California Will Indeed Have Reparations for Descendants of Slaves as Newsom Signs Reparations Bill

"A newly formed Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery will administer reparations in the state of California after Gavin Newsom just approved that bureau's creation, but there's still no word on what the reparations will look like. The City and County of San Francisco discussed the idea of reparations for Black residents for a while in 2023, which drew negative national headlines for the fact that they discussed $5 million lump sum payments for descendants of slaves."

"But the entire SF reparations idea ended up being eliminated by London Breed herself thanks to budget cuts, and all that came from the effort was a measly formal apology. Though there was a state-level effort on reparations too. That effort produced a reparations bill last year, though that bill did not make it out of committee. The California Legislative Black Caucus tried another go at it this year, and Politico reports that Newsom signed their 2025 reparations bill last week."

"I signed a bill two days ago with the Black Caucus as it relates to creating a new office to address these systemic issues, Newsom said on (of course) a podcast Friday. But these so-called reparations are almost certainly not going to involve cash payments, as Newsom himself told Politico in 2023, Dealing with the legacy of slavery is about much more than cash payments."

A state-level bureau for descendants of American slavery has been established in California to administer reparations, though concrete benefits remain unspecified. Local San Francisco plans for $5 million lump-sum payments collapsed under budget cuts and produced only a formal apology. A prior reparations bill failed to advance out of committee, and a 2025 measure creates the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery within the state Civil Rights Department. The bureau will include a Genealogy Division to verify descendant status and require proof for qualifying benefits. The bill cites potential future findings and declarations related to a gift of public funds, and reparations are unlikely to be direct cash payments.

Read at sfist.com