Assembly Bill 3121 (AB 3121) was enacted on September 30, 2020, and established the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans (Task Force or Reparations Task Force). AB 3121 charges the California Department of Justice with providing administrative, technical, and legal assistance to the Task Force.
The official website of the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans is at https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121. The site has links to the complete Interim Report, the Executive Summary, as well as minutes of past meetings, and information on the task force members.
The institution of slavery is inextricably woven into the establishment, history, and prosperity of the United States. Constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned from 1619 to 1865, slavery deprived more than four million Africans and their descendants of life, liberty, citizenship, cultural heritage, and economic opportunity. Following the abolition of slavery, government entities at the federal, state, and local levels continued to perpetuate, condone, and often profit from practices that brutalized African Americans and excluded them from meaningful participation in society. This legacy of slavery and racial discrimination has resulted in debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships that are uniquely experienced by African Americans.
AB 3121 charges the Reparations Task Force with studying the institution of slavery and its lingering negative effects on living African Americans, including descendants of persons enslaved in the United States and on society. Additionally, the Task Force will recommend appropriate remedies of compensation, rehabilitation, and restitution for African Americans, with a special consideration for descendants of persons enslaved in the United States. By statute, the Task Force will issue a report to the Legislature by June 1, 2022, which will be available to the public.
On June 1, 2022, the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans released its Interim Report providing an in-depth overview of the cumulative, cascading, and continuing harms inflicted on African Americans resulting from 246 years of enslavement, 90 years of Jim Crow, and decades more of systemic discrimination.
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