakers next and not the governor.
Next, the public watches to see what legislators will do with this 1,200-page report of recommendations.
"We know a lot of folks across the street don't want to support reparations," Senator Steven Bradford said. "We've seen it too many times."
While this occasion is monumental, the legislator said it cannot be aspirational but has to be a reality.
Just last year, the state senate failed to vote against removing involuntary servitude because it believed it would cost taxpayers billions of money to pay prisoners.
During the public meeting, he said compensation could come in the form of a check or perhaps free college tuition and healthcare. Ultimately, the legislature will have the final decision.