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★Reparations Station
California bear on grass above a red stripe, cropped from the state flag

California

State Task Force Report June 2023
AB 2599 Awaiting Governor
★ Official Record
Task Force Page
★ The Report
Final Report (PDF)
★ San Francisco
SF Reparations Plan
★ Take Action
Tell the Governor

California has two reparations efforts running at once. The state created the first statewide reparations task force in the country in 2020, and in June 2023 it delivered a report of more than 1,000 pages with a framework for calculating what is owed. San Francisco ran its own committee and produced its own plan the same year.

Neither government is paying anyone. The state has built an apology, a research project, and a new agency for descendants of enslaved people, but no cash program. San Francisco has a reparations fund with no city money in it. Governor Gavin Newsom has until September 30 to decide on the next bill, AB 2599. This page is the record, and the way to reach the people who decide.

★ State of California
★ Released June 29, 2023
The Task Force Report
Who Wrote It
A nine-member task force created by AB 3121, signed September 30, 2020. It was the first state-level body of its kind in the country and worked with staff from the California Department of Justice. The final report runs 1,075 pages, with a 74-page executive summary and about 115 policy recommendations.
Who Would Qualify
Descendants of a chattel enslaved person, or of a free Black person living in the United States before the end of the 19th century. The task force chose lineage over race, in part to hold up against legal challenges.
What It Puts a Number On
Formulas, not one flat check. About $13,617 per year of California residency for health harms, about $2,352 per year for over-policing during the War on Drugs, and about $148,099 per person for housing discrimination between 1933 and 1977. For a long-time resident these add up to as much as roughly $1.2 million.
Beyond Cash
Reforms in housing, education, criminal justice, and health, including a K-12 Black studies curriculum, ending cash bail, and free tuition for eligible descendants.
★ Signed & Vetoed
What Became Law
Formal Apology (Sept 2024)
AB 3089 (Jones-Sawyer) produced a formal state apology for California's role in slavery. Newsom signed six of the Legislative Black Caucus's 14 priority bills that year.
Descendants Bureau (Oct 2025)
SB 518 (Weber Pierson) created the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery inside the Civil Rights Department, led by a deputy director the Governor appoints. It has genealogy, outreach, and legal divisions. Its operation depends on money the Legislature appropriates.
Verification Research (Oct 2025)
SB 437 (Weber Pierson) directs California State University to develop a method for verifying descent, with up to $6 million. The bureau's genealogy division waits on that research.
Vetoed (Oct 2025)
Five bills, including admissions priority for descendants, restitution for racially motivated eminent domain, and a set-aside in a state home-loan program. Newsom cited cost, "legal risks," and, for one bill, that it was unnecessary.
Cash Payments
None approved. The Legislature has not advanced a payment program, and Proposition 209 makes race-based programs legally risky.
★ City of San Francisco
★ Final Report July 7, 2023
The Advisory Committee's Plan
Who Wrote It
The 15-member African American Reparations Advisory Committee, created by the Board of Supervisors in late 2020 at the initiative of Supervisor Shamann Walton. It published a draft plan in December 2022 and a final report in July 2023. Its recommendations are advisory only.
What It Recommends
A one-time $5 million payment to each eligible adult, income supplements that lift low-income households to the area median, debt and student-loan relief, and housing help including down-payment assistance and homes sold for $1.
Who Would Qualify
People who identify as Black or African American and who are descended from enslaved people or can document harm from city policies, such as displacement during redlining and urban renewal.
★ Ordinance & Lawsuit
The Reparations Fund
Created (Dec 2025)
The Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance creating the San Francisco Reparations Fund, and Mayor Daniel Lurie signed it December 23. It puts no city money in the fund, which can take private donations and other outside money. Any city payment would need separate legislation, a funding source, and the mayor's approval.
Lawsuit
Filed February 5, 2026 by the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation and San Francisco residents, represented by Pacific Legal Foundation. They argue the ordinance violates equal protection. In June 2026 Judge Joseph Quinn found the case premature because the fund holds no money and has paid no one. The plaintiffs may amend or appeal.
Status
Fund exists, holds no money. The Human Rights Commission administers a framework with nothing yet to distribute.
★ Take Action
Tell the Governor
Where We Stand

AB 2599, the Truth in Disclosure Act, is on Governor Newsom's desk. It would require large corporations doing business in California to state under oath whether they profited from slavery. He must sign or veto it by September 30, and the Governor's office accepts messages by web form and phone.

★ Letter in Preparation
The council is finalizing the text of the letter. The deadline is September 30, so do not wait on it: the Governor's contact form and phone line below work right now, and a message you wrote yourself carries more weight than a form letter.
Subject Line
Open Governor's Contact Form Call (916) 445-2841
★ In the form, name the bill (AB 2599) and say plainly whether you want it signed or vetoed.
★ Add a sentence in your own words before you send. Offices count identical messages as one.

Want to reach your own legislators too? Find your state senator and assemblymember. In San Francisco, the Mayor and Board of Supervisors decide whether the reparations fund ever holds city money.

★ Who Decides

Newsom is term-limited, so the next governor takes office in January 2027 and will appoint the head of the new descendants bureau. Whoever wins in November inherits every open question on this page.

