The compensation bills receive their first hearings in the California Senate

The latest compensation bills passed their first hearing in the California Senate. If passed, the bills would implement reparations policies and address systemic eminent domain that has displaced primarily black residents.

The bill’s writer, state Sen. Steven Bradford of Gardena, said the laws is “overdue” to correct racial displacement by the state government.

“This is not a handout or a charity” – Bradford he said, in response to. “What is due, what is promised and is 160 years late.”

California has historically seized private property belonging to its Black and Brown residents for racial reasons. Senate Bill 1050 seeks to correct this injustice and was passed by a 6-1 vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The power of eminent domain has been used time and time again to drive Black and brown people off their land, to destroy homes, and to devastate families’ opportunities to build generational wealth,” Bradford explained.

Cities from San Francisco to Los Angeles have used eminent domain to disclaim minorities the ability to build up wealth through home ownership. Bradford intends the bill to determine a path for the restitution or return of land to its former owners.

Bradford also serves as vice chairman of the California Legislative Black Caucus. The caucus proposed these bills as a part of the 2024 package of priority reparations bills. Bradford also serves on the first-ever reparations task force in the state and across the country.

“It’s a debt we owe to the people who helped build this country,” Bradford said. Atonements are a debt to the descendants of slavery.”

California has shown relative progress in implementing reparations. Senate Bill 1403 would specifically establish the California American Freedmen Agency to oversee the implementation and allocation of reparations to eligible individuals.

“This agency will be an essential foundation for the implementation and success of reparations,” Bradford said during an April committee hearing. “This agency’s most important responsibility will be to determine who is eligible for reparations programs and services – descendants of chattel slavery.”

Other state legislatures, similar to New York, have also began talks on reparations. While actual implementation occurred first in Evanston, Illinois, these latest bills circulating in California represent a big step forward in that effort.