Historic work on Black reparations moves to the California Legislature

SACRAMENTO — Members of California’s Black reparations task force handed off their historic two-year report to state lawmakers June 29, beginning the next chapter in the long struggle to compensate the descendants of slavery. The first U.S. panel of its kind met one last time June 29, urging supporters to press lawmakers into action on […]

California reparations panel OKs state apology, payments

OAKLAND, Calif. — California’s reparations task force voted May 6 to approve recommendations on how the state may compensate and apologize to Black residents for generations of harm caused by discriminatory policies. The nine-member committee, which first convened nearly two years ago, gave final approval at a meeting in Oakland to a hefty list of […]

California reparations amount, if any, left to politicians

SAN FRANCISCO — The leader of California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force on March 29 said it won’t take a stance on how much the state should compensate Black residents whom economists estimate may be owed more than $800 billion for decades of over-policing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination. The $800 billion is more than 2.5 […]

San Francisco board open to reparations with $5M payouts

SAN FRANCISCO — Payments of $5 million to every eligible Black adult, the elimination of personal debt and tax burdens, guaranteed annual incomes of at least $97,000 for 250 years and homes in San Francisco for just $1 a family. These were some of the more than 100 recommendations made by a city-appointed reparations committee […]

Japanese Americans won redress, fight for Black reparations

SAN FRANCISCO — When Miya Iwataki and other Japanese Americans fought in the 1980s for the U.S. government to apologize to the families it imprisoned during World War II, Black politicians and civil rights leaders were integral to the movement. Thirty-five years after they won that apology — and survivors of prison camps received $20,000 […]

After groundbreaking slave reparations report, what next?

Reparations experts and advocates largely welcomed a move by California to publicly document its role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans but wondered if the slew of recommendations in its report released June 1 will result in measurable change. Justin Hansford, a longtime reparations advocate and law professor at Howard University, called the report an […]

Bay Area Day of Remembrance calls for solidarity for reparations movements

The annual Bay Area Day of Remembrance once again focused on the ongoing fights for reparations against the United States government. The Feb. 19 evening program, entitled “No One is Free Until We are All Free, 80 Years after E.O. 9066,” focused on the ongoing campaign for reparations in the United States and attracted 278 […]

Los Angeles Day of Remembrance stresses collective action for justice

LOS ANGELES — The annual Los Angeles Day of Remembrance, commemorating the Feb. 19, 1942 signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which authorized the forcible removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast into American concentration camps during World War II, was held on the Japanese American National […]

‘Reparations’ explores struggle to atone for slavery

In Jon Osaki’s film, “Reparations,” Blacks and Asian Americans address the four-century struggle to atone for slavery in the U.S., and discuss the critical role that solidarity between communities plays in addressing systemic racism in America. Osaki, an award-winning filmmaker and director of “Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066,” spoke to the Nichi […]

S.F.: African American leaders say ownership of Fillmore Heritage Center should be part of reparations plan

Leaders with San Francisco’s African American community, along with actor and San Francisco native Danny Glover, on Nov. 12 called on the city to donate the building that houses the Fillmore Center to a local nonprofit as part of the city’s reparation plan. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People San […]