California’s Black Lawmakers are Advancing Different Sets of Reparations Bills

Some of the public enthusiasm for racial justice has since waned. Meanwhile, key legislative deadlines are approaching in late April and early May. For bills to stay alive this session, they must pass their first chamber by May 24. Some of Bradford’s proposed legislation would establish a new state agency called the California American Freedman Affairs Agency to administer reparations and help people research their ancestry. Another of his bills would establish homeowners’ financial assistance to help descendants of enslaved people buy, insure and maintain their homes, and another would create a fund for reparations in the state budget. His homeowners’ assistance bill passed the Senate’s Housing Committee last week, and his proposal to establish the Freedman Affairs Agency passed the Senate’s Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. “You have to eat the elephant one bite at a time,” Bradford explained in an interview with CalMatters last week. But Bradford, 64, who is in the last year of his final term, is taking a bigger bite of the elephant than his colleagues, advocates say. “He is our hero right now,” Lodgson said. “Because if it weren’t for him, I don’t know, this would be very, very ugly.” Black caucus priorities Members of...