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California Governor Gavin Newsom Supporters of a bill aimed at addressing the legacy of the state’s racist and discriminatory policies against Black Americans were delivered a mixed bag Monday.
He signed a law authorizing $6 million to California State University to study how to confirm a person’s status as a descendant of an enslaved person.
But he vetoed other bills supported by the California Legislative Black Caucus as a tool to atone for the state’s history.
One Among them, public and private colleges would be authorized to give preference in admission to descendants of enslaved people. Second, the state would be required to investigate claims by families who say their property was unjustly taken by the government 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 Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, who authored the university admissions preference bill, said Newsom’s veto was “more than disappointing.”
“As the Trump administration threatens our institutions of higher education and attacks the foundations of diversity and inclusivity, now is not the time to step back from the fight to protect students born from a legacy of harm and exclusion,” she said in a statement.
But Newsom called the bill unnecessary and said colleges already have the authority to make such admissions decisions.
The nation’s first state task force to study reparations for African Americans released a report in 2023 recommending how California should offer redress for descendants of black people who lived in America 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 made payments directly to descendants of enslaved people.
California entered the union as a free state in 1850. In practice, it sanctioned slavery and sanctioned policies and practices that prevented black people from owning homes and starting businesses. According to the task force report, black families were terrorized, their communities were aggressively policed, and their neighborhoods were polluted.
Newsom signed a law last week creating a Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery to verify the family lineage of Black Californians and determine their eligibility for potential reparations programs. Lawmakers blocked a similar bill in the Legislature last year.
Democratic state Senator Akila Weber Pearson, who chairs the Black Caucus and authored the legislation, said it would help the state acknowledge its painful past.
“This bill represents hope, responsibility, and a commitment to right what has been wrong for a long time,” he said.
But some advocates said the bill would delay true reparations and urged lawmakers to introduce proposals to directly compensate descendants of enslaved people.
“Let’s be clear – SB 518 is not real compensationNor is it a step closer to actual compensation,” said Chris Lodson, spokesman for the compensation advocacy group, Coalition for a Just and Equitable California. “Compensation has been delayed, compensation has been diverted, compensation has been 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 approved by voters in 1996 that prohibits the state from giving preferential treatment based on race, sex, ethnicity, color or national origin in public employment, education or contracting.
Newsom said he did not sign a bill aimed at expanding first-time homebuyer assistance for descendants of enslaved people because creating an “ancestry-based set-aside” could create legal risks.
Under the eminent domain bill, the state Department of Civil Rights would have determined whether a family is entitled to get their property back or to be compensated by the state or local government. Newsom rejected it because, he said, the agency lacked the expertise to successfully implement it.
He vetoed a similar bill last year because it was linked to another proposal that lawmakers blocked that would have created an agency to administer the compensation programs.
The governor signed legislation last year to formally apologize for slavery and its lingering effects on Black Californians.