Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers in 2020 touted legislation that would create a “first-in-the-nation” state task force to explore and recommend solutions to amend the legacy of slavery.

Four years later, their efforts toward reparations have remained incremental rather than record-breaking, frustrating supporters who packed the Capitol building on Saturday as lawmakers took their final vote.

The California Legislature, hamstrung by the state's budget deficit and the challenge of supporting a politically volatile issue in an election year, passed a limited compensation bill. While welcomed by some lawmakers and advocates, the modest progress in a liberal state like California could serve as a warning to the rest of the country on this issue.

“I think what this survey shows is that when push comes to shove, Democrats aren't willing, able or interested in really supporting these efforts except in a symbolic, less-than-substantive way,” said Tatishé Ntheta, chair of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and director of the school's polling program.

The California Legislative Black Caucus released 14 priority reparations bills in January, based on recommendations from a reparations task force last year. Lawmakers positioned the bills as the first step in a package focused primarily on enacting policy changes in education, health care and criminal justice, while excluding cash transfers given the state's fiscal difficulties.

Lawmakers passed 10 bills before adjourning Saturday, including a flagship bill calling for the state to formally apologize for “instilling racial prejudice and perpetuating the harm suffered by African Americans through racial segregation, public and private discrimination, and unequal distribution of state and federal funds.” [declaring] We will ensure that such conduct does not occur again.”

The state Assembly has put a measure on the November ballot asking voters to remove language in the California Constitution that allows forced labor as punishment for crimes. Another measure, if approved by the voters, would eliminate work requirements for able-bodied state prisoners and develop a voluntary work program instead.

Other bills would establish a process for the state to review and investigate claims that the government used eminent domain to take property for racially motivated reasons, seek to increase and track participation in vocational education for Black and low-income students, and, pending federal approval, expand Medicare insurance coverage to include medically assisted food and nutrition benefits.

Bills currently on Newsom's desk include new oversight of book bans in California prisons, requiring grocery stores and pharmacies to provide written notice at least 45 days before closing, and expanding a state law banning discrimination based on hairstyle to youth sports.

Bills aimed at limiting solitary confinement in prisons, giving preference in state licenses to African-Americans who are descendants of people enslaved in the United States, and establishing grants to fund local efforts to reduce violence in black communities have stalled in the state Assembly. A proposal to amend the state constitution to fund programs that would increase life expectancy, improve educational outcomes, and reduce poverty among people of certain racial and ethnic groups also failed.

Rep. Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City), who chairs the state Legislative Black Caucus, said work on reparations will continue into next year and that passing the bill marks an important first step.

“It was definitely intentional to start laying the foundation,” she said, “and I'm looking forward to building on that and really being able to involve the community in the work that we're doing.”

Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), who introduced the bill to begin the process of reversing racially motivated land and property seizures in the reparations bill, also pushed two bills to create a California Freedmen's Affairs Bureau and a Reparations and Compensatory Justice Fund to pay for and implement the reparations policies approved by lawmakers, but they died when the Legislature refused to bring them to a final vote. Neither was on the Congressional Black Caucus' priority list.

On Saturday, as the bill stalled in the Legislature, reparations advocates gathered in the Capitol Rotunda to lobby lawmakers.

“Bring in the bill!” they yelled as lawmakers emerged from the chamber.

Chris Lodgeson, wearing a hat embroidered with “Cut the check,” said the bill that passed doesn't represent meaningful change.

“An apology is not compensation. An extension of the Crown Act. [to prohibit discrimination against Black hairstyles]”That's not reparations. Passing a bill so people can read the books they want to read is not reparations,” he said.

“The only bill that could actually implement reparations is the one they're afraid to introduce.”

Bradford said the bill's defeat was the biggest disappointment of his 14-year legislative career, which ended on Saturday.

“I think it was time for a strike. The public is watching and I think we have an obligation to set an example, not just to African-Americans here in California but to the whole country,” he said. “It's sad.”

The bill introduced by the Legislative Black Caucus is based on the recommendations of California's Reparations Task Force, which wrapped up a historic two-year process last summer aimed at examining the effects of slavery, documenting ways the government continues to discriminate against Black people and recommending policy changes to state lawmakers.

The extensive wish list for reform included dozens of politically challenging proposals, such as providing cash benefits, abolishing the death penalty in California and offering free college tuition for eligible descendants.

Direct financial compensation has been a particularly thorny issue, with activists calling for it but most of the public opposed.

Governor Newsom, who signed the law that launched the reparations movement in California, has not yet endorsed the idea of ​​the state making cash payments to descendants of enslaved African-Americans. The governor, task force members and lawmakers have repeatedly touted the idea that reparations are more than just cash.

According to a 2023 poll by the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Government Studies co-sponsored by The New York Times, 59% of California voters oppose cash transfers, while 28% support them. More than four in 10 voters “strongly” oppose cash transfers.

UMass national poll conducted in January Sixty-seven percent of people oppose federal cash payments, while 34% say descendants should definitely or probably receive them. Of those opposed, 29% said the reason was that descendants would not be eligible to receive the cash.

Nteta said California's efforts to research and document the systemic impacts of racial identity on black communities go beyond federal efforts to closely examine and trace the impacts of slavery. But there's an inherent tension between advocates who want to press for reforms now and lawmakers who know pushing an unpopular idea too hard and failing could be “the death knell for reparations as a policy.”

The policy of reparations has become even more complicated with the Democratic nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris, a black woman from California, as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Nteta said Republicans directly or implicitly mobilize white voters by suggesting that Democratic candidates will improve the lives of Black Americans and other people of color in ways that harm white people.

“If Harris starts talking about and defining herself around reparations, there's a good chance that if elected, she'll use that as a way to run ads that show she's disproportionately supportive of the African-American community,” Nteta said. “So the fact that her racial identity is intertwined with her partisan identity is actually bad news for the idea of ​​a presidential candidate talking about reparations or doing anything about reparations. There's going to be a lot of political backlash if she speaks out about this.”

He said Democrats, including those who support reparations, are also unlikely to pressure her to speak on controversial issues if it could hurt her chances of beating former President Trump. Harris supported the idea of ​​studying the generational effects of discrimination. It looked into racial and institutional racism to consider potential interventions ahead of the Democratic primary in a campaign that lost the 2020 presidential election.

Any action taken in California could be held Harris responsible. Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, have criticized Harris as a “left-leaning progressive Californian from San Francisco” and suggested she is out of touch with the country, Ntheta said.

“If the California Legislature passes a reparations bill, it would be a godsend for the Republican Party and Donald Trump, demonstrating and asserting that this is what the future looks like under a president who is a Californian, has state experience and has inclusive ideals,” Nteta said. “So it's no surprise that there will be few revolutionary or highly progressive policies announced before the fall election.”