California reparations panel convenes at historic church

Morning attendance was light, but the emotions largely jubilant. About a dozen speakers lined up for public comment, some thanking the task force members for undertaking its critical work.

"Everybody in here is a part of history," Chris Lodgson of the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, a reparations advocacy group, said before the meeting. "I couldn't be more excited and blessed, really, to be here."

Wednesday's meeting was held in a neighborhood once thriving with African American night clubs and shops until government redevelopment forced out residents — a prime example of how local policies decimated a Black neighborhood.

More than three dozen people were in the wooden pews for the all-day meeting. The church will host an evening forum on reparations. Its pastor is the Rev. Amos Brown, task force vice chair and president of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year reparations task force in 2020, making California the only state to move ahead with a mission to study the institution of slavery, educate people about its findings and develop remedies. Reparations at the federal level have not gone anywhere, but cities and universities across the country are taking up the issue.

Committee member Cheryl Grills, a clinical psychologist and professor at Loyola Marymount University, said before the meeting that the task is daunting given that advocates will have to craft a reparations plan that will be approved by lawmakers and funded by the government. But she acknowledged the excitement.

"We've never seemed to get this close to actually being acknowledged, being seen, being understood, being empathized with," she said. "This country has never done that."

In a dramatic vote last month, California's task force split 5-4 to limit reparations to people who can show they are descended from enslaved or free Black people in the U.S. as of the 19th century. Those who favor broader eligibility says lineage-based reparations unfairly shuts out Black people who have also suffered systemic discrimination.

Since its inaugural meeting in June, the nine-member panel has dedicated much of its time to hearing from experts in weighty areas such as housing and homelessness, racism in banking and discrimination in technology.

Wednesday's agenda includes testimony from experts in education, while on Thursday, the committee is scheduled to discuss a report to be made public in June that shows how the institution of slavery continues to reverberate throughout California, including in the form of disparities in household income, health, employment and incarceration.

Task force members were appointed by the governor and the leaders of the two legislative chambers. A plan for reparations is due to the Legislature in 2023.