Reparations

In the UC Davis Black History Month Student Essay Contest, a graduate student argues that investing in education and economic programs that aid Black communities can help dismantle inequality more broadly.

Californians rejected the anti-slavery ballot measure Proposition 6, which would have forbid forced prison labor. Reparations advocates want to try again in 2026.

A supermajority of Democrats and emboldened Republicans return to the Capitol today — at odds over how to lower the cost of living, how much to resist a second Trump presidency, where to trim state spending, how to harness tech innovations, and how far to go providing reparations to descendants of people once enslaved.

Other states, including Nevada, are deleting references to slavery in their constitutions and banning forced prison labor. California voters rejected that path when they turned down Prop. 6.

An Assembly election in South L.A. captures the shifting dynamics of ethnic political power in California. One candidate is biracial and pledges to build bridges between Black and Latino voters.

California over decades sterilized thousands of people in state prisons, state-run homes and hospitals. Lawmakers created a reparations program for them, but it has denied most applications.

The California Legislative Black Caucus is taking heat for three reparations bills one of their members floated but Gov. Gavin Newsom did not sign. Newsom deserves some of that ire, too.

As part of a California reparations package, Gov. Newsom signs a bill to officially apologize for slavery. But he vetoed others sought by reparations supporters.

The controversial idea of cash reparations divided even Black advocates in the legislature this year. Here’s what’s next.

A last-minute protest failed to win the Senate-approved bills a chance to be voted on in the Assembly. The chair of the Black Caucus promised they would be re-introduced next year, and called reparations "a multi-year effort."