From Division to Action: The Blueprint for Reparations to Succeed in California

by Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas

I am the first in my family to be born free of legalized segregation. My mother grew up forced to attend segregated schools, and my great-great grandmother was born a slave and worked as a tobacco plantation worker before becoming a sharecropper. Living with first-generation rights comes with a tremendous responsibility. I carried this responsibility by spending two decades fighting for the freedoms of Black workers – from defending the rights of Black men forming a security union, to founding Black Worker Centers across the country, to sourcing university funding to conduct pivotal research to better protect Black working families. Now as a Senator representing one million residents in a district where I won more than 60% of the vote, I have taken this fight to the State Capitol to defend the rights of Black people and others from marginalized communities of color.

I don’t need to tell you who I am. You only need to look at my track record to understand the depths of which I contend for the souls of Black folks on the daily. I move legislation that lift up Black communities, like my bills to localize civil rights enforcement and recognize intersectionality in anti-discrimination laws. In lock step with my colleagues of the California Legislative Black Caucus, I have also supported legislation as part of our Reparations bill package. While a difficult task, we succeeded in securing $12 million from the state budget for Reparations, with most of these bills on their way to the Governor’s desk.

So I found it particularly concerning to witness the inter-community protests that erupted among Black organizers over several Reparations bills that were not passed by the State Legislature. Over the last two years, the Black Caucus went to painstaking lengths to build a platform that conveyed trust and transparency in moving forward the sacred work of the 1,100-page Reparations Report handed to us by an investigative task force of scholars, community leaders and faith-based groups. Not once during this time did we receive any engagement, letters or emails from these Reparations protestors, nor did any show up in my office until a week before the protests. Despite our office hosting four constituent coffee events in my district this year, I never received one community member’s question about our progress with Reparations.

It is disingenuous to attack 12 legislators of a 120-member legislative body who are the only ones in Sacramento committed to California becoming the first state in the nation to adopt Reparations. Sadly, this disruption has also emboldened MAGA extremists to attack the only political body that can move the Reparations Report’s 250+ recommendations laid out by the task force. I believe that all Black communities must strategically come together with Black leadership in order to get Reparations adopted, as it certainly won’t move forward without the helm of the Black Caucus. Disunity will only threaten the success and undermine the momentum of our multi-year campaign of policies and bills that will ultimately create systemic change for Black Californians – a remedy that all of our descendants of slaves truly deserve.

Systemic redress is critical to the future of Black Americans. That’s why it surprised me how many Black folks protested against the Black Caucus while remaining silent as the State Legislature passed some of the most dangerous crime bills that will imprison more Black people for nonviolent crimes, threatening to further increase disproportionate incarceration rates among Black men and women. My colleague Assemblymember Tina McKinnor and I were the only legislators to vote against this troubling crime bill package. As the only two Black leaders to do so, there was not one cry from our State Capitol’s rotunda for criminal justice reform on behalf of Black people. Neither were testimonies or a large-scale mobilization effort presented when our Reparations bill package was introduced nine months ago.

I am not interested in hallow legislation that sounds good but will accomplish nothing. The Black Caucus presented the Freedman’s Bureau bill and supported its amendments because they made the bill stronger for those who will be left to pick up the mantle of Reparations. Uniting as a community to present viable policies is the only way we will be able to get Reparations adopted and create an equitable societal infrastructure that will help repair the historic harms to Black Californians. In fact, it was our intent to encourage community input when the Black Caucus held a series of State of Black California public forums in regions across the state that raised awareness about our Reparations effort.

While I believe in nonviolent demonstrations and holding elected officials accountable, there must be trust built between the Black community and Black political leadership in order for us to collectively win. After all, our Caucus represents Black elected officials who were voted into office largely from the support of Black people. After the November election, newly elected Black legislators will represent the Black Caucus and join the fight for Reparations.

Instead of hurling attacks, we must come together and engage in ongoing dialogue that will result in real solutions. We need to enlist our community’s best economic, legal and policy minds to help design a roadmap for creating a stronger Reparations bill package in the years ahead. We must also recognize the traumas of slavery to help heal the historical divisions of our Black communities. If we don’t, we will be in danger of destroying any chances for Reparations to succeed – not just for Black Californians, but for the entire world that is watching us fight for this unprecedented and transformational civil rights legislation.