★ Governor's mailing address · 1021 O Street, Suite 9000, Sacramento, CA 95814 · Attachments cannot be sent through the web form.
★ The Public Record
Reports, bills & rulings
The primary documents behind both efforts: the state task force's report, the bills that followed it, San Francisco's plan, and the reporting on the lawsuit against the city fund.
June 29, 2023
California Reparations Task Force — final report
Full Report → By Chapter →
June 29, 2023
Attorney General's release on the final proposals
Press Release →
September 26, 2024
Governor signs Black Caucus bills and the formal apology
Release →
October 2025
SB 518 — Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery
Bill Text → Signing →
October 2025
SB 437 — CSU research on verifying descendants
Bill → Signing Roundup →
2025 – 2026
Legislative Black Caucus — Road to Repair bill package
Bill List →
December 2022
San Francisco — draft Reparations Plan
Draft Plan →
July 7, 2023
San Francisco — final Reparations Plan
Final Report → Summary →
2026
Californians for Equal Rights Foundation v. SF Human Rights Commission
Case Page → Ruling →
★ California — Running Timeline
Upcoming, then newest first
★ Take Action
StateSeptember 30, 2026
Governor Decides on AB 2599
Assemblymember Isaac Bryan's Truth in Disclosure Act passed the Legislature in late August, with the Assembly concurring 60–13. It would require corporations with $100 million or more in annual revenue to file sworn statements on whether they or their predecessors profited from slavery, and post them in a public state database. Newsom has until this date to sign or veto.
Contact the Governor →
StateNovember 3, 2026
Election for Governor
Newsom cannot run again. The next governor takes office in January 2027 and will appoint the deputy director who leads the new descendants bureau, and will decide whether to sign or veto the next round of Black Caucus bills.
Source: CalMatters →
★ Past Events
StateAugust 2026
Legislature Passes AB 2599
The Senate approved the Truth in Disclosure Act and the Assembly concurred, sending it to the Governor. Supporters, including former task force members, say it follows the task force's findings on corporate profits from slavery. Critics question how a modern company would quantify transactions from more than a century and a half ago, and how the requirement would be enforced.
Source: ARRT →
San FranciscoJune 5, 2026
Judge Rules Lawsuit Against Fund Premature
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Joseph Quinn sustained the city's objection to the equal-protection suit. Because the fund holds no money and has distributed nothing, he found the challenge not yet ripe. He did not rule on whether the fund is constitutional, and he allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint.
Source: Courthouse News →
San FranciscoFebruary 5, 2026
Taxpayers Sue Over the Fund
Pacific Legal Foundation filed suit for the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation and several San Francisco residents, arguing that the ordinance uses racial and ancestral classifications in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
Source: Pacific Legal Foundation →
San FranciscoDecember 23, 2025
Mayor Signs the Reparations Fund Ordinance
Mayor Daniel Lurie signed the ordinance quietly and stressed the city's fiscal limits. The fund is a framework to receive private and other outside money. It commits no city dollars, and supervisors' sponsor Shamann Walton called it a move from apology to action.
Source: KTVU →
StateOctober 2025
Newsom Signs the Bureau and Verification Bills, Vetoes Five
SB 518 created the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery and SB 437 funded up to $6 million of CSU research on verifying descent. Newsom signed five reparations bills in all and vetoed five, including admissions priority for descendants and restitution for racially motivated eminent domain. Some grassroots groups opposed the new laws as a delay.
Source: CalMatters →
StateSeptember 2024
Formal State Apology
Newsom signed the apology for California's role in perpetuating slavery, requested through AB 3089, along with a set of Black Caucus bills. The Legislature had passed the apology with unanimous, bipartisan support.
Source: Office of the Governor →
San FranciscoJuly 7, 2023
Advisory Committee Delivers Final Plan
After two years of research and public meetings, the committee submitted its Reparations Plan to the Human Rights Commission, the Mayor, and the Board of Supervisors. The plan is advisory and city officials are not required to implement any of it.
Source: SF.gov — Final Report (PDF) →
StateJune 29, 2023
Task Force Releases Its Final Report
The California Reparations Task Force issued its 1,075-page report to the Legislature, with methods for calculating payments to eligible descendants and more than 100 policy recommendations covering housing, education, criminal justice, and health, plus a formal apology and a standard curriculum.
Source: California Department of Justice →
San FranciscoDecember 2022
Draft San Francisco Reparations Plan
The advisory committee published its draft, including the one-time $5 million payment per eligible person. The number drew national attention and immediate debate over cost.
Source: PBS NewsHour / AP →
StateJune 2022
Task Force Interim Report
The task force delivered the first part of its two-part work, documenting harms across California history. Earlier that year it voted to limit reparations to descendants of enslaved people rather than all Black Americans.
Source: Black Enterprise / AP →
San FranciscoLate 2020
Supervisors Create the Advisory Committee
Led by Supervisor Shamann Walton, the Board of Supervisors created the 15-member African American Reparations Advisory Committee.
Source: SF.gov →
StateSeptember 30, 2020
AB 3121 Creates the Task Force
Newsom signed Assemblymember Shirley Weber's bill, establishing the first state reparations task force in the nation. Weber is now California's Secretary of State.
Source: California Department of Justice →
★ Note

No one in California has been paid. The state's reparations report is advice, the apology carries no money, and the new Bureau depends on funds the Legislature has yet to commit in full. San Francisco's fund is legally in place and financially empty.

Proposition 209, passed in 1996, bars state and local governments from giving preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity. That is why California builds its programs around descent from enslaved people instead of race, why Newsom cited legal risk in his vetoes, and why San Francisco's fund is being challenged. The lawsuit was set aside as premature, not dismissed on the merits, and it can return once money moves.

AB 2599 is about disclosure, not payment. It would create a public record of corporate ties to slavery; it would not create a reparations program.

★ Sources & Further Reading