CERES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 16: California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference at Gemperle Orchard on April 16, 2025 in Ceres, California. Governor Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta have filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Trump administration's use of emergency powers to enact sweeping tariffs that hurt states, consumers, and businesses. The tariffs have disrupted supply chains, increased costs for the state and Californians, and inflicted billions in damages on California’s economy, the fifth largest in the world. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Sacramento, California – Two bills advancing through the California legislature could pave the way for Black Californians to receive reparations for slavery, marking a significant moment in the state’s multi-year effort to reckon with its history of systemic racism and racial injustice.
The proposals — SB 437 and SB 518 — are authored by State Senator Akilah Weber, M.D. (D-San Diego), and come on the heels of the final recommendations from the California Reparations Task Force, which released a landmark report in 2023 documenting the long-term economic, health, and social disparities faced by Black Americans due to the legacy of slavery and discrimination.
SB 437 would direct the California State University system to develop a standardized process for verifying genealogical eligibility for reparations. Lawmakers have designed the measure to give structure to one of the task force’s most debated recommendations: limiting compensation to those who can prove descent from enslaved persons. Supporters argue that rigorous documentation is essential to creating a just and legally defensible program. Critics, including some reparations advocates, contend that it excludes Black Californians harmed by generations of structural racism regardless of their lineage.
SB 518 goes a step further, proposing the creation of a new state agency — the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery — which would oversee the implementation of reparations programs, from cash payments to broader policy changes. The Bureau would also monitor whether the state fulfills the task force’s broader recommendations around housing, healthcare, and education equity.
Together, the bills represent a modest fiscal commitment: The California government has set aside $12 million from the state’s general fund to support implementation — just 0.004% of California’s nearly $298 billion budget. But the symbolic weight of that investment is outsized. It also comes at a time when the state faces a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall, prompting critics to question the political feasibility of more robust reparative programs.
California has a historical precedent for reparations, albeit in different contexts. In 1988, the federal government paid out reparations to Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. More recently, California issued payments to survivors of forced sterilizations in state prisons. Still, cash reparations for Black Americans have mainly remained aspirational — a point highlighted by the unfulfilled promise of “40 acres and a mule” after the Civil War.
Whether these new bills mark a turning point or a political compromise remains to be seen. SB 437 heads to the Assembly later this month, while SB 518 awaits a second review by the Senate Judiciary Committee. What’s clear is that California’s experiment in reparative justice is entering a new phase — one defined less by moral argument and more by infrastructure, eligibility, and implementation.
