Reparations Bills Establish Foundation to Turn California’s Vision Into Reality

Gov. Gavin Newsom advanced California’s reparations efforts by signing five bills from the Legislative Black Caucus’ Road to Repair 2025 package into law, with additional measures to be revisited next legislative cycle.

Key among them is SB 518 (Weber‑Pierson), which creates the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery and lays the foundation needed to move reparations from theory to reality. Too many news outlets have framed this as a loss, but the outcome should be seen in the context of many wins already achieved in California — another step forward in this journey.

Cities and states across the nation are taking inspiration from California, the first state to establish a reparations task force to address the legacy of slavery and its enduring consequences. While progress may seem slow, California’s advances are groundbreaking. They align with established global practices in international law, where states provide reparations for violations committed against their citizens or for failing to protect them from harm.

From my work listening to harmed communities around the globe collectively tell their stories, I’ve learned that reparations are about the journey — not just the destination.

At the highest level, “reparations” is the process of the state making amends for harm. While many people think of reparations solely as compensation, it also includes a broader range of material, systemic and symbolic repair for victims, their families and society at large.

Following the United Nations Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation, these bills are part of the comprehensive reparations package clearly articulated in the California Reparations Task Force’s final report, including restitution, compensation, satisfaction (stopping violations, revealing the truth, public apology), rehabilitation (medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services) and guarantees of non-recurrence.

A multi-generational, multi-racial coalition of lawyers, advocates and academics — called The Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation and Truth (ARRT) — is the driving force behind this long-term strategy towards full repair.

As highlighted in a recent poll from Liberation Ventures, a nonprofit dedicated to racial repair, 45% of Californians express support for comprehensive reparations that include direct payments alongside an apology, healing services and other investments in Black communities, while another 18% are neutral. Over half of respondents support investments in education, healthcare, land restitution, and economic development targeted to Black communities.

This growing public support mirrors significant legislative and public policy advances. Last year, Newsom signed 10 bills as part of the “Road to Repair” package. Key among them was a public apology in which the state of California recognized and accepted responsibility for the harms of slavery and its enduring legacy, including systemic structures of discrimination, and pledged to restore and repair affected communities with actions beyond the apology itself.

This acknowledgment is an essential step towards reparations, signaling the state’s commitment to taking concrete actions to make things right.

Globally, we have seen the crucial role apologies play in paving the way for comprehensive reparations. In Canada, for example, standing outside the Parliament building in June 2008 when Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for Indian Residential Schools and its assimilationist policy designed to “kill the Indian in the child,” I witnessed the impact it had on the members of different tribal nations present — and how it spurred the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and ongoing efforts to achieve comprehensive reparations for Indigenous Canadians.

Looking beyond our borders underscores that reparations require many steps and iterations. In Chile, it took over 30 years of negotiations and several rounds of legislation to implement reparations through health care benefits, pension plans, educational scholarships and other measures.

In the U.S., it took nearly 50 years of advocacy for reparations for Japanese Americans to become a reality. After Congress and President Jimmy Carter established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment in 1980, it took almost a decade before President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988, leading to the first payment being issued in 1990.

Considering that the country’s violations against Black Americans spanned more than 400 years, it will take more than one or two legislative cycles to redress and repair these harms.

While this work takes time, those whose rights have been and continue to be violated deserve to see meaningful changes now. We all share a responsibility to make this journey — this process — reparatory itself by staying unified, respectful and focused on progress. In this political landscape, all eyes are on California and Newsom. His follow-through on the commitment he made in 2021 when he convened the task force is pivotal to the process.

By leading by example, he can continue to distinguish himself by guiding a reparatory process that unites and makes reparations both common sense and commonplace. Together, we can — and we will — build a more just and equitable society for all.

Virginie Ladisch is senior director of state and local initiatives at Liberation Ventures, a field catalyst in the U.S. movement for reparations for slavery and its legacies. She has over 20 years of experience supporting truth-telling and reparations processes around the world, including in Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Kenya, Tunisia and Uganda.