A California task force voted to restrict reparations to Black families who can prove a direct lineage to enslaved ancestors.
The nine-member task force voted 5-4 to limit eligibility to individuals who could provide evidence they are “an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the U.S. prior to the end of the 19th century,” the motion read.
In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating the two-year reparations task force. California is the first and only state to move ahead with a study and plan to study the institution of slavery and its injuries and to apprise the public about its conclusions. The report must be completed by June 2023.
Black people make up 7% of the state’s population, roughly 2.5 million people.
While the vote was welcomed, Kamilah Moore, a lawyer and chair of the task force, said the eligibility criteria would present its own issues.
“That is going to aggrieve the victims of the institution of slavery, which are the direct descendants of the enslaved people in the United States,” she said per A.P. News. “It goes against the spirit of the law as written.”
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who authored the legislation, stated approving reparations to Black immigrants or even descendants of enslaved people from other countries would leave U.S. descendants with next to nothing.
There is still some debate about how the reparations could be rolled out.
Advocates say that free college tuition, assistance buying homes and establishing businesses and grants to churches and community organizations have all been raised as potential avenues.
