California to launch ‘historic’ reparations office as advocates regroup from 5 Newsom vetoes

Lawmakers and advocates are regrouping to determine how they will move forward in the effort to ensure reparative justice for Black Californians after Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed — and vetoed — a slate of reparations measures. 

Among the key bills signed into law was one to create the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery, which will create a structure for reparations. San Diego Democratic Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson authored the legislation, which establishes the bureau under California’s Civil Rights Department and will include a division of genealogy, education and outreach, and legal affairs. 

Newsom also approved Senate Bill 437, which allocates up to $6 million for the California State University system to research methods for verifying descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. who wish to access benefits. 

But he vetoed five other reparations measures backed by the California Legislative Black Caucus, including one that would have allowed colleges to prioritize descendants of American slavery and another to initiate a restitution process for victims of racially motivated eminent domain. 

In his veto messages, Newsom said the legislation was “unnecessary” and cited fiscal challenges, respectively. In a message vetoing a bill that would have dedicated at least 10% of a state-backed home loan program for descendants of enslaved people, Newsom cited “legal risks” and potential threats to federal funding. 

Legal scholars and some members of the state’s Reparations Task Force — a first-in-the nation commission created after the murder of George Floyd — have previously noted that a 1996 ballot measure, Proposition 209, that prohibits state institutions from considering race, sex, color, or ethnicity, poses challenges to enacting reparations-based laws. Opponents of reparations-aimed laws have threatened to sue under Prop. 209, which has been upheld multiple times by state courts.  

“We have been able to deliver some significant wins with the assistance of our governor,” said Weber Pierson, who chairs the California Legislative Black Caucus, in an interview with CalMatters. “That being said, of course some of our bills were vetoed. You never get everything you want.”

Those bills were among the 16 “Road to Repair” priority measures that the caucus introduced this year based on recommendations from the Reparations Task Force. 

After two years of study, the commission released a seminal report in 2023 detailing California’s history of enslavement and racially discriminatory policies, and issued over 100 recommendations to address the harms inflicted on Black Californians. 

Since then, the Black Caucus has worked to implement those proposals. Newsom last year signed six of the caucus’ 14 priority bills, one of which required the state to apologize for perpetuating slavery. 

Weber Pierson said the caucus plans to regroup in a couple of weeks to discuss its direction for 2026.

“With any veto message, we need to go back and see if there’s a different way in which we can approach a solution to the problem,” she said. “A veto is never, in my opinion, a ‘no.’ It may be a ‘no, for now.’ It may be just a ‘no’ this year. And it may be a ‘no’ but let’s try something different.”

Lisa Holder, a civil rights attorney and former task force member, said she has been much more focused on the wins than the losses. 

“This moment is historic,” she said. “African Americans have been fighting for reparations since emancipation. This is a significant step that California has now undertaken to make reparations into a concrete reality. They are building a home for harm repair and they are scaffolding it with the power and the seal of approval of the California government.”

As for Newsom’s vetoes, Holder said it won’t take one legislative cycle to fix 400 years of harm. 

“This is a long-term process and we have a long view,” she said. “(Newsom) was opening the door for us to recraft the bills, restyle them and make them stronger so that they can withstand any legal attacks.” 

Some reparations advocacy groups that want to see California move more swiftly toward harm repair formally opposed the new laws, arguing that the research study and bureau will only create crippling implementation delays. 

“This is delay by design,” said Chris Lodgson, a spokesperson for Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, a grassroots advocacy group. 

After the governor’s vetoes, he said he believes his coalition can offer a more effective pathway, rooted in solutions that are written and formulated by community members. 

“We think we can start the repair sooner rather than later,” he said. “A better way forward would not need additional years of study and setting up more government.”

Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow.