Equal Justice Society: Black Californians’ biggest challenge? Racism!

The Equal Justice Society (EJS) aims to transform the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science and the arts. Their legal strategy aims to broaden conceptions of present-day discrimination to include unconscious and structural bias by using social science, structural analysis and real-life experience. Currently, EJS focuses its advocacy efforts on school discipline, special education, the school-to-prison pipeline, race-conscious remedies and inequities in the criminal justice system. The Oakland-based nonprofit also engages the arts and artists to create work and performances that allow wider audiences to understand social justice issues and struggles. California Black Media spoke with Keith Kamisugi, director of communications at EJS, on the organization’s successes, disappointments and plans moving forward to the new year. Looking back at 2024, what stands out to you as your most important achievement and why? & The Equal Justice Society’s most important achievement so far in 2024 is the substantive advancement of reparations in California as one of the leaders of ARRT (the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation and Truth) with eight reparations measures passing the state legislature and signed by the governor and one ballot measure presented to the voters in the general election (Prop. 6). The cumulative outcome of reparations...