Reparations for Black Americans: The Road to Racial Equality in California and Beyond

In 2020, California established the nation’s first state task force to study and make recommendations on reparations for the institution of slavery, the atrocities that followed the end of slavery, and the ongoing discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present. Although the movement for reparations extends to the eighteenth century, it has gained new momentum in recent years. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) first introduced legislation to create a national task force to study reparations in 1989. The current version of the bill, H.R. 40, has at least 169 co-sponsors in the House, but has yet to achieve majority support.

Join us on April 15, 4pm Pacific Time (7pm Eastern) for a conversation with some of the country’s leading experts and advocates for reparations, to discuss these questions and more.

– How does the movement for reparations fit into efforts to close the racial wealth gap and promote racial equality?
– Why study and discuss reparations in California?
– What are the connections between the California task force and national debates about reparations?
– What might reparations for Black Americans at a federal level look like in the 21st century?

Speakers:

William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, co-authors of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century

Anne Price, President of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, U.S. Representative for California’s 13th congressional district

Moderated by Chris Benner, Director of the Institute for Social Transformation

Sponsored by:

The Institute for Social Transformation, Center for Racial Justice, and Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at UC Santa Cruz.