The California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans meets on Friday, September 23, and Saturday, September 24, starting at 9:00 a.m. Pacific on each day, at the California Science Center, 1st Floor, 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90037. This is a location change from the previous announcement that listed Paradise Baptist Church as the meeting site.
EJS President Lisa Holder is a task force member as an appointee of Governor Gavin Newsom. One of Lisa’s goals as a member is to build community awareness of the reparations effort. “There was a big push to schedule the meeting’s second day on a Saturday,” said Lisa. Previous meetings were on Thursday and Friday. “Participation in this meeting will be an important litmus test for the viability of future Saturday meetings.”
Lisa also noted that this is the task force’s first meeting in Los Angeles. Most of the meetings have been virtual due to pandemic restrictions, but the task force will hold future meetings in-person at historic venues throughout the State of California. The previous in-person meeting was held at the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.
A call-in number and instructions will also be posted on https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121 to facilitate public participation during the public comment period. The meeting will also be livestreamed through the California Department of Justice’s website.
On June 1, 2022, the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans issued its interim report to the California Legislature. The interim report surveys the ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery and its lingering effects on American society today. The interim report also includes a set of preliminary recommendations for policies that the California Legislature could adopt to remedy those harms. A final report will be issued before July 1, 2023.
Public comment is from 9:05 a.m. to 10:05 a.m. on each day of the meeting. Other agenda items for the two-day meeting include: Task Force Member Reflections on Report; Scope of Work and Outline of Contents of Report Two; Witness Panel on Examples of Domestic and International Reparations Initiatives and Models; and Witness Panel on Principles for Effective Reparations Initiatives based on Domestic and International Human Rights Laws and Norms.
For the full agenda and other information, visit https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121.