California's first in the nation statewide
Reparations Task Force is meeting today
and tomorrow in downtown Sacramento,
and members are working on
recommendations for state lawmakers
on what form reparations should
take in the state of California.
And the goal is to help make amends
for the generations of harm to African
Americans caused by slavery and its
long standing effects in society.
Becca Habegger brings us the
conversation from today.
Capital money reparations that
will stimulate this economy for the
2.6 million blacks in California.
Dozens of people lined up to speak
at day one of the California
Reparations Task Forces March meeting
held this month in Sacramento.
They offered various perspectives
on how reparations should look
for black Californians. You
can never repay for the damage have
been done to black people in America.
So I want to be very clear.
Land, land, land.
Healthy land, not toxic land.
The white farmers all around him had wells.
We didn't. Gloria Puro Dyer came from
Roseville to share her family story.
Growing up in Allensworth was
an extraordinary experience in
terms of being able to see how
racism affected an entire town.
She grew up in the historically black
Central Valley community of Allensworth,
named for its founder,
Colonel Allen Allensworth.
A community built by and for black people.
It thrived in the early 1900s.
But dwindled in subsequent decades
with a loss of water rights and
many leaving for World War Two.
At the time, in the
1950s it was pretty much an all black town.
We had a a 63 acre farm
and we didn't have wheels,
but the white farmers around us,
they all had wells.
This one white farmer who was
across the road, he had his wealth,
he would water his fields and you
know water would run into the ditch.
If he saw us let bring our cows out
to drink water out of the ditch,
he would tell us to get them over.
Back away from water in the ditch,
that is hatred.
I didn't experience the brunt of racism
like I would have maybe if I had lived
in Mississippi or someplace else,
but I saw enough of it to realize
the damage that could be done,
she says. Growing up, her parents
told her about her enslaved ancestors.
They were treated like
animals, only worse.
She says. Chattel slavery has
done generations of damage.
That's why she's advocating for reparations,
not only in the form of land and money.
But also mental health resources.
There are many who still have not been able
to reach anywhere near their potential
because of the psychological harm.
And so even if money, for example,
is put in somebody's hands,
but if the internal issues have
not been resolved and healed,
that person will go right on
doing some pathological thing.
Possibly much of this goes back
to the legacy of slavery and the
psychological harm that was done.
With African Americans individually
and as families,
some commenters called in two people
raising objections to the whole effort.
I don't believe a single person
deserves restitution in any form
unless they are a Native American.
Why is the state of
California even doing this?
This should be a federal thing,
just like they did with
the Japanese internment.
But most people here and on the phone
came with suggestions for reducing
the harmful and lasting impacts of
chattel slavery on African Americans.
And back with us right now,
Becca. What is next? I mean,
what do reparations look like?
And then who will be
eligible? Yeah, you know,
at their January meeting,
Task force members agreed to recommend
that the state of California
create something called the
California African-American Friedman
Affairs Agency to implement their
recommendations and process claims.
Now, those recommendations,
those are due to the legislature
in a final report this summer.
Now, As for who would be eligible,
the task force voted last year
that Black Californians who
descended from enslaved Africans.
Or from a free black person
living in the US prior to the end
of the 1800s would be eligible
for monetary reparations
in the meeting. Wasn't just today.
It does continue to tomorrow, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
A public comment begins at 9:00
AM at the Cal EPA building on I
Street in downtown Sacramento.
Anybody is welcome to attend and to
participate in that public comment.