California’s Newsom signs a reparations study law but vetoes other racial justice proposals

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a mixed bag Monday for proponents of bills aimed at addressing the state’s legacy of racist and discriminatory policies against Black Americans.

He signed a law authorizing $6 million for California State University to study how to confirm an individual’s status as a descendant of an enslaved person.

But he vetoed other bills the California Legislative Black Caucus championed as tools to atone for the state’s history.

One of them would have authorized public and private colleges to give admissions preference to descendants of enslaved people. Another would have required the state to investigate claims from families who say their property was taken by the government unjustly on the basis of race through eminent domain. A third would have set aside 10% of the money from a loan program for first-time homebuyers for descendants of enslaved people.

Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who authored the university admissions preference bill, said Newsom’s veto was “more than disappointing.”

“While the Trump Administration threatens our institutions of higher learning and attacks the foundations of diversity and inclusivity, now is not the time to shy away from the fight to protect students who have descended from legacies of harm and exclusion,” he said in a statement.

But Newsom called the bill unnecessary, saying colleges already have the authority to make such admissions decisions.

A first-in-the-nation state task force studying reparations for African Americans released a report in 2023 recommending how California should offer redress for descendants of Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century. The Black caucus introduced a slate of bills over the past two years inspired by the report in an effort to fight decades of discrimination in housing, education, the criminal justice system and other areas. None of the proposals on Newsom’s desk would have directly paid descendants of enslaved people.

California entered the union as a free state in 1850. In practice, it sanctioned slavery and approved policies and practices that thwarted Black people from owning homes and starting businesses. Black families were terrorized, their communities aggressively policed and their neighborhoods polluted, according to the task force’s report.

Newsom signed a law last week creating a Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery to verify Black Californians’ family lineage and determine their eligibility for possible reparations programs. Lawmakers blocked a similar bill in the Legislature last year.

Democratic state Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, who chairs the Black caucus and authored the law, said it will help the state acknowledge its painful past.

“This bill represents hope, responsibility, and a commitment to make right what was wrong for far too long,” she said.

But some advocates said the bill will delay true reparations and have urged lawmakers to introduce proposals to directly compensate descendants of enslaved people.

“Let’s be clear — SB 518 is not real Reparations, nor is it a step closer to real Reparations,” said Chris Lodgson, spokesperson for reparations advocacy group, the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California. “Reparations delayed, Reparations diverted, is Reparations denied.”

Bryan introduced the university admissions bill more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed affirmative action in college admissions. California also has a state law voters approved in 1996 banning the state from giving preferential treatment based on race, sex, ethnicity, color or national origin in public employment, education or contracting.

Newsom said he didn’t sign the bill aimed at increasing first-time homebuyer assistance for descendants of enslaved people because creating an “ancestry-based set-aside” could pose legal risks.

Under the eminent domain bill, the state’s Civil Rights Department would have determined whether a family is entitled to have their property returned or be compensated by the state or a local government. Newsom rejected it because, he said, the agency lacks the expertise to implement it successfully.

He vetoed a similar bill last year since it was tied to another proposal lawmakers blocked that would have created an agency to administer reparations programs.

The governor signed a law last year to formally apologize for slavery and its lingering effects on Black Californians.