Legislative Black Caucus Unveils 16 Reparations Bills for 2025

The California Legislative Black Caucus recently unveiled the 16 reparations bills they are attempting to pass this year in Sacramento, hoping that the effort this year will be more successful than last year when few reparations bills wound up being passed.

Since the beginning of the decade, there has been a concerted effort in California to pass reparations legislation in California. The Reparations Task Force was tasked with making recommendations for legislation in 2021. However, the Task Force kept making outrageous plans and issuing outrageous statements, including stating that first $569 billion and then $800 billion for the compensation plans, or saying that the state owes $1.2 million to each black resident. The sky high amounts, as well as a $22.5 billion state budget deficit in 2021 led to media and resident backlash, as well as Governor Gavin Newsom not supporting cash payments. Following their final list of recommendations in June 2023, lawmakers created their initial 14 bills stemming from the list in 2024.

While initially hyped, few bills actually made it last year. All the little-to-no cost measures with no real legal or political challenges made it, like AB 3089, in which the state issues an apology over slavery and puts a plaque in the Capitol to commemorate it.

However, other bills barely made it past Committee votes, with some not even making it to the summer. This included two bills authored by now former Senator Stephen Bradford that were held back in the Senate because of their costly nature. One, SB 1013, would have given major financial property tax assistance solely for black descendants of slaves. The other, SB 1007, would have given housing grants for the same group in formerly redlined areas.

The bills the Caucus wanted to get through the most didn’t make it either. Most critically was Sen. Bradford’s Senate Bill 1403, which would have created the California American Freedman Affairs Agency to assist Californians with reparations program, and, Senate Bill 1331, which would have created the reparations fund. Both were cast off to the inactive file following Governor Gavin Newsom saying that he wouldn’t sign them. Newsom also vetoed another critical bill, SB 1050, that would have given black families a way to either get land back or compensation for land wrongfully taken because of racially motivated means. Reparations were likewise completely voted down by voters on the ballot, with Proposition 6, which would have halted involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime, being soundly defeated.

Caucus lawmakers vowed to continue trying for the passage of more reparations bills in 2025, and as seen this month, they made good on their promise. Several caucus members specifically noted that the actions of President Donald Trump since his inauguration fueled many of the bills.

“This year, as we do every year, we will fight repair the harms of the past and create new ladders of opportunity for Black Californians” said Assemblyman Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles). “The President of the United States has a spent his first month in office fighting to erase, disempower, and defund federal efforts to improve the contentions of life for Black people. Here in California, we are prepared and willing to stand up and fight back. Our Caucus is focused on repairing the harms of the past, and doing all we can to prevent harm in the present. We believe in a California and a Country that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, and full of opportunity for all people.”

The 16

According to the Caucus, these are the 16 reparations bills they are attempting to pass this year:

– ACA 6 (Wilson)—would prohibit slavery in all forms

– ACA 7 (Jackson)—seeks to clarify Prop 209 to ensure state, county, and local institutions understand intent and parameters in current statute

– AB 7 (Bryan)—would authorize priority admissions for descendants of American chattel slavery to higher education institutions

– AB 57 (McKinnor)—seeks to allocate a portion of Home Purchase Assistance Funds to first-time home buyers who are descendants of American chattel slavery

– AB 62 (McKinnor)—seeks to create pathways for victims of racially-motivated eminent domain to seek redress

– AB 475 (Wilson)—seeks to require CDCR to develop voluntary work programs for institutional residents

– AB 742 (Elhawary)—seeks designate descendants of American chattel slavery for priority when issuing professional licenses

– AB 766 (Sharp-Collins)—seeks to, among other things, require racial equity analyses for Executive branch agencies and respond accordingly to further advance racial equity.

– AB 785 (Sharp-Collins)—would create the Community Violence Interdiction Grant Program and fund community-driven solutions to decrease violence in neighborhoods and schools

– AB 801 (Bonta)—would direct the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, in collaboration with the Civil Rights Department, to identify and address ongoing mortgage lending discrimination.

– AB 935 (Ransom)— would require the Civil Rights Department and the Department of Education to collect anonymized data to determine how complaints are handled.

– SB 437 (Weber Pierson)—would require the California State University to independently research and report on scientific methodology to determine an individual’s genealogical fingerprint for the purpose of verification as a descendant of an enslaved person in the United States.

– SB 464 (Smallwood-Cuevas)—seeks to expand employer-employee demographic data reporting to the Civil Rights Department for the purpose of enforcing civil rights protection under existing law.

– SB 503 (Weber Pierson)—seeks to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in critical healthcare applications to mitigate racial biases present in commercial algorithms.

– SB 510 (Richardson)—seeks to require complete and accurate K-12 curriculum regarding racial disparities, including impacts of segregation, slavery, and systemic discrimination.

– SB 518 (Weber Pierson)—would establish the Bureau of Descendants of American Slavery.

Challenges facing the bills

Many of the bills are returning to the docket this year either because of being defeated in the Legislature or because they were defeated by voters. ACA 6, for example, is trying to put the “end involuntary servitude as crime punishment” issue back on the ballot in 2026 despite 7.8 million Californians voting it down last year. Another, SB 518, pretty much just renames a proposed agency that would coordinate reparations matters from a bill last year that didn’t even make it past the Assembly.

Other bills are not expected to go far, as they either give some sort of monetary payment or because of high cost. The state still has a huge budget deficit with some shaky years expected ahead, so they aren’t exactly in the position to tack on more taxpayer costs. And then there are the legal challenges. A few of the bills already have legal challenges lying in wait if they are passed. Most notably is AB 7, which is already being targeted for breaking the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, California’s Prop 209, the 14th Amendment, and numerous EEOC laws. AB 742 would also likely be in violation of some of those laws.

And with Prop 209 in the way of a lot of these bills, as it prohibits California departments from considering race, ethnicity, or gender when deciding on public employment, contracting, and education, there is a bill to address that too. ACA 7 would, if passed and approved by voters, essentially nullify Prop 209, and allow many more reparations bill to go through with one less legal worry. While education is still covered by the U.S. Supreme Court, state employment and contracting would not be.

Finally, there are just straight out cash payments, like with AB 57 which would just shift funds to black residents looking to buy a house for the first time, even though everyone in the state is currently hurting. Many lawmakers from both parties and Governor Newsom said they would oppose such bills, but they have yet to encounter a gray area bill like AB 57 yet.

“They’re shotgunning it again this year, just trying so much and hoping some stick,” said Katherine Douglas, a Washington-based analyst who focuses on state reparation efforts, to the Globe on Tuesday. “The big ones they need to get through are back. They need that system and agency in place to really advance as much as they hope to. SB 518 is their crown jewel to pass this year.

“A few will be passed. There’s some benign ones that don’t cost much, if anything, that seem like easy passes and give the Caucus the ‘Hey, you see, we got some passed’ sort of headlines they want to build up for next years efforts. Legally some are doomed. Fiscally some are doomed. The two that are voter based are doomed. That house payment one is done for because they promised no cash payments, and that is a cash payment no argument.

“And don’t forget something that is around this year that wasn’t last year – the Trump Administration. It will make many think twice before voting, because they may challenge some of these. In fact, I’m counting 4 or 5 that they can easily sic the Justice Department on and block through legal challenges.

“8, maybe 9 can possibly make it to the finish line. That’s about how they fared last year.”